Manuscript leaf with two illuminated miniatures

Medieval

Fitzwilliam Museum

1250 - 1275

Manuscript leaf with two illuminated miniatures. These illuminations on vellum are the earliest extant illustrations of the Infancy miracles of Christ, derived from the apocryphal Infancy Gospel. One illustrates an Arabic legend in which Christ turns children into pigs as a punishment for their parents' treachery; the other from a Syriac legend depicts Christ sitting on a sunbeam, while his classmates in trying to copy him plunge to their deaths in the water below.

• Medium: illumination on vellum
• Dimensions: 18 x 12 cm
• Art Fund Grant: £8398 ( Total: £33,594)
• ArtFunded in: 1993
• Vendor: Sotheby's

Provenance

Charles .J.Hartford F.S.A; by descent to the Rev.Frederick.Kill Hartford; bought circa 1895 by George Dunn; given to Sir Sydney Cockerell in 1904; bought by Pierre Beres 1957; sale Sotheby's 1993.

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