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Images here are provided for study in the context of the course "Literature in the Visual Arts in Medieval Europe" (Rutgers Camden, Spring, 2001) under the fair use doctrine and may not be further reproduced without permission of the copyright holders.
- Difference between narrative (cyclical) and non-narrative (non-cyclical) images.
- A non-cyclical "Fall of Man": Albrecht Dürer, Adam and Eve (1504).
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A narrative of the creation, fall, and expulsion from Eden: from the Moutier-Grandval
Bible (London, British Library, Add. 10546.) (Tours, mid-9th c.).
- Example of typological understanding of Biblical stories.
- Typology: the association of New Testament and Old Testament events so that they enhance one another’s meaning, the OT event being seen as a type of the NT event, and thought to have been intended as such by God. The NT event fulfills the promise or
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Example: From the Kremsmünster ms of the Speculum Humanae Salvationis
(Kremsmünster, Stiftsbibliothek, Codex 243: 27v and 28r). Carrying
of the cross, associated typologically with the Sacrifice of Isaac; Parabel
of the bad vintners (Lk 20:9-15), who kill the servants of the Lord and
then also his son; the return of Moses’s scouts from the promised land
with a bunch of grapes (Num 13:24).
- Two examples of biblical materials in Early Christian and Medieval Art.
- The Fall of Man (Genesis 1-4)
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Sarcohpagus of Junius Bassius, relief sculpture, Rome, 359. The sculpture
obviously belongs stylistically to the ancient world: note the "classical"
appearance of the human bodies. But the representation of Adam and Eve,
with the tree between them, and the snake in the tree, already reflects
the standard iconography of the Fall of Man in Christian art.
- A two-scene narrative of the Fall and expulsion from paradise, from the Huntingfield Psalter (New York, Morgan Library, M.43, English [Oxford?] 1210-1220. To view, go the Index of Christian Art (you may not be able to do this from outside the Rutgers network), do an "all fields" search for the subject "Fall of Man," click on the record number for folio 7v, "Adam and Eve: Fall of Man," and scroll down to the "public images."
- The Life of Jesus
- Four pictorial narratives of the life of Jesus.
- The Pericope Book of Heinrich II (München, BSB Clm 4452; made for Bamberg cathedral, 1007 or 12, Reichenau?)
- The St. Albans Psalter (Hildesheim, St. Godehard; St. Albans, England, before 1123)
- The Cursus Sanctae Mariae (Hours of the Virgin) (New York, Pierpont Morgan Library, M 739; Moravia, ca. 1200-1230) (All images viewable at Index of Christian Art (do an "all fields" search for "Cursus Sanctae Mariae").
- The works of Ava (John, Life of Jesus, Antichrist, Last Judgment), manuscript G (formerly Görlitz, Bibliothek der Oberlausitzischen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaft, A.III.I.10; Bohemia, 1300-1350)
prohpecy of the OT event, which can be understood from the post-NT perspective as being fully meaningful only in light of this relationship.
This page was last updated on January 31, 2001. Send comments, questions, or requests for information to German Department, Rutgers Camden (germanca@rutgers.crab.edu). Or you can call us at (856) 225-6136.