Manuscript Cutting: Miniature from The Romance of Pelyarmenus showing a Combat
Unknown Artist
Miniature from The Romance of Pelyarmenus showing a Combat
Paris, about 1325-50
Ink, pigments and gold on parchment, 72 x 64 mm
Victoria and Albert Museum (No. 814-1894)
This action-packed illustration is from a set of thirteenth-century French romances called the Cycle des Sept Sages (Cycle of the Seven Sages). It depicts a dramatic scene from The Romance of Pelyarmenus, showing a combat on horseback between a knight and five others, three of whom lie wounded on the ground: physical violence animates the scene.
This early fourteenth-century French miniature, depicting a battle scene from The Romance of Pelyarmenus, is more than a decorative image – it is a material trace of interaction that once invited not only the gaze but also the touch of medieval readers. Removed from its original manuscript, the fragment also reflects nineteenth-century modes of involvement. Victorian collectors cut illuminations from their contexts to preserve and admire them as independent works of art. What remains is a layered artefact that once was a medieval object of intellectual or spiritual intimacy but now is a modern object of aesthetic reverence.