Joshua before the Lord

c. 1270

French 13th Century

Associated Names
This is a photograph of a medieval manuscript page. The image shows an illuminated manuscript spread across two pages, featuring text in dark brown ink written in a formal, gothic script, with red and blue embellishments and paragraph markers. The left page contains a large, ornate initial 'I' in gold, detailed with intricate geometric patterns and spirals that extend into the margins. Below the large initial is a historiated letter, containing a small illustration of two figures in medieval attire conversing, surrounded by a golden background within the letter. The manuscript appears to be made on vellum or parchment, evident from the translucency and texture of the pages. The composition demonstrates the precision and artistry of medieval calligraphy and illumination, reflecting the labor and aesthetic sensitivity of scribes from that period.

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    tempera and gold leaf on vellum

  • Credit Line

    Rosenwald Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 48.7 x 71 cm (19 3/16 x 27 15/16 in.)

  • Accession Number

    1946.21.6

  • Catalogue Raisonné

    NGA Miniatures 1975, no. 37, State B

  • Series Title

    Leaf and Bifolio from a Bible [1946.21.6-7]


Artwork history & notes

Provenance

(Dr. Erwin Rosenthal, Berkeely, CA); Lessing J. Rosenwald; gift to the National Gallery, 1946.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1956

  • Life and Lives in the Renaissance, Norton Gallery and School of Art, West Palm Beach, FL; and Columbia Museum of Art, SC, 1956, no. 43.

1972

  • Mediaeval Manuscripts from the Lessing J. Rosenwald Collection, University of Notre Dame, 1972, no. 7.

1975

  • Medieval and Renaissance Miniatures from the National Gallery of Art, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1975, no. 37B, repro.

2009

  • Heaven on Earth: Manuscript Illuminations from the National Gallery of Art, NGA, 2009.

Bibliography

1971

  • Branner, Robert. “A Cutting from a Thirteenth-Century French Bible.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 58, no. 7 (1971): 219–27.

1972

  • Beer, Ellen J. “Liller Bibelcodices, Tournai und das Scriptorium der Stadt Arras.” Aachener Kunstblätter 43 (1972).

1975

  • National Gallery of Art. Medieval and Renaissance Miniatures from the National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1975: no. 37, B.

Wikidata ID

Q64570754

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