[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
The description you gave (sideless, bare head/long hair) matches the picture he sent me. She is standing in front of the forge with tongs in the fire. Her gown and the skirt of the sideless are a rusty-red color, with the upper part of the sideless in ermine. Cuffs on her gown are dark (black?). Three men are in the foreground hammering on a piece on the anvil.
Yes, that's the one I'm seeing here in the Medieval Woman Book of Days, at November 12. There's a tiny detail of it there, but I know I've seen the full image in some other publications, probably in one of the MW calendars.
The Book of Days cites it as Roman de la Rose, Paris, Bibliotheque Sainte-Genevieve, MS 1125, fol. 115, but I believe that is wrong. The latter image (same book, earlier manuscript) is most likely the one seen here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/medievalarchive/1862182937/
The one you describe (reproduced in the Book of Days) is clearly 15th c. I'm sure I have a better citation for the specific manuscript in one of my other books, but not at my fingertips and no time to hunt right now.
In any case, the figure is not real. It is the allegorical figure of Nature, who is described as making children at a forge. In the 15th c. image, she is dressed in symbolic "queen" costume, but crownless.
--Robin feverishly editing MC&T vol. 5 _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list [email protected] http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
