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Borders and Margins Image 749 This splendid equestrian portrait, against an embossed gold background, of the first owner of the Luttrell Psalter (on which MS, see further Image 498) is introduced by the Latin inscription 'The Lord Geoffrey Luttrell caused me to be made'. It does not appear, as might be expected, at the beginning of the manuscript but towards its end, at one of the five traditional major text divisions in 14th-century psalters, directly before Psalm 109 ('The Lord said to my Lord, sitteth at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool'). Sir Geoffrey's coat of arms ('Azure a bend between six martlets argent') is on every surface and the two verticals formed by the crest of his helm and the tip of his pennon point up to his name in the text above: 'Louterell'. Handing Sir Geoffrey his bulky helm is his wife Agnes Sutton, her gown bearing the arms of Luttrell impaled with those of Sutton ('Or a lion rampant vert'). Standing waiting to hand Sir Geoffrey the Luttrell shield is his daughter-in-law Beatrice Scrope, wife of Sir Geoffrey's heir, whose family arms ('Azure a bend or and a label of five points argent') are impaled with those of Luttrell on her gown. By the time this image was commissioned in the 1330s it was probably more of a monument or memorial to Sir Geoffrey's past knighthood than a picture of the knight in action (Camille 1998, 49ff.). back to previous page
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