*Greetings*

Welcome to the second in an occasional series of online exhibitions where colleagues choose some of their favorite art works from the medieval period (for the previous exhibition click here). This gives us an opportunity to see the personal tastes of some eminent scholars and to understand what stimulates their interests. This exhibition is restricted to no more than six works per individual and the selections can be drawn from any period or region.

Our first US Curator's Choice goes to a long time supporter of the organization - William Voelkle, Curator and Departmental Head of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the Morgan Library and Museum, New York. Bill has long been associated with the Morgan Library which he first joined in 1967. He started work in the Medieval and Renaissance Manuscript Department in 1983 and became head in 1999. He has published widely and is well known to all of us for his many lively and engaging exhibitions.

It was easy for Bill to select his favorite works from such a wonderful collection as is evidenced by the scope and quality of his five works. For those of you who wish to see further details of these manuscripts, you are encouraged to go to Corsair - the online catalogue of the Morgan Library which is a collaborative venture with the Index of Christian Art to photograph and catalogue the entire collection of manuscripts in the Morgan Library. I am grateful to Bill for sharing his selection with us and to Gerry Guest, Web Editor for the ICMA for his work in getting this exhibition online.

Colum
Colum Hourihane
President, ICMA


Curator’s Choice:


1. The Lindau Gospels, upper and lower covers (MS M.1). I regard the ms as the cornerstone of the library's collection, not only of manuscripts but also of medieval goldsmiths work. It was Morgan's first truly important individual manuscript acquisition (that is, it did not come as part of a purchase of a library, such as the Irwin and Bennett collections), and contains two of the most important medieval jewelled bindings. It contributed to his interest, leading ultimately to the acquisition of the Stavelot Triptych, proclaimed by Hoving to be the most important art object in the Morgan (I would, of course, also select the Stavelot Triptych as one of my favorite items, especially with the new gilded background of the center panel). The front cover, made in the workshop of Charles the Bald in the 870s, contains a large gold repoussé Crucifixion surrounded by mourning figures. The architectural frame is studded with emerald and star sapphires. The back cover was made about a century earlier in the vicinity of Salzburg and is the oldest jewelled binding in the Morgan.


2. The Vision of the Lamb (MS M.644, fol. 87), from Beatus of Liébana, Commentary on the Apocalypse, written and illuminated by Maius, probably in the tower scriptorium of San Salvador de Tabara, ca. 945, for Abbot Victor of the monastery of St. Michael at Escalada.


3. Pictorial Colophon with Blanche of Castille and Louis IX (MS M.240, fol. 8), from a Moralized Bible made in Paris ca.1235. The final leaf shows the owners of the book in the top register and a cleric dictating to a scribe in the lower register. The scribe writes the short texts accompanying the illustrations on a typical page of the Moralized Bible.


4. Apotheosis of St. Edmund (MS M.736, fol. 22v), from the Life, Passion, and Miracles of St. Edmund, King and Martyr, illuminated at Bury St. Edmund's, ca. 1130. The powerful image expresses the importance and devotion to the patron saint, who safeguarded all aspects of the Benedictine Abbey - in gratitude the monks worship at his feet while he is crowned from above.


5.Adoration of the Magi; Queen of Sheba before Solomon (MS M.69, fols. 38v-39), from the Hours of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, written by Francesco Monterchi and illuminated and signed by Giulio Clovio, Rome, dated 1546. It was the favorite of Vasari, who called it a "Maraviglia di Roma," and is very close to the top of my list as well. A handbook of mannerist art, it contains something for everybody. There are early Christian typologies, portraits of Farnese (and Old St. Peter's, the bay of Naples, the island in the Tiber, and even a caricature of Clovio as a dwarf - Vasari called him a "piccolo Michelangelo." And in one border (fol. 6v) is an accurate depiction of a bird of Paradise, the Paradisea Augustae-Victoriae, which is native to the Huon Gulf in Eastern New Guinea, and was apparently brought to Italy no earlier than the 1520s.