Beds

This webpage links to beds & bedding accessories from artwork and from extant examples.

Some related articles: Embroidered Dreams, and the links on beds, household linens, and quilts.

• Slat bed from the Gokstad ship, 10th century
• The Manesse Codex (UBH Cod. Pal. germ. 848), c. 1300-1330: Herr Heinrich von Morungen (fol. 76v), Herr Hug von Werbenwag (fol. 252r), and Meister Heinrich Teschler (fol. 281v)
• The Birth of the Virgin by Giotto di Bondone, 1304-06
• The Dream of St. Martin by Simone Martini, 1312-17 (interesting bedspread)
• King Mordrains in Saint Graal (British Library Add. 10292, fol. 21v), c. 1316
• Birth of St. John the Baptist by Giotto di Bondone, 1320
• Abishag at the bed of old David from a bible historiale (The Hague, KB, 71 A 23, fol. 164r), c. 1320-40
• The Birth of Mary by Pietro Lorenzetti, 1342
• Bed at the Medieval Merchant's House (a museum "returned to its mid-14th century appearance")
• The Birth of the Virgin by Giotto di Bondone, 1365
• Coitus in the Tacuinum of Paris, late 14th century
• Healing a patient with barley soup, Tacuinum Sanitatis (ÖNB Codex Vindobonensis, series nova 2644), c. 1370-1400
• Dream of Mordechai, Bible historiale (BNF Fr. 159, fol. 256), 14th-15th centuries
• The Tristan quilt, made in Sicily c. 1400
• Tacuinum Sanitatis, 15th century (BNF Nouvelle acquisition latine 1673): Sleep, fol. 89v; Difficulties with sleep, fol. 90v; Taking care of the ill, fol. 91; Intercourse, fol. 100
• The Birth of Mary, early 15th century
• Bed, Germany, 15th century (farmer's bed?)
• Woodcut showing a bed in a pavilion, probably Judith and Holofernes, possibly 15th century
• Italian bed, 15th century
• The Death of St. Clare, 1410
• An angel crowns Saints Valerian and Cecilia (British Library, Harley 2897, fol. 440v), c. 1413-19
• The Birth of St. John the Baptist in the Tres Belles Heures du Duc de Berry, c. 1420
• Christine de Pisan presents her works to Isabeau of Bavaria (British Library, Harley MS 4431, fol. 1), c. 1420
• Abishag at the bed of old David from a bible historiale (The Hague, KB, 78 D 38 I, fol. 192r), c. 1430
• The Arnolfini Marriage by Hubert and Jean van Eyck, 1434
• The birth of King Edmund from The Lives of Saints Edmund and Fremund (British Library Harley 2278, fol. 13v), c. 1434-44
• The Birth of the Virgin by Paolo Uccello, 1435
• Abishag at the bed of David, with Bathsheba, Solomon, and Nathan from a bible historiale (The Hague, MMW, 10 A 19, fol. 33r), c. 1435
• The Birth of St. Nicholas by Fra Angelico, 1437
• The Death of the Virgin, 1437
• The Annunciation by Rogier van der Weyden, 1440
• The bird Caladrius and a dying man from a bestiary (The Hague, MMW, 10 B 25, fol. 28v) c. 1450
• Child's bed-frame, 15th century
• Nebuchadnezzar tells Daniel his dream (British Library, Yates Thompson 36, fol. 135r), c. 1450
• Christine de Pisan's Epistle of Othea (The Hague, KB, 74 G 27), fols. 54v and 73v, c. 1450-1475
• Headpiece of a bed with carved tracery and coats of arms, c. 1450-1520
• Virgin with the Child and Scenes from the Life of St Anne by Fra Filippo Lippi, 1452
• St. John Altarpiece by Rogier van der Weyden, 1455-60
• Valerius Maximus' Memorable Deeds and Sayings (The Hague, KB, 71 D 42) fols. 242v and 279v, 1462
• Annunciation by Rogier van der Weyden or one of his followers
• The Death of St. Monica by Benozzo Gozzoli, 1464-65
• Abishag at the bed of old David from a bible historiale (The Hague, KB, 78 D 39, fol. 207r), c. 1467
• Canopy-bed made in Swabia in 1470 (and another view)
• The Birth of Mary, c. 1470
• The Birth of Mary by Bartolomeo Vivarini, 1473
• Augustine's City of God (The Hague, MMW, 10 A 11), fols. 43r, 232v, 233v, 254r, 312v, and 379v, c. 1475-1480
• Preparation of a medicinal drink from Quart volume de histoire scolastique, 1475; or is it really the Blinding of Tobit from the Bible Historiale of Edward IV (British Library Royal 15 D I, fol. 18r), c. 1479? (He's resting on a settle rather than a bed.)
• Also in the Bible Historiale of Edward IV (British Library Royal 15 D I), c. 1479: the discovery of Holofernes' body, a bed in a pavilion (fol. 76v) and the death of Alexander, a quilted coverlet (fol. 119v)
• The birth of Caesar from Faits des Romains (British Library Royal 17 F II, f. 9)
• Birth of Mary and Birth of St. John the Baptist by Domenico Ghirlandaio, 1486-90
• Birth of Mary by Benozzo Gozzoli, 1491
• The Dream of St. Ursula by Vittore Carpaccio, 1495
• The Arrival of the English Ambassadors by Vittore Carpaccio, 1495-1500
• January from the Hours of Joanna of Castile (British Library Add. 18852, fol. 1v), 1496-1506
• Italian folding field-bed, 16th century
• Silk bed-cover woven in China in the 16th-18th centuries, exported to Europe
• 16th century English rope bed
• 16th century rope bed in the Saffron Walden Museum
• Bedstead (Nuremburg?), 16th century
• Bed (Tyrolean?), 1501-1515; see also side view
• The Thomas Stanley bed, England, c. 1500-1521
• Joined tester bedstead, England, c. 1500-1521
• Lovely Hall bed, England, c. 1500-1530
• Bed from the first half of the 16th century
• The Birth of the Virgin by Vittore Carpaccio, 1504-08
• Sir Rhys ap Thomas' bed, Wales, c. 1505
• The Birth of the Virgin by Juan de Borgoña, 1509-11
• Carved bed (guest-bed of the Karthäuserklosters), 1512
• The Birth of the Virgin by Andrea del Sarto, 1513
• Bedpost, c. 1520; and bedposts, c. 1520
• The bed of Pfalzgrafin Susanne, made of ebony-wood with ivory inlay in Amberg between 1530 and 1600 (more views here, here, and the footboard here)
• The Birth of St. John the Baptist by Tintoretto, 1540s
• Birth of the Virgin by Domenico Beccafumi, c. 1543
• Bed with woodcarving and carta pesta (and another view, central Germany, 1551-1600
• Joined tester bedstead, English, 1580-1630
• The Great Bed of Ware, 1590-1600
• Bed with the Scheurl-Kastner coat of arms, Nuremburg, 1598
• The V&A has a great collection of bed textiles from the late 16th and early 17th centuries, like pillowberes (T.298-1965, T.262-1968, and T.280-1927); bed heads (T.235-1928 and T.405-1980); and valances (T.117-1934, T.136-1991, and T.137-1991).
• 17th century Welsh trundle bed
• Bed with appliquéd embroideries in silk, from the Château of Effiat, 1640-1660