Getty Museum
Boethius Instructs a Young Boy in Arithmetic
Creator
Virgil MasterFrench Illuminator · 1380–1420
All works by this person →The Virgil Master worked at the court of Jean, duc de Berry from the 1390s to the 1410s, and Jean owned at least six of the manuscripts the artist illuminated. Jean de Berry's treasurer, Jacques Courau, also commissioned several books from the Virgil Master including copies of *Bucolics and Aeneid,* by the poet Virgil, after whom the artist is named. The Virgil Master collaborated with some of the
More on Getty ULAN- Date
- about 1405
- Medium
- Tempera colors, gold paint, gold leaf, and ink
- Culture
- French
- Department
- Manuscripts
- Institution
- Getty Museum
Boethius leans forward in his imposing chair to instruct the young boy who sits on a stool at his feet. The student extends his wax tablets, which display a series of numbers. The wax tablets were constructed of wooden boards, covered with wax. Students could write and then reuse the surface by covering it with new wax. The background of the scene is filled with a glittering checkerboard design called a diapered ground, which was used frequently in French illumination in the early 1400s. This image marks the transition in the manuscript between the end of Alchandreus's text and the beginning of Boethius's *Arithmetica,* a discussion of mathematics.
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