Juparana Colombo Gold
30,000 Years of Art depicts a world view of art by presenting pieces sorted by chronology rather than by the context of culture. The book includes these quintessential examples of funerary, sacred, and religious art from 800AD.
1. Book of Kells, folio 291v, Vellum, Hiberno-Saxon Insular Style, Ireland
In this title page of St. John’s gospel, the evangelist sits upon a chair with three objects that depict the tools of a scribe – his gospel, his reed pen, and his inkhorn. The center of the painting is dominated by the saint’s vivid yellow and red halo, elaborate in designs similar to modern-day gold jewelry-making. Behind the blue lined border there is evidence of a figure – believed to be God himself – visible only by the feet at the bottom and the hands to the right and left. Sadly, during a brutal 19th-century rebinding of the manuscript much of the head was cut off of this figure. But the richness of the colors and the intricacy of the intertwined details (much of which requires a magnifying glass to appreciate) remain. The manuscript can be viewed at the Trinity College Library, Dublin.
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