Currently not on view
Leaf from a Gospel Book?: Constantine the Great?,
late 11th–early 12th century
Byzantine
y1932-14
This full-page illuminated miniature, which originally may have served as a frontispiece to a book of Gospels, depicts a haloed figure, labeled as Constantine in the upper left hand corner. Although traditionally thought to represent Constantine the Great (ca. 274–337), recent scholarship has suggested that the man portrayed is a later Byzantine emperor. Regardless of the figure’s identity, imperial splendor and authority are conveyed by his ceremonial dress—a diadem with triple pearls, an ornate gold loros (long scarf), and pearl-decorated slippers—and the ceremonial objects he holds: the cross-topped staff in his right hand and an oversized ornate sphere in his left.
Information
Title
Leaf from a Gospel Book?: Constantine the Great?
Dates
late 11th–early 12th century
Medium
Tempera, ink, and gold leaf on parchment
Dimensions
22.6 x 17 cm (8 7/8 x 6 11/16 in.)
Credit Line
Anonymous gift
Object Number
y1932-14
Period
Materials
Subject
Orthodox Church in Kerasous, now Giresun, Turkey, as part of the Gospel Book now in the Morgan Library & Museum, New York, Ms. M. 748. Sold separately by Maurice Stora, Paris, 1932 to unknown donor; gifted to Princeton University Art Museum, 1932.
- Exposition internationale d'art Byzantin, 28 mai-9 juillet, 1931, (Paris: Musée des Arts Décoratifs, 1931).
- Charles Geoffrey Holme, Fine art, (London?: Studio, Ltd., 1931)., p. 113 (illus.)
-
Jose Pijoan and Manuel B. Cossio, Summa artis, historia general del arte, (Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, 1931-2001).
, Vol. 7: p. 497, fig. 704 - Dorothy Eugenia Miner, Early Christian and Byzantine art: an exhibition held at The Baltimore Museum of Art, (Baltimore, MD: Baltimore Museum of Art, 1947)., p. 155; no. 768
- J. Deer, "Der Globus des spätrömischen and des byzantinischen Kaisers", Byzantinische Zeitschrift 54, no. 1 (Jan., 1961): p. 53-85., p. 72; pl. 6, fig. 3
- C. U. Faye and W. H. Bond, Supplement to the census of medieval and renaissance manuscripts in the United States and Canada, New York: The Bibliographical Society of America, 1962)., p. 304, no. 5
- Carl Nordenfalk, "The apostolic Canon Tables", Gazette des beaux-arts 62 (n.s. 6) (1963): p. 17-34., p. 32, fig. 17
- 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.)
- Iohannis Spatharakis, The portrait in Byzantine illuminated manuscripts, (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1976)., p. 70-74, 115, 258; fig. 41
- 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
- Allen Rosenbaum and Francis F. Jones, Selections from The Art Museum, Princeton University, (Princeton, NJ: The Art Museum, Princeton University, 1986), p. 32 (illus.)
- Barbara T. Ross, "The Mather years 1922-1946," in "An art museum for Princeton: the early years", special issue, Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 55, no. 1/2 (1996): p. 53–76., fig. 12, p. 63
- Katherine Marsengill, Portraits and icons: between teality and dpirituality in Byzantine art, (Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols Publishers, 2013)., fig. 111, p. 426 (illus.)
