3-041-226 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

The Destruction of Jerusalem; Des cas des nobles hommes et femmes; Concerning the Fates of Illustrious Men and Women, about 1413-1415. Additional Info: In the miniature depicting the Siege of Jerusalem in 70 A.D., the Roman Emperor Titus, who directed the battle, sits enthroned in a tent while his soldiers storm the city. As is typical for the art of this period, the scene is anachronistic: the figures wear armor of the 1400s, and the city of Jerusalem is a medieval walled city with battlements, wood-and-plaster houses, and even a Gothic church. To give the illusion of recessed space, the artist used an intuitive rather than a mathematical perspective, stacking the farther buildings on top of those in the front. [Note medallion scene below: Jewish woman devouring her child during the Siege of Jerusalem].