Getty Museum

Leaf from a Gospel Book or New Testament

Date

about 1325–1345

Medium

Tempera colors and gold leaf

Culture

Byzantine

Department

Manuscripts

Institution

Getty Museum

The Evangelist Saint Mark, identified in red writing at the top of the image, pauses to sharpen the pen that he will use to write his gospel. Seated on an ornate, cushioned bench, he leans toward a low writing desk spread with scribal tools. The bright blue and pink folds of his clothing fall gracefully around him, adding bulk to his form, even as they reveal its contours. Despite his finely-detailed desk and chair, the saint sits against a bare, gleaming gold background that reflects his holy status and situates him in a moment of divine inspiration. This type of Evangelist portrait was commonly found in Gospel books made in the late years of Byzantium, the eastern Roman Empire, centered in Constantinople (modern Istanbul), which existed from 330-1453 CE. The scholar Georgi Parpulov has proved that this leaf had been detached before 1885 from a gospel book that is now housed in Sofia, Bulgaria. The manuscript in Sofia is securely attributed to a scribe named George Galesiotes, who worked for prominent aristocratic and clerical patrons in the Byzantine capital of Constantinople during the fourteenth century.

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