![]() ![]() Eventually, artists began to focus their efforts on these initials. The earliest decorated letters served a practical purpose: to call attention to the beginning of a text or its most important passages. See a close-up of the foliage motifs in the O. Ornamented Initial O from a benedictional, Ottonian, about 1030–1040 ![]() 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.Įxuberant foliage decoration within the initial D shown above marks the beginning of Psalm 26, which translated from Latin begins, "The Lord is my light and salvation, whom shall I fear?" The thick acanthus leaves and single bud within the initial, as well as the foliate sprays and pen scrolls in the margins, are typical of late English Gothic manuscript painting. Other letters contain simple author portraits or serve as a frame for scenes of important events in a story. Within the letters, fantastic figures of humans, animals, and mythological beasts clamber through the tangled foliage and occasionally transform into letters themselves. On the pages of medieval manuscripts, vines and luxuriant leaves twist together to create letter forms. Initial D (detail) from a psalter, English, 1420–1430 November 13, 2007–Januat the Getty Center
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