Hand B
Artists
Hand B worked on the Psalter section of the manuscript, painting the eight historiated initials for Psalms 1, 26, 38, 52, 68, 80, 97 and 109 (quires 2-12). His figures are slender and elongated. His treatment of drapery is the least advanced in the manuscript, still relying on linear patterns to indicate folds, with minimal use of colour modelling for shades and highlights.
David and Bathsheba (Psalm 1)
The full-page Beatus initial contains the opening words of Psalm 1 written in gold on the right. In the upper bowl of the B, David peeps through a window in his castle, watching the bathing Bathsheba. Below, he kneels before God, repenting for his adultery. This image, painted by Hand B, and the almost identical Beatus initial in the Psalter of St Louis (Paris, BnF, MS lat. 10525, fol. 85v) are the only known examples of this subject appearing at Psalm 1.