Artwork Page for Text, folio 286 (verso), from a Gospel Book with Commentaries

Details / Information for Text, folio 286 (verso), from a Gospel Book with Commentaries

Text, folio 286 (verso), from a Gospel Book with Commentaries

c. 1000–1100
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Byzantium, Constantinople

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Medium
ink, tempera, and gold on vellum; leather binding
Measurements
Sheet: 28 x 23 cm (11 x 9 1/16 in.)
Credit Line
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1942.152.286.b
Public Domain
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Location
105 Byzantine(not visible)
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Gospel books were carried in procession through Byzantine churches.

Description

Each of the four gospels in this book opens on a page with brilliantly illuminated borders depicting the author of the text as well as birds—principally peacocks, symbols of the immortality of the soul—and fountains, representing the fountain of life and the salvation of the soul. This volume consists of 428 leaves with texts in Greek. Its level of sophistication suggests that it was probably written and decorated in a monastery in Constantinople.
A vertically oriented vellum folio features flowing Greek script across a warm, off-white page. At the top, a heading accented with red flourishes leads into a dense block of fluid, loopy characters in light brown ink. Below, the text transitions into larger, more spaced rows of dark ink with rounded, undulating letters. A translucent repair strip runs along the left edge, securing the aged, textured parchment.

Text, folio 286 (verso), from a Gospel Book with Commentaries

c. 1000–1100

Byzantium, Constantinople

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