Saint John the Evangelist, folio 67v, from the ‘Lorsch Gospels’
For today, a page from an illuminated manuscript from the Carolingian Renaissance…
This gorgeous, illuminated page is from a book titled the ‘Lorsch Gospels‘ or ‘Codex Aureus of Lorsch‘. It was created between 778 and 820 at the Lorsch Abbey in Germany and includes the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John written in Latin. The Gospels were bound between two intricate carved ivory panels. This was made during Charlemagne’s rule over the Frankish Empire, also known as the Carolingian period.
The page depicted here is folio 67v, made with ink, tempera, and gold leaf on paper. On it, Saint John the Evangelist is seated on a throne in the act of writing the Gospel of John. He is between two decorative columns. A glorious red bird of prey stands above him, whose head is haloed in bright light. The page is gorgeously decorated with rich colors of blues, reds, and yellows. Matching foliage finishes the framing of the image.
In the sixteenth century, the book was moved to the grand library of Bibliotheca Palatina in Heidelberg, Germany, just prior to the dissolution of the Lorsch Abbey. In 1622, during the Thirty Years war, the beautiful book was stolen, its covers removed, and the remaining pages split into two parts to be sold separately for money.
The first half includes the prefaces, and the Gospels of Matthew and Mark. It was sold to Bishop Ignác Batthyány, the Bishop of Transylvania. Today, that half resides in the Batthyaneum Library in Alba Iulia, Romania which Bishop Batthyány founded. Over the years, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, England, acquired the front ivory panel cover.
The latter half includes the Gospels of Luke and John, as well as the page in discussion here. The pages of the second half, including the back ivory panel cover, are in the Vatican Library, the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, where it remains to this day.
The Carolingian period was named after Charlemagne, the Holy Roman Emperor, who created a vast empire uniting the majority of western Europe under one rule. The art made during this period is known as the Carolingian Renaissance, and it lasted from the late eighth through the tenth centuries. During this time, there was a concerted effort carried out by monastic centers in places such as Germany, France, and Italy, to create a unified art style inspired by classical Mediterranean art. In addition to increased studying and learning, there was a renewed desire to better represent the human form as in the Greek and Roman times. This helped set the stage for the development of Romanesque and Gothic art.
An illuminated manuscript is essentially a text embellished with decorations that includes either, silver, gold, accompanying illustrations, or fancy lettering. Often, the first letter of the first work is represented by a much larger, more intricate stylized and illustrated font which is used to mark the beginning of a paragraph. Often, the pages are accompanied with decorative borders. These texts are beautiful works of art, mostly done by anonymous scribes. Illuminated manuscripts were often bound by ivory relief panels, such as this one here. These precious manuscripts are often the best surviving art pieces from the Pre-Romanesque period.
Folio 67v depicting Saint John the Evangelist in the Lorsch Gospels is currently in the collections of the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana in the Vatican City.
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