Could it be that the angel holding the scroll
has his hand covered either out of reverence (think of
Byzantine servants offering objects to the emperor or
empress with their hands veiled) or – more prosaic – because
it was custom to handle delicate scrolls not by bare hands
(think of us using gloves when handling old parchments). I
have no idea. I found some examples of men/saints holding a
scroll in a veiled hand in a 14th century Book of
Hours from Liege: http://www.thedigitalwalters.org/Data/WaltersManuscripts/html/W37/description.html
Harm Goris
senior lecturer systematic theology
School of Catholic Theology (Utrecht campus)
Tilburg University, the Netherlands
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From: medieval-religion - Scholarly discussions of
medieval religious culture
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]
On Behalf Of Frank Morgret
Sent: donderdag 7 mei 2015 14:41
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [M-R] Angelic Attribute
medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of
medieval religion and culture
Genevra,
I hesitate to enter this discussion for I am quite ignorant
of medieval art. That admitted, I think you are right,
Genevra.
If we look at the bottom of the angel we see waves of rock
which I think may help us. Revelations 10 describes an
angel with a little opened scroll in his hand, coming down
from heaven. He places one foot on the sea and one foot on
land (vv 1&2). I see the angel as in the act of
descending and the figure in front as ? ? ?.
But please. Don't take my word for it. Genevra knows far
more than my smidgeon. Or you might ask the mason who did
this fascinating piece of art.
Definitely a shot in the dark from
Frank
/05/2015 12:26 AM, Genevra Kornbluth wrote:
medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions
of medieval religion and culture
To me, the object looks like a partially unrolled scroll.
The top of the object, held in front of the wing on the
viewer's right, is composed of a roughly cylindrical part
with an extension curling around behind it. The edge of the
curling extension appears just to our right of the main
cylindrical part. Everything below that is hidden by the
angel's veiled proper left hand. The edge of the drapery
covering that hand is pulled tight by the other hand,
looking somewhat like a stick, but if you look carefully you
will see that small folds radiate out from behind the
knuckles of the proper right hand. Those folds demonstrate
that what the hand grasps is in fact drapery. (To see any of
this detail, you have to click on the largest version of the
photo.)
A book in scroll form would be a logical counterpart for a
book in codex form above.
Genevra
