Hand B
Artists
Hand B worked on the Psalter section of the manuscript, painting the eight historiated initials for Psalms 1, 26, 38, 52, 68, 80, 97 and 109 (quires 2-12). His figures are slender and elongated. His treatment of drapery is the least advanced in the manuscript, still relying on linear patterns to indicate folds, with minimal use of colour modelling for shades and highlights.
David praying and sinking in water (Psalm 68)
David prays to God in the upper part of the initial S. Below, he pleads to God as the rising waters submerge him. This standard image for Psalm 68 in 13th-century French Psalters and Bibles illustrates the Psalm’s opening verse, written in gold on the right and continuing beneath the image, Salvum me fac deus quoniam intraverunt aque usque ad animam meam (‘Save me, o God, for the waters have come in even unto my soul’). The initial was painted by Hand B.