The Decorated Letter

Exhibition : The Decorated Letter
Novembre 13, 2007 – January, 27, 2008, at the Getty Center:

 
(c) Getty Center. Ms 17, f. 13 v. England, ca 1420/1430.

On the pages of medieval manuscripts, vines and luxuriant leaves twist together to create letter forms. Within the letters, fantastic figures of humans, animals, and mythological beasts clamber through the tangled foliage and occasionally transform into letters themselves. Other letters contain simple author portraits or serve as a frame for scenes of important events in a story. This exhibition examines these different letter types in medieval manuscripts and explores what they reveal about changes in manuscript illumination over the course of many centuries.
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