Garden of Virtues

[-JKP-]

Here is an early example from France (BNF Français 938), c. 1294.

There are 7 maidens tending 7 of the 8 trees, but only 6 streams emanate from the central fountain:

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So far Koen's example is the only one with pairs of nymphs in back-to-back poses.

[-JKP-]

This one is c. 1470s but worth seeing because it's a nice drawing and it's a bit different. Maidens are using jugs to scoop up the water within a walled garden. Christ has his arms encircling the central tree and appears to be tying something:

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Source: Bodleian MS 283

[Koen G]

I love how because of the c1300 style they are just standing there eyeing each other like a bunch of gossips.

I don't know man... There is something about these images of the Jardin that resonates through You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. .

   

[bi3mw]

For the sake of completeness, here is another version of the Garden of the Virtues.

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British Library, MS Additional 54180, Garden of the Virtues, 1295, folio 69v

[-JKP-]

Interesting in the way the trees, maidens, and rivulets of water are arranged in horizontal layers. This version also has two pairs of maidens, back-to-back, with a clear similarity to Bibliothèque de Genève, Ms. fr. 163 and may predate it by 10 or 15 years:



Source: BNF Français 958, 1464. France/Flanders

[RenegadeHealer]

Wow, Koen. This is a pretty striking parallel. Pity Diane O’Donovan isn’t around these days to challenge the originality of this idea, so for all I know my questions to you have already been beaten to death on the old mailing list years ago. But I’m going to ask them anyway:

1. Were the Seven Virtues traditionally presented in a specific order, from left to right across an illustration?
2. If so, might the labels next to the seven tree-trunk-like columns of water on You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. provide a crib or pullstring?

[Koen G]

This is not typically an idea Diane would challenge the originality of,  but she would certainly find it nonsense

The label situation is complex. There are seven or eight "groups" of labels, but for each nymph there is a "word", which suggests that there are more than seven labels. Unless these are multi-word labels and they drew a nymph for each word...

Also, while it seems increasingly likely that a Jardin.de Vertus image inspired the VM folio, the situation in the VM is still different. No real trees etc. So what is going on? Did they simply draw the garden of virtues in a hidden way? Why? Or did they rather infuse "something else" with the well known garden of virtue image?

[arca_libraria]

I tried to find some vices to go with all the virtues and I came across You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. (French, late-13th century(?)). The seven vices are each a root of the tree of sin.

[R. Sale]

First of all, I support the attempt to connect VMs illustrations with traditional material. And beyond the content of these representations, there is also the matter of structure within the various images. In this case the primary quality for structural similarity in comparison to the VMs seems to be the representation of paired ladies who are standing back to back. (Are there other structural similarities??)

The recent example in Post #25 has these back to back pairings. Furthermore there is an interesting bit of information in the provenance of this image as provided.    ""Source: BNF Français 958, 1464. France/Flanders"""

France, of course, is France, one would presume. But in 1464, Flanders was part of the Duchy of Burgundy. And parts of northern and eastern France were also in the Duchy of Burgundy. 1464 was almost the end of the reign of the Burgundian duke, Philip the Good (d. 1466), who was a noted bibliophile and patron of manuscript production.

This subject of the seven virtues, as a topic of investigation, is just one of a growing number of examples from various researchers where the provenance of the historical source makes a connection with the Duchy of Burgundy, as I have suggested previously.

[arca_libraria]

Something I noticed while looking at personifications of the virtues and vices is that the vice of luxury/lust is sometimes depicted holding a chain. There is a metaphorical concept known as the vinculum amor ("chain of love/desire") in medieval thought where the vincula amores can have positive and negative connotations, e.g. the love that binds you to God vs inappropriate lust and the ways it can distract you. I'm sure you all know the VMS page with the You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. and the obvious suggestion is something like The Four Ages of Man as a way to interpret that page, but could it be pairs of virtues and vices? Or something else? The comparison manuscript, Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum, MS 368 is a single leaf that was cut away from BL Add MS 54180 (Paris?, late 13th century).