Drawing primarily from the Getty Museum's permanent collection, In the Beginning Was the Word: Medieval Gospel Illumination, on display until November 27, 2011, at the J. Paul Getty Museum, Getty Center, (USA), examines the decoration associated with the Gospels, including portraits of the four Evangelists, and explores the varied approaches to illustrating the life of Christ.
This exhibition, which traces the tradition of Gospel illumination in Christian art, includes manuscripts produced between the ninth century through the seventeenth century and in Western Europe, Byzantium, Armenia, and Ethiopia. Gospels typically contained a portrait of each of the four evangelists as well as decorated canon tables.
In each manuscript, however, subtle variations are clear, revealing distinct regional inflections and hints of the visual cultures that produced them.
For example, on display in the exhibition is a canon table illuminated in Constantinople, the capital of the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire, which combines architectural motifs inherited from Greco-Roman antiquity with a rich vegetal design inspired by Islamic art.
Ethiopian Gospel books often opened with images of the Virgin and Child accompanied by rows of Old Testament prophets and New Testament apostles, reflecting the importance of these figures within Ethiopian Christian worship.
Date: until November 27.
Place: The Getty Center. 1200 Getty Center Drive, Los Angeles, California. USA.
Opening hours: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday from 10am to 5.30pm. Saturday from 10am to 9pm.
CAC de Málaga hosts the largest exhibition of Vik Muniz' work ever held in Europe
through December 2
Van Gogh to Kandinsky: Symbolist Landscape in Europe 1880-1910
from July 14 to October 14.
