Leaf from Gratian's DECRETUM: Bishop Swearing Falsely

early 14th century

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About the Artwork

Humor, including scatological humor, plays a major role in the visual arts of the Middle Ages. Serious subjects are often surrounded by playful or fantastic embellishments. The main illumination on this folio from a book of canon (church) law illustrates the specifics of case 22: a bishop has sworn a false oath and now his archdeacon refuses to obey him. The archdeacon gives testimony before the seated pope who will decide whether the archdeacon has the right to disobey a superior. The artist pokes fun at the pope by placing an animal-headed creature dressed in a similarly shaped tiara in the margin. The orderly world under law depicted within the main illumination is thus contrasted with the irrational world that lies outside those borders.

Title Leaf from Gratian's DECRETUM: Bishop Swearing Falsely

Artwork Date early 14th century

Artist ----------

Life Dates ----------

Nationality Please note: Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events. Some definitions include: Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation. French

Culture Please note: Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group. ----------

Medium Ink, tempera and gold on parchment

Dimensions Sheet (irregular): 17 1/4 × 11 3/8 inches (43.8 × 28.9 cm)

Classification Manuscripts

Department Prints, Drawings & Photographs

Credit Founders Society Purchase, General Endowment Fund

Accession Number This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection. Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings. For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups. 61.248.A

Markings

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Provenance

by 1961, (Adolph Loewi, Los Angeles, California, USA);
1961-present, purchase by the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

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Exhibition History

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Published References

Bilotta, M. A. "Un manuscrit de droit canonique toulousain reconstitué: le Décret de Gratien." Art de l'enluminure, 24 (2008): pp. 6, 13, 48; repro pp. 11 (detail), 48 (detail of column miniature), 49 (cropped on right) (whole article pp. 2-65; from Toulouse, first decades of 14th century).

Melnikas, A. Corpus of the Miniatures in the Manuscripts of Decretum Gratiani. Rome, 1975, vol. 2, p. 700 (fig. 26).

Schwartz, N., and Withers, J. "A Page from a Medieval Manuscript." Bulletin of the DIA 42, no. 2 (1962-63): p. 27 (as Northern French, possibly Picardy / Artois, with standardized glosses written by Bartolomeo of Brescia)

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Catalogue Raisoneé

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Credit Line for Reproduction

French, Leaf from Gratian's DECRETUM: Bishop Swearing Falsely, early 14th century, ink, tempera and gold on parchment. Detroit Institute of Arts, Founders Society Purchase, General Endowment Fund, 61.248.A.