Visual Structures

Although both miniatures belong to the single register type, the visual structures of Figures 83 and 84 are related to two distinct types of illustrations in the cycles. As was noted above, Figure 83 belongs to the single-column quadrilobe type represented by the portrait of Oresme writing (Fig. 44) and the dedication portrait of Oresme presenting the book to Charles V (Fig. 45). This is not to say that the use of quadrilobes was limited in the programs of both B and D to text-column illustrations. The quadrilobes were favored by the Master of the Coronation of Charles VI for the programs of Books II, III, and VIII of the Politiques (Figs. 55–56, 60, and 77). For this text, the workshop of the Master of the Coronation Book of Charles V repeated the same type of enframement as was used for the miniatures of Books II and III (Figs. 57 and 61). In all these illustrations, however, the quadrilobes are divorced from the column as individual units of an ensemble. Despite variations among them, the design of the quadrilobe units seems to focus on a single event or person in a series related to sequence in the text. As an index of its lesser textual value, Figure 83 stands apart from this practice and instead belongs to the prefatory quadrilobes devoted to portraits of the translator and patron.

By contrast, the visual structure of Figure 84 relates more clearly to the illustrations of Book VI of the Politiques (Figs. 70 and 71) and of Book I of the Yconomique

(Figs. 80 and 81). Although the rectangular shape and larger size of the former distinguish it from the Yconomique miniatures, both types share the representation of agricultural work carried out by farmers and peasants in an exterior landscape setting. Furthermore, the other two scenes also share another characteristic: several activities take place at the same time. Thus, Figure 84 is anomalous in respect to the social class represented, the type of setting, and the focus on a single event. These changes probably occurred because of the reformatting of the manuscript. Yet it is also significant that as a result of these physical revisions, the ritualistic character of the scene achieves greater prominence.