Margaret of York as the Two Marys: Flexible Iconography in the Frontispiece of Le Dyalogue de la duchesse de Bourgogne à Jésus Christ

Abstract

THE ILLUMINATED FRONTISPIECE OF Margaret of York’s Le Dyalogue de la duchesse de Bourgogne à Jésus Christ (The Dialogue of the Duchess of Burgundy with Jesus Christ) has often been used as a visual example of late medieval lay devotion. As such, the miniature has frequently been compared with such scenes as the noli me tangere, Christ’s apocryphal appearance to the Virgin Mary after his resurrection, and—although less often—to the Annunciation. This article examines the iconography of the bed’s curtain-sack, which hangs between Christ and Margaret, to confirm that the frontispiece draws on Annunciation imagery specifically. It then offers a new reading of the illumination as iconographically flexible, combining the three aforementioned iconographies into a single image. By viewing the frontispiece through the interpretive lens of the biblical Song of Songs, it demonstrates how the miniature was intended to lead Margaret through the cycle of spiritual purification and virginity, pregnancy, and generation.