Searching for the Lost Sample: Revisiting the origin of the Personifications of the Creation Days in West-European Cycles of XII Century

Abstract

In the miniature of so-called “Verdun Miscellanea” (Verdun, City library Ms1, f.Jr, 1110-1114 or the second quarter of XII century) the Creation Days are portrayed as personifications - the characters with their attributes. If the majority of personifications is similar to the allegorical images of Months in Late-Antique and Early Medieval calendar cycles, then the picture of the Third Day is unlike the others because of the pose, gestures, presence of the green branches aside but not in the hands. The author supposes that, being aware of all the peculiarities of the XII century miniaturist’s work, one can say that the iconography of the Third Day is aligned with the other, mythological sample - the composition “Apollo and Daphne”. Therefore, the miniaturist could have been guided by several samples from different origins or by a Model book containing fragmented calendar and mythological motives.