Studia Filologiczne UJK

Summary

The scene in which the Lover is touched by five arrows fired from the bow of the God of Love is one of the most frequently illustrated fragments of The Romance of the Rose by Guillaume de Lorris and Jean of Meun. Contrary to what we might assume, translating the textual description of this event into the language of the picture proved to be a complicated problem, and medieval miniaturists had to show great ingenuity to resolve this issue in a satisfactory manner. In our paper, we will attempt to compare various illustrations from the 14th‒15th century manuscripts and discuss some of the most interesting miniatures.