They are shown either in the act of writing their texts or-in the case of Saint John-holding a scroll and staring out at the viewer. Author Portraits in the Tradition of Late AntiquityĪlthough the Lindisfarne Gospels was created in northern England, its portraits of the purported authors of the four Gospels-Saints Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John-reveal their artist's acquaintance with the author portrait tradition of late antique manuscript art of the Mediterranean basin (fols. Many designs comprise stylized birds and serpents that intertwine and bite on strands of the interlace. The canon table pages feature painted arcades composed of various interlace designs that harmonize across each opening of facing pages. The manuscript opens with a series of prologues followed by sixteen pages of canon tables-columns of numbers keyed to the biblical text that indicate the concordance of passages among the Gospels (fols. It at once makes physical the holy words of the Gospels and yet seems to transcend the physicality of brush, paint, and parchment through its calm balance and seemingly infinite intricacy. Relying on intense, jewel-like colors and fields of interwoven creatures for its stunning beauty, the book was made by monks for monks. Its four full-page evangelist portraits draw direct inspiration from Mediterranean sources, while its incipit pages, which dissolve the boundary between text and image, are Insular in tradition. Most scholars accept that it was written and illuminated by Eadfrith, a monk of the Benedictine monastery of Lindisfarne. The imposing manuscript of the Gospels-the Christian biblical books that describe the life, ministry, and death of Jesus-was produced around 700. A masterpiece of Insular manuscript painting and one of the most iconic books of the Middle Ages, the Lindisfarne Gospels melds Insular and Mediterranean traditions in its illumination.
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