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Image 498 The Luttrell Psalter (1325-1330?) was made for Sir Geoffrey Luttrell (1276-1345) of Irmham in Kesteven, South Lincolnshire, the owner of extensive estates in the Midlands and Yorkshire. Although there are four distinct phases to the marginal decoration, the core of the book's illumination is the work of an outstanding artist. This artist painted two sequences of marginal illustrations depicting farming scenes (see also Images 501, 496, 499, 500, 497), feasting scenes, including one showing the Luttrell family at table, and a magnificent dedication miniature, in which Sir Geoffrey, mounted on his horse and equipped with the Luttrell arms, is attended by his wife, Agnes Sutton and his daughter-in-law, Beatrice Scrope, in garments bearing the arms of Luttrell impaling those of Sutton and Scrope respectively. The borders of this section of the MS are full of what seem exceptionally detailed observations of medieval life. They also include the most fantastic hybrid-monsters or 'babewyns' (with the head, body, feet and tail of two or three different creatures, the juncture usually hidden by drapery). These monsters, huge in scale and brilliant in colour, seem not to have been copied from other models. Some modern commentators have judged these monsters 'nightmarish' and as the 'decadence' of the East Anglian style of illumination, although both views have been more recently disputed. Also debated is the degree to which the vivid description of the toil of the manorial year may reflect a critique of life for peasants on those Luttrell estates whose profits paid for what must have been the hugely expensive manuscript that depicts these peasants. There may be an argument for this from the prevailingly gloomy, scowling, harassed expressions of the peasants, although against this is the argument that such is a conventional style of representing class distinction. The MS will have been executed acceptably to the taste of its noble patron and seems to reflect his wishes, interests, status and power. In the bas-de-page illustration to this page of the psalter, the depiction of the harvest cycle is linked, as elsewhere, to the psalm text. Line 6 of the text presents Psalm 93 (AV94): 17: 'If I said: My foot is moved: Thy mercy, O Lord, assisted me', and relates to the plough-foot moving through the soil. The illustrator may also be responding to the psalm phrase three lines from the bottom ('Those who framest labour in commandment'). To the right side: a hybrid monster, its top half a hatted woman and below, spotted animal haunches and paws, with a tail that merges into the foliage border. Millar 1932 Backhouse 1989 Camille 1998

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