CREATOR UNKNOWN

Russia, 1836. MS 052

This lavishly painted manuscript contains the Revelation of John, also known as the Apocalypse, written in Old Church Slavic. It features a combination of 79 painted illuminations and painted and printed initials. Each significant event of the Revelation is opened by a full-page illumination on the verso with the text begun by a printed or painted initial on the recto of the opposite page. At the beginning of each chapter is a space where a woodblock-printed header went. The prints were cut-out and then pasted into the corresponding space as shown in figure 1, the Angel Appearing to St. John. The illuminations are executed in watercolor, then drawn loosely in light and black ink, finished with washes of green, brown, yellow, blue, and pink, as seen in figure 2. In addition to the Revelation is a Prologue by St. Andrew. According to the German insert on the first flyleaf, this manuscript is a copy of a seventeenth-century original and worked on by several monks.

Bibliography

Apocalypse. Russia, 1836. University of Oregon Special Collections & University Archives, MS 052. https://alliance-primo.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/f/3uoa1r/CP71269187680001451