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La Imagen del Poder. Epifanías de la Potestas

Keywords: Book of Hours, Jeanne d’Evreux, Miniature, Politic iconography, St. Louis.

The Books of Hours produced in the late Middle Ages are a key plastic document for studying the iconography of the period. The multiplication of copies from the thirteenth century has given to the art of the Middle Ages some of the most interesting products in both formal and iconographic aspects. An additional element of interest of these works is the illustration developed in the margins, where figures and scenes are a sort of “parallel universe” in relation to the central theme of the respective folio. One of the most interesting works, not only for its extraordinary artistic level but also for its condition and original workmanship, is the tiny Book of Hours of Jeanne d’Evreux, third wife of Charles IV, who took on herself the responsibility and the final possibility of continuity of Capetian dynasty. In this manuscript some historical characters embodying an interpretative key are present. Two folios belonging respectively to the Hours of the Virgin and the Hours of St. Louis, have miniatures that testify a game between past and present, in which the contemporary history integrates with the biblical one, and demonstrate the value given to the image by its multiple possibilities of meaning.