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Initial C: David Playing Bells

Creator

French Illuminator · 1195–1210

Scholars named the Master of the Ingeborg Psalter for a manuscript of the psalms he illuminated, together with another painter, for Queen Ingeborg of France. In the years around 1200, he was active in northeastern France. The style of the Master of the Ingeborg Psalter represents a turning point in the history of European painting, when artists left behind abstract and highly stylized forms in fav

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Date: after 1205
Medium: Tempera colors and gold leaf
Culture: French
Department: Manuscripts
Institution: Getty Museum

Within the opening letter *C* of Psalm 97, King David plays a carillon of bells, accompanied by two companion musicians. According to the Hebrew bible, David led other musicians in musical rituals connected with the installation of the Ark of the Covenant in Jerusalem. Furthermore, the abundant textual references to musical instruments in the psalms inspired medieval illuminators to choose musical scenes to illustrate them. Especially characteristic of the monumentality of the style of the manuscript's anonymous illuminator is the imposing and substantial figure of David, which both fills the initial and has a weighty quality. This illusion of three-dimensionality finds parallels in northern French sculpture of the time.

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