Cleveland Museum of Art

Text, folio 272 (recto), from a Gospel Book with Commentaries

Date: c. 1000–1100
Medium: ink, tempera, and gold on vellum; leather binding
Culture: Byzantium, Constantinople
Department: Medieval Art
Institution: Cleveland Museum of Art
Object ID: 678535

From the Cleveland Museum of Art record

Each of the four gospels in this book opens on a page with brilliantly illuminated borders depicting the author of the text as well as birds—principally peacocks, symbols of the immortality of the soul—and fountains, representing the fountain of life and the salvation of the soul. This volume consists of 428 leaves with texts in Greek. Its level of sophistication suggests that it was probably written and decorated in a monastery in Constantinople. Gospel books were carried in procession through Byzantine churches.

View at Cleveland Museum of Art ↗

The authoritative record is held by Cleveland Museum of Art. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.

Get printable QR codes

Open QR codes for this object page and the museum record. They stay collapsed until needed.

Open this page

See at Cleveland Museum of Art

Provenance & credit

As published by the source institution. Coverage varies — not every institution's open-data feed includes ownership history.

Credit line: Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund
Provenance: -1942: Dikran G. Kelekian, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art | 1942-: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH