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Course: The Metropolitan Museum of Art > Unit 1
Lesson 3: Devotion- Rossellino, Madonna and Child with Angels
- Pensive Bodhisattva
- Curtain of the Tabernacle
- Berlinghiero, Madonna and Child
- Plaque with the Journey to Emmaus and Noli Me Tangere
- Rembrandt, The Last Supper, after Leonardo da Vinci
- Bassano’s The Baptism of Christ
- Relief of the Betrayal and Arrest of Jesus
- Cult Image of the God Ptah
- Plaque with Censing Angels
- Mahakala, Protector of the Tent
- Blake, The Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins
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Curtain of the Tabernacle
Met curator Melanie Holcomb on the potency of images in Curtain of the Tabernacle, one of six illustrated leaves from the Postilla Litteralis (Literal Commentary) of Nicholas of Lyra, c. 1360–1380.
View this work on metmuseum.org.
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Why isn't the curator wearing protective gloves while she touches the vellum?(8 votes)
As I understand it, many institutions have concluded that cotton gloves can reduce one's sense of touch and can thus increase the possibility of damage. Clean fingers are thought to be safer.(12 votes)
At0:43, the speaker mentions that "...it was the middle ages where Universities were invented..."
Weren't there schools of "higher learning" in the Roman and especially the Greek golden ages? I am thinking specifically of the Greek thinkers and the School of Athens...(4 votes)
Yes - Greeks and Romans had higher education for ages 14+, in the form of permanent schools or lessons from travelling teachers. Students could learn about geometry, natural sciences, astronomy, and rhetoric.
In this case "universities" does not refer precisely to "higher education" - instead it refers to a type of higher education originating in Medieval Europe. "Universities" originally meant a body of students and teachers, not a physical space or building where something was taught. They would learn things beyond the basics taught at monastery schools. Over hundreds of years, universities began taking place in a fixed space and evolved into the familiar institution it is today.(4 votes)
Is there a place where you can see an electronic (scanned) version of this book?(1 vote)
0:43Video transcript
This book is a commentary on the Bible, with illustrations of objects that are commissions by God. He’s like the original patron of the arts, he’s giving a set of instructions and this is an effort by a medieval artist to try to visualize that object that’s being described. It is a textbook, written by a professor. We think of medieval art as revving up your spiritual sense. The Middle Ages really was the place where universities were invented. These pages are a testimony to that kind of geeky side of the Middle Ages. It’s as much about the power of images as anything I know. I love it because it is exquisitely tactile. These are actually leaves that have been removed from their original binding. My favorite is the Curtains of the Tabernacle. To me it looks like a circus tent, these nice stripes of blues and reds and yellows. And it’s a very particular set of instructions given by God about colors, about fabrics, about where you have to put the loops and how they’re going to get sewn together, which when you read it, don’t really make sense to us. It’s almost like conceptual art; that cool abstraction, that minimalist sensibility. But these knock-you-out bits of color, with these very select moments of gold that shimmer, I think makes it a very sensuous set of pages. I’m never able to forget that it’s a handmade thing. It’s really the book as a work of art, and the book in all its glory. And in that way it really beats any modern day textbook, because it’s so closely connected
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with an artist of, oh, six hundred years ago.