The episode in which Cain kills his brother Abel is long past by this point, and its moralizing lessons about the sin of envy are downplayed. This page from a manuscript made between roughly 14 illustrates tales about the children of Adam and Eve, with a focus here on their daughter, Neoma. 6r (Image licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) Munich: Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Cgm 250, fol. So, I invite you to have a look at a few select episodes, to get a sense of the kaleidoscopic view of late medieval life hidden between the covers of illuminated World Chronicles.Īdam is Fitted for a Garment by his Daughter, Neoma Just looking at these images can transform your understanding of the Middle Ages and suggest more broadly the ways that culture can amplify otherwise silenced voices from the past. In the pages of these often extensively illustrated books, one finds illuminations that celebrate urban trades, revel in illicit trysts, praise the beauty of dark-skinned Africans, and disclose the hidden sins of legendary rulers. For today’s audiences who expect medieval art to primarily present images of smiling Virgins, suffering Christs, and abject saints, or who associate medieval art with refined and restrained noble courts, illuminated World Chronicles offer much that can startle and enchant. The artists who were set with the task of illustrating the zippy World Chronicle tales experimented with style and developed new pictorial formulas, crafting dynamic modes of visual storytelling. And the themes of these images often surprise not only audiences unfamiliar with art history or medieval studies, but even specialists in those fields. The illuminations adorning World Chronicles bring to life the entertaining and freewheeling tone of the texts. These episodes, moreover, are shot through with discursive anecdotes and often humorous dialogue, departing wildly from the source material. And the accounts meander, moving from tales of biblical patriarchs to the adventures of Greco-Roman gods and heroes to legends of German imperial rulers, all presented as a seamless narrative. Told in catchy rhyming Middle High German verse, the language of the texts is casual and engaging. But the works do not square with modern expectations for history books. Created before the era when print became widespread in Europe, these manuscript volumes were richly illustrated with hand-painted images, technically termed “illuminations.” In picture and word, World Chronicles offered expansive narratives of the historical past. In the century between roughly 13, books known today as illuminated World Chronicles were in vogue among the upper ranks in the cities of Bavaria and Austria.
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