The Breslau Psalter

Psalter with miniatures and historiated initials

Texts and Images

Psalms 1, 26, 38, 51, 52, 68, 80, 97, 101 and 109 introduced the ten sections into which medieval Psalters were often divided. Each of these ten Psalms is preceded by full-page miniatures and opens with a large historiated initial. The remaining 140 Psalms received small miniatures in the borders, usually illustrating their opening verse or main theme.

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1
Detail of Christ’s face under magnification (7.5x).

This depiction of Christ announcing his pending death to the Apostles is the only full-page miniature painted by the Gaibana Master’s Associate. It shows the artist’s intimate familiarity with his master’s iconographic compositions, as it resembles the miniature for the Common of Saints painted by the Gaibana Master in the Paduan Epistolary.