Christ in Majesty on Crimson, Eleventh Century, Antique Print, 1849

Christ enthroned within an oval mandorla, in a red robe against a field of green, with a lion below him and an eagle above, the whole set in a broad frame of crimson that occupies nearly half the sheet. The lettering gives the date as the eleventh century. The design is reduced to flat bands of color with no modelling, and the crimson border is the largest unbroken field of printed color anywhere in the volume.

The plate belongs to the second volume of Lacroix and Sere's Le Moyen Age et la Renaissance, Paris, 1849, a work that set out to describe the manners, trades, sciences, letters and fine arts of Europe between the fall of Rome and the end of the sixteenth century. Each sheet was drawn from the original object or manuscript and printed in chromolithography, a process still new in 1849 and here used with unusual richness.

This is the boldest sheet in the book. A buyer need know nothing about manuscripts to want it: it reads as a strong piece of abstract color from across a room and resolves into a Romanesque Christ at close range. It is the sheet to hang alone on a plain wall, and it photographs well, which matters more now than it used to.

Light uneven toning, browner towards the edges. Marked handling soiling along the bottom, right and top edges. Slight wear at the top right corner.

This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed.