Exchange: F18 Schwartz - COMPLIT 122 - Holy Texts in the Age of Texting: Ancient and Modern Technologies of Religious Writing

F18 Schwartz - COMPLIT 122 - Holy Texts in the Age of Texting: Ancient and Modern Technologies of Religious Writing

This page of an illuminated manuscript on thin parchment is vertically oriented. Centered in the upper two-thirds of the page is a window-shaped scene of a priest celebrating mass. The priest, with red and white robes and a tonsure, holds up a communion wafer at an altar that has a bible and a communion goblet on it and an image of two figures with halos behind them. The altar and the priest’s robes are trimmed with gold leaf. Behind the priest are two kneeling figures, a man and a woman. They are in the interior of a gothic church, with stone vaulting above them. Below the scene are four lines of calligraphy with the first letter, a ‘D’, highly decorated. Decorative detailing surrounds the text and the scene. The left side consists of an ivy-like plant growing out of the "D", and the bottom and right sides have different foliate-derived design depicted in ink, tempera and gold.

French
Priest Celebrating a Mass (Leaf from the Tarleton Hours)
ink, tempera and gold on thin parchment
5 1/2 in x 4 3/16 in (13.97 cm x 10.64 cm);5 1/2 in x 4 3/16 in (13.97 cm x 10.64 cm)
Museum Purchase

View Object Record

French
Leaf from a Book of Hours (Suffrage to St. Barbara)
ink, tempera and gold on parchment
5 5/16 x 4 in. (13.49 x 10.16 cm);19 5/16 x 14 5/16 in. (49.05 x 36.35 cm);5 5/16 x 4 in. (13.49 x 10.16 cm)
Bequest of Mrs. John Alexander

View Object Record

Moroccan
Qur’an manuscript page
Ink on paper
13 3/16 in x 8 7/8 in (33.5 cm x 22.5 cm);13 3/16 in x 8 7/8 in (33.5 cm x 22.5 cm)
Museum Purchase

View Object Record

This Persian miniature is attributed to the Shiraz and Timurid schools, ca. 1460. The painting is done in ink, opaque watercolor and gold leaf on paper. The scene, <em>Bahram Gur Slays a Dragon</em>, is part of the Shahnama of Firdausi, the Persian book of kings.

Iranian
Bahram Gur Slays a Dragon, from the Shahnama of Firdausi
ink, opaque watercolor, and gold leaf on paper
10 1/2 in. x 7 in. ( 26.7 cm x 17.8 cm )
Museum Purchase

View Object Record

Qur’an manuscript leaf in Abbasid Kufic script
brown ink with touches of red on natural parchment
4 3/4 in x 7 1/16 in (12 cm x 18 cm)
Gift of Professor Kamer Aga-Oglu for the James Marshall Plumer Memorial Collection

View Object Record

Leaf from a Kalpasutra manuscript with calligraphic text. Font size varies, and in the center of the leaf text wraps around a blank box of parchment with a red dot in the center. To the left of this main text block is a colorful illustration of an enthroned figure in a dotted robe flanked by devotees. Surrounding him are various auspicious symbols.

Indian
Kalpasutra manuscript, leaf: A Jaina monk (fol. no. 2r)
ink, opaque watercolor, and gold on paper
4 3/8 in x 3 in (11.11 cm x 7.62 cm)
Gift of Professor Walter M. and Nesta R. Spink for the James Marshall Plumer Memorial Collection

View Object Record

Artist Unknown
Sir Thomas Littleton
engraving on paper
7 1/2 in. x 5 1/2 in. ( 19 cm x 14 cm )
Gift of J. Frederick Hoffman

View Object Record

A large central figure represents God towers seen in the radiating rays of light and clouds that surround him.. On the forehead of his blocky, totemic head is a third eye. His left arm crosses over his middle and holds fire. His right hand extends down to the lower right corner as reaching down. The words "Vater Unser" are at the very top; "Der Du Bist" across God's waistline; "im Himmel" along the bottom.

Max Pechstein
The Lord's Prayer, sheet 2 - Our Father Who Art in Heaven (Das Vaterunser - Vater Unser Der Du bist im Himmel)
woodcut with hand-coloring on paper
23 ½ in x 16 ¼ in (59.69 cm x 41.28 cm);28 ⅛ in x 22 in (71.44 cm x 55.88 cm)
Museum Purchase

View Object Record

Blue bodied Krishna is shown on the swing with Radha. A peacock stands above the swing frame, and two other peacocks are shown, peering out of the trees shown on the left and right. Five attendants surround the divine couple. One holds the string that, when drawn, will provide the swing its motion; three hold musical instruments, and the fifth a fly whisk. The setting is an open-air garden-like space, with lotuses in the water depicted below the human figures.

Artist Unknown, India, Rajasthan, Jaipur School
Ragamala series: Hindola Raga (folio no. 13?)
ink, opaque watercolor, and gold on paper
10 7/8 in x 7 7/8 in (27.62 cm x 20 cm);19 5/16 in x 14 5/16 in (49.05 cm x 36.35 cm);10 7/8 in x 7 7/8 in (27.62 cm x 20 cm)
Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Leo S. Figiel and Dr. and Mrs. Steven J. Figiel.

View Object Record

A ten-armed figure sits with her legs tucked under her on a tiger with a long uplifted tail. The figure is incised onto the copper plate with a chisel. One set of arms are crossed across her chest, while all but six hands hold weapons. A crossed spear and trident form an X behind the figure. She has wide bracelets at each of her wrists and wears elaborate circular earrings and nose ring with a three partite crown. Two lines in devanagari script are above the figure.<br />

Indian
Durga copper plate with mystic design
copper
10 3/16 in x 8 3/4 in (25.8 cm x 22.2 cm);10 3/16 in x 8 3/4 in (25.8 cm x 22.2 cm)
Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Leo S. Figiel and Dr. and Mrs. Steven J. Figiel.

View Object Record

Khaled al-Saa'i
Qur'anic Verse
ink on dyed paper
12 in x 23 7/8 in (30.4 cm x 60.7 cm);22 1/16 in x 28 1/16 in (56.04 cm x 71.28 cm);12 1/16 in x 24 in (30.7 cm x 61 cm)
Gift of the artist

View Object Record

Engraving of several figres including humans and mythological creatures. There are inscriptions above and below the depicted scene and it is bordered on three sides by a serpent.

William Blake
Then Satan Went Forth from the Presence of the Lord
line and stipple engraving on chine colle mounted on India paper
19 15/16 in x 13 9/16 in (50.64 cm x 34.45 cm);22 1/16 in x 18 1/16 in (56.04 cm x 45.88 cm)
Museum Purchase

View Object Record

Next 12