Getty Museum
Philosophy Consoling Boethius and Fortune Turning the Wheel
Creator
Coëtivy Master (Henri de Vulcop?)French Illuminator · 1450–1485
All works by this person →Among the artists working in Paris from about 1450 to 1485, the Coëtivy Master was one of the most important. Whereas his contemporaries such as Maître François and the Chief Associate of the Bedford Master worked exclusively as manuscript illuminators, the Coëtivy Master painted in a variety of formats. Working for members of the royal family and court, he painted on wooden panels, designed stain
More on Getty ULAN- Date
- about 1460–1470
- Medium
- Tempera colors, gold leaf, and gold paint
- Culture
- French
- Department
- Manuscripts
- Institution
- Getty Museum
At the left, Philosophy, personified as a fashionably dressed young woman, visits Boethius, who had lost his exalted position as Roman envoy. She asks him why he is despondent, saying, "you are wrong if you think that Fortune has changed towards you. Change is her normal behavior." On the right, Fortune, a beautiful woman, spins her wheel, which represents the changes she brings about in men's lives. A king sits on top of the wheel, but a simple turn of the wheel can bring him down in station while it raises the fortunes of another. Philosophy demonstrates that Fortune rules the world and that the wise person ignores her ever-shifting ways, preferring eternal truths.
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