Gamble Madsen
(Monterey Peninsula College)

Abstract of Paper
presented at the 60th International Congress on Medieval Studies
(Kalamazoo, 2025)

Session on
“Deviant Images:
Text/Image Relationships in Medieval Manuscripts
(1): Visual Intervention”

Sponsored by the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence

Organized by
Mildred Budny (Research Group on Manuscript Evidence)
and
Courtney Anne Berg (City University of New York)

2025 International Congress on Medieval Studies: Program

“Come, See It if You Can — God is Truth:
Approaches to Picturing the Godhead
in the Petites Heures de Jean de Berry“

Abstract:

Visual interpretations of the Christian Godhead that developed into the later Middle Ages reveal both conformations and deviations from inherited traditions, and the Petites Heures created in France for Duke Jean of Berry (made c. 1380; Paris BNF MS Latin 18014) presents a unique framework in which to explore developed theology along with the capacity for the human imagination to engage with and articulate the nature of God. This presentation will investigate a selection of paintings created for the manuscript that represent or reference the Trinity. These luxurious visions structure the presence of distinctive Persons who participate eternally in a singular supernatural essence, a fundamental Christian truth translated here into different “revelations” that accompany familiar devotional texts. In this, the creators would have inspired devout contemplation and simultaneously challenged their patronʼs intellectual security through the development of images that address both the historic manifestations and eternal “presence” of God to the faithful. Ultimately these illustrations affirm the ineffability of the divine nature while simultaneously celebrating the power of the human imagination that has been made “in the image of God.”

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