Dear Salvador,
I know nothing of the bare breasts in question, but there is another
that might shed some useful light on it. There is an Ottonian
manuscript, I believe it is the Egbert Codex, dating from the late
10th century, in which the illumination of the Massacre of the
Innocents depicts grieving mothers baring their breasts. This topos
finds a very close parallel in one of the earliest surviving illuminated
manuscripts, of the works of Vergil, now in the Vatican, in which
the Death of Dido depicts her handmaidens similarly baring their
breasts. Hope this is not too far off the mark.
Cheers,
Jim Bugslag
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