Sacramentary of Gellone, Carolingian Crucifix Letter, Antique Print, 1849

One of the strangest images in early medieval art: a great letter T drawn as the cross, with the body of Christ forming the upright and a crowned head set above, surrounded by fish, birds, serpents and disembodied faces that are themselves letters. The sheet is lettered as eighth century miniatures and ornamented letters from the Sacramentary of Gellone in the Bibliotheque nationale de Paris. The color is flat and brilliant, orange, blue and yellow with no modelling at all.

Paul Lacroix, the bibliophile who wrote under the name Le Bibliophile Jacob, and the artist Ferdinand Sere produced Le Moyen Age et la Renaissance in Paris between 1848 and 1851. The present sheet is from Tome Second of 1849. The volume is remembered for the quality of its chromolithography, much of it printed by Lemercier of the rue de Seine, and for the care with which its draughtsmen copied originals that in several cases have since been damaged or lost.

The Gellone Sacramentary is one of the landmarks of Merovingian and early Carolingian painting and its zoomorphic initials are reproduced in every history of the illuminated book. Modern eyes read the sheet almost as a piece of twentieth century graphic art, which is why it hangs so well in a contemporary room and why it is among the first plates from this volume to find a buyer.

Even age toning. Marked handling soiling along the bottom, right and top edges. A few small foxing spots in the margin. All four corners complete.

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