Painted Pages: 13th – 18th Century Illuminated Manuscripts

Painted Pages: Illuminated Manuscripts explores the golden age of handmade books, some of which employed elaborate gold leaf decoration and intricate ornament. The exhibition includes examples from medieval European Bibles, prayer books, psalters, books of hours, choir books, missals, breviaries, and lectionaries. Most of the works date from the thirteenth through the eighteenth centuries and are ink on parchment (prepared animal skin). French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Flemish, English, Armenian, and German examples will be included in addition to non-Western pages, including 17th- and 18th-century leaves from Hebrew texts, the Koran and the Shahnameh, the Persian illustrated Book of Kings. A display of artist’s materials—gold leaf, parchment, vellum, and mineral pigments—is also featured in the exhibit.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website