Read more
This masterpiece of Armenian illumination was created in the fourteenth century by monks at the theological school of Gladzor, who copied its text and painted its elaborate cycle of miniatures. Owned at various times by merchants and princes, the Gladzor Gospels is now in the special collections library at the University of California at Los Angeles. This beautiful, informative volume features color reproductions of most of the manuscript's intricate miniatures. The author discusses the production of manuscripts in the Middle Ages, then focuses on the Gladzor Gospels, examining the historical and social contexts at the time of its creation, the theological school of Gladzor, and the themes depicted in the manuscript's brilliant illuminations. This book is published to coincide with and exhibitions that celebrates the 1700th anniversary of the founding of the Armenian Church, during which the manuscript will be displayed at the Getty Museum from August 28 through December 3, 2001.
About the author
Thomas A. Mathews is a professor at the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University.
Alice Taylor is professor of art history at West Los Angeles College and the author of
Book Arts of Isfahan.
Summary
This text discusses a 14th-century Armenian manuscript, introducing its illuminators and examining its place in Western European, Byzantine and Islamic artistic traditions. The volume reproduces 60 pages of the manuscript, which is in the collection of the UCLA.
