Cantiga 074 of the Cantigas de Santa Maria of Alfonso X

The Painter and the Devil
   A painter always painted the devil ugly.
   The devil asked him why he did this, and the painter explained that he made him look ugly because he was evil. The devil grew angry and threatened to kill the painter.
   One day, when the painter was painting an image of the Virgin on a wall, the devil caused a wind to arise and blow over the scaffold on which the painter was standing.
   The painter called on the Virgin and she caused him to hang suspended in mid-air by his brush.
   The people, who had heard the scaffold come crashing to the ground, saw the defeated devil flee from the church.
   When they saw the painter hanging by his brush, they thanked the Virgin.
Source: upenn.edu Reproduced from the Edición facsímil del Códice T.I.1 de la Biblioteca de San Lorenzo el Real de El Escorial, Siglo XIII. Edilán, 1979. Made available open access by the University of Pennsylvania.


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