In a blue gown
she sits at her writing-desk busy at her work. On her head is the
muslin-draped and high-peaked "hennin." Beside her a table covered with
a green cloth and laden with crimson and violet-bound books and an
inkstand. Her chair has a high back, and the floor is of the usual kind
seen in illuminations; that is, as if composed of a parquetry of
coloured woodwork or of tiles of various kinds of marble. On the sill of
the Gothic-latticed window, through which we catch a glimpse of the blue
sky, stands a vase of flowers. Not perhaps an ideal lady's boudoir, but
still an apartment of taste, and an altogether charming little picture.
In the second miniature of the Munich volume Christine is standing in a
chamber--in the same costume as above described. The pictures on the
walls are--a fortress, a watchman, two knights, a prince with crown and
sceptre, seated on his throne, surrounded by courtiers; a duel; and a
martyr having his head struck off. Just such medi?val subjects as we may
expect in a fifteenth-century mansion.
In a copy of the "Cit? des Dames" at Munich is another portrait of
Christine. The book is an Apology for the feminine sex, and it is well
thought out. It appears that the conversation of the time was not always
free from rather severe sarcasm concerning the ladies.
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