also contains pages where the illuminator enormously enlarged the
initial letters of an important passage of sacred text and transformed
those letters into elaborate decorative patterns (compare FIG. 16-8).
These kinds of manuscript pages have no precedents in classical art.
They reveal the striking independence of Insular artists from the
classical tradition.
In the Book of Durrow,each of the four Gospel books has a car-
pet page facing a page dedicated to the symbol of the evangelist who
wrote that Gospel. An elaborate interlace design like those found on
contemporaneous belt buckles and brooches frames each symbol.
These pages served to highlight the major divisions of the text. The
symbol of Saint Matthew (FIG. 16-6) is a man (more commonly rep-
resented later as winged; see “The Four Evangelists,” above), but the
only human parts that the artist, a seventh-century monk, chose to
render are a schematic frontal head and two profile feet. A cloak of
yellow, red, and green squares resembling cloisons filled with intri-
cate abstract designs and outlined in dark brown or black envelops
the rest of the “body.” The Book of Durrow weds the abstraction of
early medieval personal adornment with Early Christian pictorial
imagery. The vehicle for the transmission of those Mediterranean
forms was the illustrated book itself, which Christian missionaries
brought to northern Europe.412 Chapter 16 EARLY MEDIEVAL EUROPET
he English word evangelistderives from the Greek word for
“one who announces good news,” namely the Gospel of Christ.
The authors of the Gospels, the first four books of the New Testa-
ment, are Saints Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, collectively known
as the Four Evangelists. The Gospel books provide the authoritative
account of the life of Jesus, differing in some details but together
constituting the literary basis for the iconography of Christian art
(see “The Life of Jesus in Art,” Chapter 11, pages 296 –297). Each
evangelist has a unique symbol derived from passages in Ezekiel
(1:5–14) and the Apocalypse (4:6–8).
❚Matthew was a tax collector in Capernaum before Jesus called
him to become one of his apostles. Little else is known about him,
and there are differing accounts as to how he became a martyr.
Matthew’s symbol is the winged man or angel, because his Gospel
opens with a description of the human ancestry of Christ.
❚Mark was the first bishop ofAlexandria in Egypt, where he suf-
fered martyrdom. He was a companion of both Saint Peter and
Saint Paul. One tradition says that Peter dictated the Gospel to
Mark, or at least inspired him to write it. Because Mark’s Gospel
begins with a voice crying in the wilderness, his symbol is the lion,
the king of the desert.
❚Luke was a disciple ofSaint Paul, who refers to him as a physician.
A later tradition says that Luke painted a portrait of the Virgin
Mary and the Christ Child. Consequently, late-medieval painters’
guilds often chose Luke as their patron saint. Luke’s symbol is the
ox, because his Gospel opens with a description of the priest
Zacharias sacrificing an ox.
❚John was one ofthe most important apostles. He sat next to Jesus
at the Last Supper and was present at the Crucifixion, Lamenta-
tion, and Transfiguration. John was also the author of the Apoca-
lypse, the last book of the New Testament, which he wrote in exile
on the Greek island of Patmos. The Apocalypse records John’s vi-
sions of the end of the world, the Last Judgment, and the Second
Coming. John’s symbol is the eagle, the soaring bird connected
with his apocalyptic visions.
The Four Evangelists appear frequently in medieval art, espe-
cially in illuminated Gospel books where they regularly serve as fron-
tispieces to their respective Gospels. Often, artists represented them
as seated authors, with or without their symbols (FIGS. I-7, 16-7,
16-13, and 16-14). In some instances, all Four Evangelists appear
together (FIG. I-7). Frequently, both in painting and in sculpture,
artists represented only the symbols (FIGS. 12-17, 16-6, 17-1, 17-7,
17-17,and 18-6).The Four Evangelists
RELIGION AND MYTHOLOGY
16-6Man (symbol of Saint Matthew), folio 21 verso of the Book of
Durrow,possibly from Iona, Scotland, ca. 660–680. Ink and tempera
on parchment, 9 85 – 61 – 8 . Trinity College Library, Dublin.
The early Hiberno-Saxon Book of Durrowincludes four pages devoted
to the symbols of the Four Evangelists. The cloak of Saint Matthew’s
man resembles a cloisonné brooch filled with abstract ornament.1 in.