Single Leaf from a Bible: Initial E[t factum est] with Jonah Swallowed by the Whale (c. 1290): Art, History and Details

Single Leaf from a Bible: Initial E[t factum est] with Jonah Swallowed by the Whale (c. 1290) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This leaf and the bifolium (double-leaf) displayed to the right both come from the same manuscript: a large lectern bible. The decorative scheme consists of a single historiated initial and spiky ivy-leaf tendrils along the margins, a Parisian convention just developing at this time. These "ascenders" and "descenders" originate from two of the initials and meander along the margins as separators and framing devices for the text. This ivy-leaf motif dominated book illumination in Paris through the early 15th century. The interior of the initial E contains a background of geometric patterns (called diapering) against which is set Jonah and the whale and the ancient city of Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian Empire. The illusionistic effect creates three layers of perspective-the framing initial, the figures, and the background.

Object facts

• Title: Single Leaf from a Bible: Initial E[t factum est] with Jonah Swallowed by the Whale
• Date: c. 1290
• Culture: France, Paris
• Type: Manuscript
• Technique: ink, tempera, and gold on vellum
• Dimensions: Sheet: 26.7 x 40.3 cm (10 1/2 x 15 7/8 in.)
• Collection: MED - Manuscript Illuminations
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1959.271

Collection credit

The Harold T. Clark Educational Extension Fund

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.