The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 25, 2024

Miniature from a Latin Bible: St. Luke

Miniature from a Latin Bible: St. Luke

c. 1100
Sheet: 17.3 x 16.1 cm (6 13/16 x 6 5/16 in.); Framed: 44.5 x 34.3 cm (17 1/2 x 13 1/2 in.); Matted: 40.6 x 30.5 cm (16 x 12 in.)
Location: not on view

Description

Inspired by Byzantine painting, this rare miniature represents the last surviving fragment of a once magnificent bible. The fundamental text of every medieval monastery was the Latin Bible. Monastic bibles at this time were usually large, cumbersome books (commonly in two or three volumes) designed to be recited from a lectern-rather than for private study. This exquisite miniature was excised from such a bible and introduces the beginning of the Gospel of St. Luke. Undoubtedly copied and painted in the scriptorium at Cluny, the bible may have been influenced by a manuscript carried to Cluny from Byzantium, or else may represent the work of an Italian artist working at Cluny but acquainted with Byzantine modes of painting. A large monastery such as Cluny probably had up to a dozen copyists continuously producing such manuscripts. A surviving 12th-century booklist records that Cluny possessed some 570 volumes, a large number for the time.
  • Wixom, William D. Treasures from Medieval France. [Cleveland]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1967. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 34-35, cat. no. II-7
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 47 archive.org
    Wixom, William D. “A Manuscript Painting from Cluny.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 56, no. 4 (1969): 131–35. Mentioned: P. 131-134; Reproduced: Cover www.jstor.org
    Stoddard, Whitney S. The Façade of Saint-Gilles-Du-Gard: Its Influence on French Sculpture. Middletown, Conn: Wesleyan University Press, 1973. Mentioned: P. 138, n. 25
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 52 archive.org
    Cahn, Walter. Romanesque Bible Illumination. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1982. Mentioned: P. 270, no. 64; Reproduced: P. 105
    Avril, François, Xavier Barral i Altet, and Danielle Gaborit-Chopin. Le Temps des Croisades. [Paris]: Gallimard, 1982. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 174
    Evans, Helen C., and William D. Wixom. The Glory of Byzantium: Art and Culture of the Middle Byzantine Era, A.D. 843-1261. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1997. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 473
    Klein, Holger A. Sacred Gifts and Worldly Treasures: Medieval Masterworks from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2007. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 168-169, cat. no. 59
    Eikelmann, Renate, Holger A. Klein, Stephen N. Fliegel, and Virginia Brilliant. The Cleveland Museum of Art: Meisterwerke von 300 bis 1550. München: Hirmer, 2007. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 170-171, cat. no. 61
    Crivello, Fabrizio. "L'enluminure à Cluny vers 1100 autour de la Bible de Pons de Melgueil." In Cluny, 910-2010: Onze Siècles de Rayonnement. Neil Stratford, and Hartmut Atsma, eds., 130-143. Paris: Editions du Patrimoine Centre des monuments nationaux, 2010. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 140-141
    Denoel, Charlotte. "L'Enluminure a Saint-Pierre de Cluny." Art de l'enluminure 33 (June 2010): 4-27 Mentioned and reproduced: P. 26-27
  • Devotion and Leaning in the Middle Ages- (Manuscript Rotation) - Gallery 115. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer).
    The Glory of the Painted Page: Manuscript Illuminations from the Permanent Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 6, 2010-April 17, 2011).
    Sacred Gifts and Worldly Treasures: Medieval Masterworks from the Cleveland Museum of Art. National Museum of Bavaria, Munich, Germany (May 10-September 16, 2007); J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA (October 30, 2007-January 20, 2008); Frist Art Museum, Nashville, TN (February 13-June 7, 2009).
    Illuminated Manuscripts. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (October 10, 2004-October 2, 2005).
    The Glory of Byzantium. The Metropolitan Museum of Art (organizer) (March 3-July 6, 1997).
    Scriptorium: The Illuminated Book in Medieval Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 5, 1991-February 2, 1992).
    Year in Review: 1968. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 29-March 9, 1969).
  • {{cite web|title=Miniature from a Latin Bible: St. Luke|url=false|author=|year=c. 1100|access-date=25 March 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1968.190