THE BREVIARY OF
GERAARDSBERGEN

The two following volumes prominently feature the hand of the Master of Gerard Brilis and contain considerably more imagery. Whereas volume 1 has only four pages with miniatures, this number rises to thirty-three in volume 4. The total number of images also increases explosively since on some of the pages the illuminator uses medallions in the margin to illustrate ancillary episodes. There is only one page like this in volume 3, whereas volume 4 has fourteen of them.

The scenes are frequently taken from the Bible. As an example, the psalter in volume 3 begins with a historiated initial showing King David, the supposed author of the psalms, kneeling before Yahweh in prayer. Medallions in the margin illustrate other notable scenes from his life: his victory over the giant Goliath, whose head he proudly displays; his triumph over the Philistines, and a less well known episode in which, in the midst of war, three brave soldiers bring him water from a well in Bethlehem.

A great many of the offices in the Breviary are devoted to saints whose saint’s days are celebrated throughout the course of the year. To illustrate their lives, the miniaturist took inspiration from the renowned Golden Legend by the Dominican Jacobus de Voragine, the most popular anthology of the lives of the saints in the Middle Ages. One of the most important saints to be venerated in Geraardsbergen was Benedict of Nursia, the founder of the Benedictine order. He was afforded a full page magnificently illuminated. A small initial shows him in the order’s black habit (the Benedictines were sometimes called the ‘black monks’). His attribute is an abbot’s crozier and he is poring over a book, a sign of his wisdom.

The margin depicts three episodes from his life: his meeting with a delegation of monks from Vicovaro who came to ask him to lead their monastery, the miracle of the poisoned cup, and his struggle with death and demise. The story of the poisoned cup is undoubtedly the most picaresque; when the Vicovaro monks realised that Benedict was unyielding in terms of discipline, they decided to kill him by adding poison to his wine. However, before he drank from it, the saintly abbot blessed his cup with a sign of the cross – that is the scene depicted here. Immediately, the cup shattered into a thousand pieces. The miracle has been depicted in a bourgeois interior of the sort that appears commonly in Flemish paintings of the fifteenth century.

In the margin alongside the initial there is a medallion containing the prophet Balaam on a donkey at the moment of his interception by an angel. The connection between this and the Virgin Mary may not be immediately apparent. To understand it, we have to go back to a prophecy made by Balaam in the Bible: ‘I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near. A star will come out of Jacob; a sceptre will rise out of Israel’ (Numbers 24:17). In the Middle Ages this vision was interpreted as a prediction of the Virgin Mary’s birth, indicated in the prophecy as a star and a sceptre.

Oddly enough, the illuminator has omitted the star, which, ordinarily, would have been included in this scene with Balaam. From an early date, theologians were associating the sceptre – virga in Latin – with Virgo the Virgin. Yet another scene from the Old Testament is portrayed at the bottom of the page: the vision of Ezekiel. While sleeping, the prophet dreams of a closed gate through which nobody will pass any longer, ‘because the Lord, the God of Israel, has entered in by it’ (Ezekiel 44:2). This imagery fits perfectly as an expression of the Virgin Mary’s virginity: ‘the gate of heaven’ through which only the Lord had passed and which thereafter was locked shut again at once.

Two pages in the fourth volume are devoted entirely to the legend of St Adrian of Nicomedia, patron saint of Geraardsbergen Abbey. The prayer for the Passion of St Adrian opens with a splendid presentation of the saint being worshipped by Abbot Nicaise de Frasne. The saint has been portrayed as a military officer kitted out in helmet and armour. He holds a sword in one hand and in the other an anvil, which serves as a reminder of his martyrdom. He tramples a lion underfoot, this being one of his traditional attributes.

Two pages in the fourth volume are devoted entirely to the legend of St Adrian of Nicomedia, patron saint of Geraardsbergen Abbey.

The medallions illustrate scenes from the Golden Legend: Adrian, an officer in the imperial army, has sided with a group of persecuted Christians. Together with them, he appears before the emperor. A second medallion shows the martyrs being flogged, Adrian foremost among them. Naturally enough, these two scenes are also particularly evocative of the Passion of Christ. The third medallion shows one of the tortures suffered by Adrian; a soldier hacks off one of his hands, which his wife, St Natalia, devoutly retrieves.

The historiated initial truly captures a moment in time. In the background we can see a priest, a certain Eubaldus, presenting Adrian’s relics in a bid to sell them to the abbey. The holy remains are contained within a costly bag laid on the table. The transaction is made in an atmosphere of religious serenity that is suddenly disturbed by a man with a frenzied countenance. He comes rushing up, crying out loud that the relics are merely ‘the dry and useless bones’ of a man. To the left a dignitary clad in blue robes is holding the intruder by the arms and forcefully leading him away. The blasphemer is punished immediately. Afflicted by madness, the man dies on the spot. However, he is wealthy and his family succeeds in having him interred in the abbey church. The first medallion, seen below, shows what happens to him at night; devils ravage his grave and take his body with them to hell.

Finally, we should also note that the manuscript also owes its reputation to the stunning decorations executed in pen in the margins of the first three volumes. They were the work of different artists. One of them could be the scribe, while another is most probably one of the illuminators, the Master of the Geraardsbergen Breviary. The imagery used in these drawings is highly varied: real or fantastical animals, hybrid beings, scenes of the world turned upside down – with the figure of Reynaert the Fox even appearing twice – and human figures from all levels of society, ranging from shepherd to monk and from pilgrim and knight to courtier. Some drawings were inspired by biblical stories, while others were taken from folk tales or folklore. It is a genuine pleasure simply to leaf through the Breviary in search of these drawings sketched with such spontaneity. They pop up unexpectedly, are an amusing surprise and provide a welcome moment of diversion.