ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the dynamic between artist and author in one manuscript of Phillipe Mézières’s late medieval French text, Livre de la vertu du sacrement de mariage et du réconfort des dames mariees – Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS fr. 1175. Loba comments on the unique nature of Phillipe’s book of conjugal advice, for his real interest lies not in the daily life of the couple, but in spiritual marriage, that is, the marriage between God and his Church and between God and each individual soul. It is a concern that leads him to make a strong connection between marriage and the Passion of Christ. By understanding the sacramental quality of marriage, the female reader is taught to see both beyond its everydayness but also to embrace her responsibility within it – to cultivate her own virtue so that she may foster her marriage for the greater good of society. The artist who created the image that accompanies the text on the first folio of MS fr. 1175 shows a clear understanding of the work and tries to capture, through complex symbolism, the interaction between the good wife and the Passion.
