Matthew Paris’s ‘Self-Portrait with the Virgin Mary’ in the Historia Anglorum

The ‘Self-portrait with the Virgin Mary’ that is found in the Historia Anglorum is regarded as one of the finest examples of Matthew Paris’s artistic work. This unusual image shows the author praying at the feet of the Virgin Mary. In this article I examine its status as an author or scribe portrait, comparing it to earlier examples of such images. I also argue that it is one of the earliest examples of a devotional image that appears in the later thirteenth century in English art, locating it within the context of the increasing devotion to the Virgin in England. In this article I also discuss the gesture of prayer and the form and origin of the brief prayer.

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