St Nicholas Crozier
Winchester, England (probably)
1150 - 1170
Carved ivory
Bishops, and sometimes abbots, carry a crozier as a symbol of office. It resembles the crook used by a shepherd when looking after his flock. This crozier shows scenes relating to Jesus Christ and St Nicholas. At the end of the volute (or scroll) an angel supports the Lamb of God, a symbolic image of Christ. Its head is now missing. On the other side is the Nativity (or birth) of Christ. Angels appear to shepherds and announce Christ’s birth on one side of the shaft.
Source: vam.ac.uk
Martin Schongauer, Ecce Homo
Engraving
XV century
Ecce Homo
Hieronymus Bosch
between 1475 and 1480
“Ecce Homo,” Quentin Matsys, oil on wood panel, 1520 CE, Doge’s Palace, Venice, Italy
Gospels of Henry the Lion
Unknown Miniaturist, German (active 1175-1188 in Helmarshausen)
Between 1175 and 1188
340mm x 245mm
***The gospel book, preserved completely intact, with 50 full page miniatures, is kept in the Herzog August Bibliothek, Wolfenbüttel, and for security reasons is displayed only once every two years.
Source: commons.wikimedia.org
“Was It Good For You, Too?” Medieval Erotic Art and Its Audiences
by Martha Easton
From Different Visions: A Journal of New Perspectives on Medieval Art
(For example depictions of Christ’s wound could be depictions of a vulva. Quite a new perspective.)
Source: differentvisions.org
Christ the Saviour (Pantokrator), a 6th-century encaustic icon from Saint Catherine’s Monastery, Mount Sinai
The oldest known icon of Christ Pantocrator, encaustic on panel. The two different facial expressions on either side emphasize Christ’s dual nature as fully God and fully human.
Source: Wikipedia
Henry of Chichester Missal, late 13th century
The artist’s work shows his liking for monumental and dramatic compositions.
Christ steps from the tomb on to the sleeping body of one of the soldiers guarding the tomb. One of the soldiers clutches, in his sleep, both a curved sword and an axe; another holds an upright sword. The faces of the two soldiers are blackened, to suggest infamy. The figure of Christ, outsize in proportion to the rest of the composition, adds to the drama of the moment depicted, as do the two angels who accompany the event by playing music energetically on their instruments.
Source: english.cam.ac.uk
Jacopo Torriti - The Nativity of Our Lord Christ- 1296 -Santa Maria Maggiore, Rome
Fragment of a Compendium of the Genealogy of Christ
ca. 1230
This manuscript, linking biblical history with the genealogy of Christ, conveys the scholastic tradition of the medieval university context from which it derived.
Written by Peter of Poitiers, chancellor at the University of Paris from 1193 to 1205, the Compendium Historiale in Genealogia Christi was essentially an abridgment of biblical history for students in the form of a genealogical tree of Christ. It was frequently copied in vertical roll and illustrated with line drawings and diagrams, as is this English example.
Source: metmuseum.org
The Lindau Gospel Book Cover is a signatory representative of the early and mid 9th century due to its quality to compel and garner admiration from the common masses. The cover exemplifies the attributes of many other works from its period.
It is a safe assumption that the majority of the citizens that lived during the time these works were created couldn’t read, and that works of art such as the book cover could function as a metaphor for the story contained within.
Source: csis.pace.edu
A deer with ten antlers, representing the ten commandments
Henri de Ferrieres, Book of King Modus and Queen Ratio (c1420)
The Magi, in royal or aristocratic dress, come to adore Christ child and to bring gifts of frankincense, gold and myrrh.
From the Ranworth Antiphonal of c.1460-1480 - its professional but provincial decoration suggest it was made in the Norwich area for use in the Norwich diocese (at Ranworth church, Norfolk, by 1505).
Source: english.cam.ac.uk
