The Macclesfield Master
Artists
The Macclesfield Master designed the overall decorative programme and supplied most of the pictorial contents. Figures displaying a range of emotions and convincing depictions of the human body are characteristic of his style. He painted the full-page miniatures of St Edmund of Bury and St Andrew; an image of Christ as Judge; all but one of the historiated initials; most of the busts and profiles inside other Psalm initials; most of the borders (including figural decoration) and almost all of the bas-de-page scenes.
Historiated initial P: Death spears a man (Office of the Dead, Vespers)
Death is represented by a skeleton with a long spear, poised on top of a bed covered with a patterned coverlet. The macabre figure strikes the prostrate man in the chest, causing his blood to spurt out, as his wife wrings her hands in grief. The initial extends into a full bar border incorporating foliate and knotwork motifs, heads within medallions, a vignette of the blessing Christ, and another of an armed man conversing with a youth. In the bas-de-page, a rider topples from his horse. The fallen rider is an allegory of the sin of Pride.