The University Art Museum can seem intimidating to some. Its eclectic permanent collection provides the visitor with everything from humbling Renaissance images of saints to modern landscapes fashioned out of utensils. A small, but no less overwhelming, exhibit sharply contrasts this grandeur — "The Book of Kings: Art, War, and the Morgan Library's Medieval Picture Bible" is only two rooms long, but each manuscript leaf is filled with enough imagery to make the exhibit fascinating despite its brevity and comparatively small scale.
"The Book of Kings" designates a thirteenth-century French illuminated manuscript that depicts 340 episodes from the Old Testament. Twenty-four of the Picture Bible's 46 surviving leaves are on display, with stories beginning with the creation story and continuing through the start of David's reign.
What distinguishes this particular manuscript is its assimilation of Biblical narrative into a contemporary setting filled with castles, aristocratic women and crusading knights. As Saul leads his men to victory in one battle scene, a man hangs onto the swinging end of a catapult, another aims an arrow at the heart of a third, swords are pointed in all directions and dissevered bodies lay on the ground in jumbled masses. The gruesomeness of this and similar battle scenes evokes medieval preoccupation with war and torture more than it speaks to the religion of the artist.
Professor of Medieval Art Anne Marie Bouché described this vividness as "weirdly realistic. This is a level of refinement and attention to detail beyond what you see in other works of the period. You can even see marks of blood on the horses from their riders' spurs. There is no empty space."
This activity makes each examination of the Bible more rewarding than the last. Details that go unnoticed the first time, such as the long, flourishing ears of the mules and Goliath's oafish expression, affirm both the talent and the playfulness of the artists.
The Picture Bible is thought to have been commissioned by Louis IX during the Gothic period, although nearly everything about its origin remains mysterious. The number of artists or who these artists might have been, the location of its creation, and its official function have not been determined, and the images complicate this lack of answers because of their complexity. Everything from the heights of the figures down to the chimneys on the roofs suggests, but never directly reveals, something about medieval society and politics. Ironically because of the title of the exhibition, one such suggestion does not seem to favor kings. They are shown being mutilated and having affairs (and getting caught), which raises the question of why the king would have commissioned this work at all. Perhaps the artists criticized their king out of contempt for warfare, which seems possible from the bloody battle scenes.
The exhibition displays a number of other medieval objects including swords and armor that effectively give the viewer a more immediate sense of the hardships of battle captured in the illustrations.
Other artifacts, such as another Bible, a few psalters, a bishop's staff and even wine bottles, place the Picture Bible within a broader historical context, enhancing the viewer's understanding of the illuminations without detracting from the main focus of the exhibit.
The end of the last room has an interactive computer presentation with medieval music and a function that allows visitors to see each manuscript leaf in detail. After seeing the real illuminations, however, these replicated images seem hazy and colorless.
Bouché describes the Morgan Bible — as well as the size of the exhibit — perfectly: "Even though the figures are miniature, there is something kind of monumental about them."
The miniature but monumental "Book of Kings" is on display through June 6; if you have not seen it, this enchanting manuscript is worth a perusal.
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