Pathways to Heaven

Pathways to Heaven

During the medieval period, the Christian religion was new, and art was widely used as a means to express faith. One way the gospel or “good news” was conveyed was by the creation of illuminated manuscripts which brought to life the word of the Four Evangelists. I will be looking at two different manuscript pages from this time, which through their expressive content, denote a path to salvation. The first work I will be looking at is Hiberno-Saxon, the Chi-Rho page from the Book of Kells, Iona, Scotland, from the late eighth century. The other work is Byzantine, the Ascension of Christ from the Rabbula Gospels, Zagba, Syria, 586. In both of the images, the medium is tempera on fine grained vellum, and they are approximately 1’x10” in size. I will show through visual interpretation and background information, how each rendering uses distinctive characteristics to communicate their divine messages. The Chi-Rho page uses intricately symmetrical inte...