Currently not on view
Gospel book: the Evangelist Luke,
ca. 1380
Byzantine
y1957-19
Portraits of the four evangelists (Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John) are found in Gospel books such as this one, which was written in 1380 by Philotheos, metropolitan of Selymbria (present-day Silivri, in Turkey)—a rare documented case of a
high-ranking clergyman copying out a Gospel book for his own use. The only surviving illustration from the original set of four, this portrait of Luke is unusual in that it is a wash drawing rather than an illumination made in egg tempera. Unlikely executed by Philotheos himself, this portrait, which faces the opening words
of the Gospel text, depicts Luke as a multi-tasking scholar seated before a palace-like structure. He holds a book in one hand while dipping his pen into an inkwell with the other, which is placed on a desk with an inscribed scroll placed over a lectern.
high-ranking clergyman copying out a Gospel book for his own use. The only surviving illustration from the original set of four, this portrait of Luke is unusual in that it is a wash drawing rather than an illumination made in egg tempera. Unlikely executed by Philotheos himself, this portrait, which faces the opening words
of the Gospel text, depicts Luke as a multi-tasking scholar seated before a palace-like structure. He holds a book in one hand while dipping his pen into an inkwell with the other, which is placed on a desk with an inscribed scroll placed over a lectern.
Information
Title
Gospel book: the Evangelist Luke
Dates
ca. 1380
Medium
Clothbound with leather spine; ink cream laid paper
Dimensions
29.5 x 20.5 x 5.2 cm (11 5/8 x 8 1/16 x 2 1/16 in.)
Credit Line
Museum purchase, Caroline G. Mather Fund
Object Number
y1957-19
Place Made
Turkey
Period
Materials
- Frances Follin Jones, "Recent aquisitions of Ancient Art", Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University, 17, no. 1 (1958): p. 41–43., p. 43
- Kurt Aland, Kurzegefasste Liste der griechischen Handschriften des Neuen Testaments, (Berlin: W. De Gruyter, 1963-).
- Kurt Weitzmann, "A fourteenth-century Greek gospel book with washdrawings", Gazette des beaux-arts 62 (n.s. 6) (1963): p. 91-108.
- Gary Vikan, Illuminated Greek manuscripts from American collections: an exhibition in honor of Kurt Weitzmann, (Princeton, NJ: Art Museum, Princeton University, 1973)., no. 18 (illus.)
- Slobodan Curcic and Archer St. Clair, Byzantium at Princeton: Byzantine art and archaeology at Princeton University: catalogue of an exhibition at Firestone Library, Princeton University, August 1 through October 26, 1986, (Princeton, NJ: Dept. of Art and Archaeology, Princeton University, The Art Museum, Princeton University, Princeton University Library, Dept. of Rare Books and Special Collections, 1986)., cat. no. 146; p. 119
- Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collection (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007), 24 (illus.)
- Dieter Harlfinger, "Parekbolea palaeographica", Parekbolai: an electronic journal for Byzantine literature 1, no. 1 (2011): p. 287-296.
- Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collections (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Art Museum, 2013), p. 298
