Saint Mark

Description This author portrait once preceded the Lenten readings (mostly taken from the Gospel of Mark) in a Gospel lectionary now in Athens, National Library of Greece MS 2552. The Evangelist has momentarily paused writing and raises a hand to his chin in a conventional gesture signifying thought. On the desk in front of him lie a pair of compasses, used for ruling the parchment pages before writing on them, and an inkwell.

Exhibitions

• Byzantine Manuscript Illumination. Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin. 1957.
• Early Christian and Byzantine Art. Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore. 1947.
• From Icon to Image: Byzantine Influence on Pre-Renaissance Art in the East and West. Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts, Stanford. 1961-1962.
• The Hebrew Bible in Christian, Jewish & Muslim Art. The Jewish Museum, New York. 1963.
• Pages from Medieval and Renaissance Illuminated Manuscripts from the 10th to the Early 15th Centuries. University Art Gallery, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley. 1963.
• Illuminated Greek Manuscripts from American Collections; An Exhibition in Honor of Kurt Weitzmann. Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton. 1973.
• Illuminated Manuscripts: Masterpieces in Miniature. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. 1984-1985.
• The Book and the Author: Portraits of the Evangelists in Eastern and Western Manuscripts. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. 1990-1991.
• The Glory of Byzantium. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. 1997.
• Eureka! The Archimedes Palimpsest. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore; The Field Museum, Chicago. 1999-2000.
• Byzantium: Faith and Power (1261-1557). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. 2004.
• Illuminating the Word: Gospel Books in the Middle Ages. The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore. 2004.
• Lost and Found: The Secrets of Archimedes. The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore. 2011-2012.

Provenance Serres, St. John Prodromos Monastery [MS A3]; Léon Gruel, Paris [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Henry Walters, Baltimore [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.

Credit Acquired by Henry Walters