Image Details

British Library

A dignified Deborah (left) remonstrates with Barak, whose gesticulations reveal his reluctance to lead an army into battle unless she accompanies him. Between them, Deborah’s eclipsed husband Lappidoth placidly looks on. Barak points toward the ensuing bloody battle, in which Sisera’s soldiers are so thoroughly routed that “not even one was left” (Judges 4:16). This delicately counterbalanced illumination is part of the richly illustrated Queen Mary Psalter, produced in 14th-century England and named after its 16th-century owner, Queen Mary of Tudor.