In order to find some items relevant with the scribal object in the Middle Ages, yesterday I returned to the Museum of Fine Arts. According to the tour map, there are three rooms for Middle Ages. But only two of them are standing along side. So I needed to walk across the long passageway to the other one.
I began very slowly the first two rooms and read the plaques very carefully. But what disappointed me was that the collections are mostly the paintings and sculptures, and I even saw some great triptychs. But there seemed to be no scribal artifacts had been exhibited at all.
With a depressed mood I entered the last chamber of the third room. What I saw, when I just arrived the gate, struck me electronically. The Almighty God greeted me from the upper part of the opposite wall. His face was long but calmed, a halo warmly shined around his head, his right hand pointed to the front in a style of God's hand, his left hand held a book, some words were in here. That were exactly what I was looking for.
I came closed to the Almighty God, four animals which individually symbolized a Evangelist appeared to me much more clearly. At that time, my first thought was that did this the fresco come from the Monreale Cathedral Palermo Sicily Italy? Because of my study about Crusade, I knew that there's a very impressive a
nd famous fresco decorated the apse here. But I was wronged. The plaque at the foot of this fresco told me that this one came from Catalan, about 1150-1200, and had been named, Christ in Majesty with symbols of the Four Evangelist. The church which this fresco once dominated was the Church of Santa Maria del Mur, a very small one at the foothills of the Spanish Pyrenees. Further reading taught me that the Latins inscribed in the book which Christ held were these,
"I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father but by me".
I thought that they were quoted from John 14:6.
Truly I was not much sure that whether these words were Latin words or the Catalonia letters. But they were really awesome and beautiful which definitely strengthened the centrality and impression of Christ. The four animals which located around the Christ were, clockwise from Christ's left hand, eagle, winged ox, winged lion and angel, which in turns represented the four presumed authors of the gospels in the New Testament, John, Luke, Mark and Matthew. There were several words inscribed around these four animal. But I could not understand them, and the plaque also failed to tell me.
The Christ and the four animals made up of the upper tier of the fresco. The lower part of it contained the twelve Apostles and scenes from the Bible. But due to the severe damages, they are not as clearly as their upper counterparts.
True, writing is not always where you would expect it to be. Open or closed, the book remains meaningful even when it cannot be read. This one is particularly illegible due to its position, so far above the human gaze, except to the modern eye complete with tools and devices. A certain idea of the sacred book.
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