Art of Three Faiths

One of the most elaborately illuminated copies of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible created in the Middle Ages, the Rothschild Pentateuch is the first Hebrew manuscript to be added to the collection of the Getty Museum. Its acquisition allows the Getty for the first time to represent the medieval art of illumination in sacred texts of the three Abrahamic religions—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, founded in that order. 

These religions trace their belief in the singular God to a common patriarch, the figure of Abraham (Ibrahim). Practitioners of all three religions have been called people of the book for their shared belief in the primacy of the divine word as conveyed through sacred scripture. Copies of the Torah, Christian Bible, and Qur’an are among the most beautifully illuminated manuscripts of the Middle Ages, represented in this exhibition by three remarkable examples.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website

Image: Menorah of the Tabernacle, Book of Leviticus,  from the Rothschild Pentateuch, France and/or Germany, 1296; artist unknown. The J. Paul Getty Museum. Acquired with the generous support of Jo Carole and Ronald S. Lauder