55. Lindisfarne Gospels, St. Matthew

 

Lindisfarne Gospels: St. Matthew, cross-carpet page; St. Luke portrait page; St Luke incipit page
Early medieval (Hiberno Saxon) Europe. c. 700 C.E. Illuminated manuscript (ink, pigment, and gold)

The variety and splendor of the Lindisfarne Gospels are such that even in reproduction, its images astound. Artistic expression and inspired execution make this codex a high point of early medieval art.

Lindisfarne Gospels: Context for ALL of the Manuscript

• Illuminated by the bishop Eadfrith

• Made to honor God and St. Cuthbert

• Lindisfarne = island off the coast of Northumberland in England

• Produced in the British Isles between 500-900 CE

• Time of social upheaval and devastation invasions

• 793 CE––Vikings pillaged the monastery but the monks were able to keep the Lindisfarne Gospels safe

• Made in Italy

1. St. Matthew Cross-Carpet Page

• Form:

• Codex = bound book, made from sheets of paper or parchment  

• Designed and recorded with the use of ink pigments and gold vellum

• Function:

• Cover and opening of St. Matthew’s Gospel

• Content:

• Example of Insular or Hiberno-Saxon art

• Straightforward and not TOO stylized

• A series of repetitive knots and spirals

• Ribbons = contain abstract animal forms that twist

1. blue, pink, orange, red, green

2. Snake-like creatures

• Centrally located cross

• Stacked wine-glass shapes horizontally and vertically

  

2. Luke’s Incipit Page

• Form:

• Written and recorded with the use of ink pigments

• Tiny red dots that envelop words

• Gold vellum

• The letters “NIAM” of “quoniam”

1. Negative space now asserting itself as four letters

• Function:

• Opening of Luke’s Gospel

• Content:

• Themes:

• Animal life

1. Blue pin-wheeled shapes rotate in repetitive circles caught in the vortex of a large Q that forms Luke’s opening sentence

2. Birds also abound

1. One knot enclosed in a rectangle unravels into a blue heron’s chest shaped like a large comma (repeating shape vertically down)

3. Feline presses off this appendage acrobatically to turn its body 90º

• Spiraled forms

• Swirling vortexes

1. Knots reveal themselves as snakes moving along the confines of a letter’s boundaries

   

3. Luke’s Portrait Page

• Form:

• Intricate designs made with different colored pigments

• Shapes create words

• Function:

• Luke’s portrait

• Context:

• Curly-haired bearded evangelist sits on a red-cushioned stool

• Luke holds a quill in his right hand

• Feet hover above a tray supported by red legs

• Wears a purple robe streaked with red

• Gold halo = divinity

• Above halo––flies a blue-winged calf = sacrifice on the cross

1. Eyes turned toward the viewer with its body in profile

2. Clasps a green parallelogram = reference to gospel  

   

4. John’s Cross Carpet Page

• Form:

• Symbols are assigned for the other three evangelists (Eadfrith included in their respective portraits)

• Matthew is a man= human aspect of Christ

• Mark is a lion = triumphant and divine Christ of the Resurrection

• John is a eagle = Christ’s second coming

• Function:

• Opens John’s Gospel

• Content:

• Interplay of stacked birds teem underneath the crosses of the carpet page

• One bird has blue and pink stripes in contrast to others that sport registers of feathers

• Stripes = negative association to the medieval mind = chaotic

1. Is Eadfrith warning his viewers that evil lurks hidden in the most of unlikely of places?

   

Cross-Cultural Comparisons: Manuscripts

1. Golden Haggadah
2. Bahrum Gur Fights the Karg
3. Folio from the Qur'an