The current exhibition Gothic Grandeur features a number of works illustrating the Apocalypse, the last book of the Bible that recounts Saint John’s vision of the end of time. This leaf comes from a manuscript of the 1200s made in Spain, which had a long tradition of producing impressive and expressive Apocalypse manuscripts. The image [...]
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Tags: apocalypse, Gothic art, Gothic Grandeur, illuminated manuscripts, The Manuscript Files
My relationship with the Getty began when I was still an undergrad studying architecture and the history of art. As a junior I applied for the Multicultural Undergraduate Internship offered by the Getty Foundation, and was thrilled to receive an internship with the Manuscripts Department at the Museum. There was only one problem: I didn’t [...]
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Tags: Gothic Grandeur, interns, Multicultural Undergraduate Intern Program
The current exhibition Gothic Grandeur abounds with images in the margin. These charming and often humorous additions, called marginalia (Latin for “things in the margins”), were introduced to manuscript illumination during the Gothic era. In the lower border of this French Gothic devotional book, three boys play a board game; in the illuminated initial in [...]
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Tags: games, Gothic art, Gothic Grandeur, illuminated manuscripts, medieval art, Middle Ages, The Manuscript Files
One of my favorite details from the current exhibition Gothic Grandeur comes from a French psalter of the early 1200s. A hallmark of Gothic art was an increasing sensitivity to the natural world, which led not only to a new physical naturalism in images, but also to a new psychological realism. Here, a malicious demon [...]
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Tags: devils, Gothic art, Gothic Grandeur, illuminated manuscripts, medieval art, Middle Ages, The Manuscript Files
On the opening page of the Abbey Bible, the first image we encounter is this roundel containing a scene of the Nativity of Christ. According to Christian tradition, late in her pregnancy Mary traveled with Joseph to Bethlehem for a census, where they were turned away from the inn because there was no room. In [...]
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Tags: Abbey Bible, Christianity, Christmas, Gothic art, Gothic Grandeur, illuminated manuscripts, medieval art, Middle Ages, nativity
The luxuriant locks sported by this medieval figure might seem to say more “Marilyn Monroe” than “Saint John.” Both he and the movie star sport hairstyles from the glamorous ‘40s—in the saint’s case, the 1340s. In the Middle Ages, it was thought that Saint John the Apostle wrote both the Gospel of John and the [...]
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Tags: Gothic art, Gothic Grandeur, hairstyles, illuminated manuscripts, Marilyn Monroe, medieval art, Middle Ages, The Manuscript Files
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The 13th-century illuminated manuscript known as the Abbey Bible recently joined the collection of the Getty Museum—and when the special book arrived, the task of documenting it fell to me. This meant I had to spend a lot of time with the manuscript, recording everything about it. I was excited to be turning the pages [...]
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Tags: Abbey Bible, calligraphy, decorated initials, Getty Museum collection, historiated initials, illuminated manuscripts, photographic processes, scribes
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One of the most exciting aspects of curatorial work is the privilege of bringing you great works of art that were rarely seen before their acquisition by the museum. Case in point: the Stammheim Missal, one of the greatest manuscripts in our collection and a masterpiece of German Romanesque art, an important chapter in the [...]
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Tags: Gospels, illuminated manuscripts, medieval art, Stammheim Missal
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We use the word “marginal” to dismiss something as unimportant or trivial. But images in the margins of medieval books are so important they get their own name, marginalia, a Latin term that simply means “things in the margins.” Sometimes marginalia are purely humorous. But often they’re much more: sophisticated annotations to the text, continuations [...]
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Tags: Abbey Bible, Bible, illuminated manuscripts, marginalia, medieval art, recent acquisitions
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The Getty Center is one of few places in the United States where you can see medieval and Renaissance illuminated manuscripts year-round. With three or four exhibitions per year drawn almost exclusively from the permanent collection, in addition to major international loan exhibitions like Imagining the Past in France, 1250–1500 and Illuminating the Renaissance: The Triumph [...]
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Tags: books, illuminated manuscripts, medieval art, rare books, Renaissance, sacred art, Virgin and Child
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