Illuminated Gospel
late 14th–early 15th century
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Description
This illuminated manuscript of the Four Gospels was created at a monastic center in northern Ethiopia. Twenty full-page paintings depict scenes from the life of Christ and four portraits of the evangelists introduce the respective Gospel texts. The New Testament was translated from Greek into Geez, the classical language of Ethiopia, in the sixth century. Both this text and its pictorial format draw upon Byzantine prototypes, which were transformed into a local idiom of expression.
Stylistically consistent, the paintings reflect the hands of two distinct artists. The color scheme consists of red, yellow, green, and blue. A stylized uniformity is reflected in the abbreviated definition of facial features and the bold linear articulation of the human form in black and red. Figures' heads are depicted frontally, their bodies often in profile. Bodies are treated as columnar masses encased in textiles composed of striated fields juxtaposed against one another.
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Object Details
Title: Illuminated Gospel
Date: late 14th–early 15th century
Geography: Ethiopia, Amhara region
Culture: Amhara peoples
Medium: Parchment (vellum), wood (acacia), tempera, ink
Dimensions: H. 16 1/2 x W. 11 1/4 x D. 4 in. (41.9 x 28.6 x 10.2 cm)
Classification: Hide-Documents
Credit Line: Rogers Fund, 1998
Accession Number: 1998.66
References
Heldman, Marilyn. African Zion: The Sacred Art of Ethiopia. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993.
Evans, Helen C., Melanie Holcomb, and Robert Hallman. Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin vol. 58, no. 4 (Spring 2001), p. 63.
Evans, Helen C., ed. Byzantium: Faith and Power (1261-1557). New York, New Haven, and London: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2004, p. 441.
Simovic, Milos. "Art of Christian Ethiopia." Tribal Art vol. XII, no. 47 (Winter 2007–2008), pp. 108–109, fig.1.