The Book of Kells, around 800, p7v: 'The Virgin (Madonna) and Child'
 

The Book of Kells
around 800
page 7 verso [back, or left]: "The Virgin (Madonna) and Child"

Dublin, Ireland: Library of Trinity College
illuminated vellum [calfskin] manuscript
the four New Testament Gospels, Vulgate [Latin translation]
created by  Columban monks who lived in a monastery on the island of Iona, off the west coast of Scotland
monastery founded late in the sixth century by an Irish monk, St Colm Cille

Send comments regarding this page to rummel01@yahoo.com.
Copyright ©2006 Stan Rummel. All rights reserved.
This page was last updated May 22, 2006.

This iconic image of the Virgin and Child is the first representation of the Virgin in a European manuscript. Mary is shown in an odd mixture of frontal and three-quarter pose. This imagebears a stylistic similarity to the carvings on the lid of St. Cuthbert's coffin. The iconography of the miniature may ultimately derive from a Byzantine icon.

The image of the Virgin and Child faces the first page of text and is an appropriate preface to the beginning of the Breves Causae of Matthew, which begins Nativitas Christi in Bethlem (the birth of Christ in Bethlehem).
 
 

Source:
    "Book of Kells." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Kells.