Getty Museum

A Woman Meeting with Her Lover while Her Husband Sleeps

Date

about 1405

Medium

Tempera colors, gold leaf, and ink

Culture

French

Department

Manuscripts

Institution

Getty Museum

In this section of the text, the lover has begun his siege of the castle where the rose is being held, but he must first defeat the character called Old Age. She diligently guards Fair Welcome, the friend whom the lover must free in order to reach his beloved, the rose. This image accompanies a speech in which Old Age counsels the inexperienced Fair Welcome on the indiscretions of women and the pain they cause to men. She warns Fair Wisdom that women employ devious tricks to visit their lovers without raising the suspicion of their husbands. This image illustrates an example of such deceit: an unfaithful wife has drugged her husband with "a pound or more of herbs" so that he will sleep soundly while she cavorts with her lover. The artist depicted the couple in mid-embrace directly next to the bed in which the woman's husband sleeps obliviously, stressing the treachery practiced by the adulterous wife.

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