Master of Sir John Fastolf
French, active before about 1420-about 1450
The Crucifixion and The Seven Last Words of Christ, about 1430-1440
Tempera colors, gold leaf, and ink on parchment
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, Ms. 5, fol. 16v.
Medieval Gospels at the Getty Museum The exhibition ‘In the Beginning Was the Word: Medieval Gospel Illumination’, on view at the Getty Center from August 30 to November 27 2011, examines the decoration associated with the Gospels.]]>
Source: Getty Museum / theartwolf.com
The four Gospels are among the most famous texts in the Bible, and in the Middle Ages they were richly decorated, often including a portrait of each of the four evangelists (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) as well as decorated canon tables.
“With examples ranging from England to Ethiopia, Byzantium, and Armenia, this exhibition traces the tradition of Gospel illumination in Christian art and worship“, says Kristen Collins, associate curator of manuscripts at the Getty.
The Getty, in a press note, explains that “In the first two centuries [of the Middle Ages], public reading of religious texts formed the core of both Jewish and Christian worship (…) Later in the Middle Ages, with the rise of literacy, private prayer books came to include readings from the Gospels“.
Although the exhibition is drawn primarily from the Getty Museum’s permanent collection, it also includes a number of important loans. One of the highlights of the exhibition is “The Gladzor Gospels”, an Armenian manuscript on loan from the Young Research Library at UCLA, which displays a suite of images illustrating the genealogy of Christ.
Related content
Imagining the Past in France, 1250–1500, at the Getty Museum (exhibition, 2010)
Follow us on:
