Leaf from a Gospel Book: Nativity and Adoration of the Magi

This manuscript was created in 1475 CE by a scribe identified as Aristakes for a priest named Hakob. It contains a series of sixteen images on the life of Christ preceding the text of the Gospels, as well as the traditional Evangelist portraits, and there are marginal illustrations throughout. The style of the miniatures, which employ brilliant colors and emphasize decorative patterns, is characteristic of manuscript production in the region around Lake Van during the fifteenth century. The style of Lake Van has often been described in relation to schools of Islamic arts of the book. Numerous inscriptions (on fols. 258-260) spanning a few centuries attest to the manuscript's long history of use and revered preservation. The codex's later history included a rebinding with silver covers from Kayseri that date to approximately 1700. This jeweled and enameled silver binding bears a composition of the Adoration of the Magi on the front and the Ascension on the back.

Provenance

Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object.

Hakob, son of Umek and Hrip'sime, Armenia, 1475. Henry Walters, Baltimore, MD, before 1911; by bequest to Walters Art Museum, 1931.