3.1.4. EUROPEAN KINGS' SIMILAR CONSTRAINTS

THEY TOO MAKE RICHES CIRCULATE AND THEY TOO ARE KEPT IN CHECK

Royal "Joyous entries" are symbols of permanence and images of kings are static: Crowns and heavy robes keep them from moving and holding emblems of power prevents using their hands: 

Toledo Cathedral, 1220-1240 / zoom

God measuring cosmos and earth using a compass 

France's Louis IX (Saint Louis), manuscript, 1283 / zoom

 England's Richard II, coronation portrait (1377) / zoom

   Illuminated manuscript, end 13th century / zoom

Pontius Pilate and Jesus, Castille

Zoom

Altarpiece of Ghent by Hubert and Jan van Eyck, 1532

Venice, 16th century

Ramsay Casadesus Rawson

The static image is universal:

 Zoom

Assyrian king Sennacherib, toward 700 BC

By Tom Tomorrow

In early 16th-century Flanders, the kings are still immobile and still wear a heavy crown or cumbersome hat.

God the Father Blessing between Two Angles by Gérard David, 1506 / zoom

Moses and Aaron before the Pharaoh, Flanders, toward 1620 / zoom

 But faces are more expressive 

and one hand is free. 

*      *     *

Next,

3.1.5.

Detour:

 Images of Christ go from shepherd to warrior to king