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Initial E: David Playing the Harp

Creator

Illuminator · 1260–1290

The anonymous artist known as the Bute Master was named for his work on a psalter formerly in the collection of the Marquess of Bute, Scotland, and now in the Getty Museum. Though the Bute Master often collaborated with other illuminators, as was common in the 1200s, he was solely responsible for all 190 historiated initials in the Bute Psalter. A prolific artist who worked in the prosperous citie

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Date: text and illumination about 1285
Medium: Tempera colors, gold, and iron gall ink
Culture: French
Department: Manuscripts
Institution: Getty Museum

In one of the smaller initials in the *Bute Psalter* , the initial *E* of Psalm 44, King David sits before a city. Singing as he plays the harp, David appears not only as the author of the psalms but also as their performer. Angels clustered nearby accompany him with musical instruments, including a vielle (fiddle), a buisine (straight trumpet), and percussion. At the bottom of the page, a queen and her court of noblewomen pray from open books. Through such images, the original owner of this manuscript, most likely a noblewoman, could recognize the importance of her own devotional act of reading the psalms.

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