French Illuminated Manuscripts in the J. Paul Getty Museum

Getty Museums extraordinary collection of illuminated manuscripts celebrates the achievement of French manuscript illumination in the Middle Ages.While the notion of French medieval art often brings to mind the great cathedrals with their monu mental stained-glass windows, manuscript illumination was one of the most prized art forms of its time, as well as an enduring tradition in France.From a Carolingian Bible of the ninth century to a diminutive devotional book of the eighteenth century, the Getty Museums collection opens up a world of paintings of exceptional quality that remains little known to museumgoers and other students of the period.Even in the fifteenth century, which saw the rise of the art of painting in oil on panel, manuscript illumination continued to enjoy a privileged position at the courts of France.Moreover, as so many French wall paintings and panel paintings of the period have been lost or badly damaged, manuscript illumination provides the best record of the astonishing accomplishment of French medieval painting

Art · Art history · Bespoke · Ninth · Visual arts · Historical and Literary Studies · Libraries, Manuscripts, and Books · Renaissance Literature and Culture