Sujet

Partial Leaf from a Latin Bible: Initial I[n principio] with the Marriage at Cana, c. 1260-1270. Creator: Unknown.

Légende

Partial Leaf from a Latin Bible: Initial I[n principio] with the Marriage at Cana, c. 1260-1270. The illuminator of this initial placed three small scenes one above another to suggest the vertical stem of the initial I , here standing for the introductory passages of the Gospel of Saint John, In principio erat verbum . . . (In the beginning was the word . . .). Such initials have been called "ladder initials" because the individual scenes were arranged one on top of the other to be read in sequence. Each group of figures stands beneath a cusped gable and depicts scenes from the Marriage at Cana. At the top, Christ and the Virgin speak together; at the center, Christ tells the attendant to fill the jars; and below, the banquet proceeds after the miraculous change of water into wine. The present leaf (actually a fragment) comes from a large lectern bible, which probably existed in several volumes because of its size. In the 1100s and 1200s, the large multivolume bible was a standard form used for refectory readings at meals or else kept in a library for reference.

Crédit

Photo12/Heritage Images/Heritage Art

Notre référence

HRM19F98_269

Model release

NA

Property release

NA

Licence

Droits gérés

Format disponible

43,8Mo (4,9Mo) / 20,7cm x 53,2cm / 2440 x 6280 (300dpi)

Mots clés

encre manuscrit 13ème siècle manuscript Unknown The Cleveland Museum of Art Heritage Art and gold on vellum ink tempera and gold on vellum Northeastern France