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
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
blue, pink, orange, red, green
Snake-like creatures
Centrally located cross
Stacked wine-glass shapes horizontally and vertically
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”
Negative space now asserting itself as four letters
Function:
Opening of Luke’s Gospel
Content:
Themes:
Animal life
Blue pin-wheeled shapes rotate in repetitive circles caught in the vortex of a large Q that forms Luke’s opening sentence
Birds also abound
One knot enclosed in a rectangle unravels into a blue heron’s chest shaped like a large comma (repeating shape vertically down)
Feline presses off this appendage acrobatically to turn its body 90º
Spiraled forms
Swirling vortexes
Knots reveal themselves as snakes moving along the confines of a letter’s boundaries
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
Eyes turned toward the viewer with its body in profile
Clasps a green parallelogram = reference to gospel
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
Is Eadfrith warning his viewers that evil lurks hidden in the most of unlikely of places?
- Golden Haggadah
- Bahrum Gur Fights the Karg
- Folio from the Qur'an
