On the Composition of the Utrecht Psalter Illustration

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The illustration of the Utrecht Psalter is a kind of landscape made of the motifs visualized the text. This project analyzes the element which connect or disconnect the motifs in the illustration. It compares the composition of the Utrecht Psalter illustration with the landscape containing narratives in works of the Roman and the Late Antique period, i.e.the Odysseus Landscape frescoes, the Vatican Vergil and the Ashburnham Pentateuch illustration.As a result, it shows us that the landscape structure of the illustration is not only a topographical symbol but also a container gathering up scenes. Both Antique narrative landscape and the Utrecht Psalter make the subject obscure by looking the scenes in distance. The iconography of the Old Testament and the life of Christ less frequently appear in the Utrecht Psalter than other Psalters. We suppose that the Carolingian illuminators intended to choose the antiquated landscape setting for the Utrecht Psalter since it arranges the motifs visualizing the Psalm verse literally in not mechanical order but loosely combined with each other.The Exhibition of the Utrecht Psalter in 1996 was quite helpful for us to revise this project. The review in 1997 grasps the state of research. We analyzed the structure and the program of the later part of the B.N.lat.8846, the last copy of the Utrecht Psalter. This part has different contents from the Utrecht Psalter, however its system remains similar to the old model.