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Abstract

The depiction of bald beard-pullers fighting over a woman in the celebrated Beatus of Saint-Sever has generated much debate concerning the development of profane subjects in medieval art and the iconographic theme of beard-pulling. The preceding discussion has missed the metaphoric significance of the image and its inscriptions as expressions of a medieval proverb on “bald-faced” lying. Recognition of the proverb reveals the image’s integral relationship to the text of Beatus’s Commentary on Apocalypse and to the iconographic program of the Saint-Sever manuscript, in which a larger body of profane imagery bearing on concepts of deception forms a through-line in the manuscript’s decoration. The bald-faced liar and other shameless deceivers, including apes, foxes, and wolves, constitute a motive theme in the Beatus of Saint-Sever that reflects an aspect of its purpose and use in relation to sworn speech in legal and judicial contexts that are documented in the manuscript itself.

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