Moralisee Essay

The bible, at first were limited to those of higher class. The reason being that most of society was illiterate, it was mainly religious officials who were educated. Hence, manuscripts could be seen as the poor man’s bible, giving visuals to understand the word of God. Take for instance ‘God the Creator of the World’, this piece was one of the first manuscripts that were part of bible Moralisee, a type of bible that made the text secondary and the illustration was the focal point (Oxford Art Online). This piece illustrate a part of the story of creation in the Old Testament, more specifically the book of Genesis, however this manuscript seemed to take a more loose interpretation. Rather than showing God create everything as a day by day process, …show more content…
(Gardner’s Art Through the Ages) This piece went against what was typically seen as a moralized bible piece, skimping out on the explanations of moral significance. The piece based itself off of philosophies from Plato (Tachau) blending scientific learnings with religious context, which does make one question whether or not this piece was meant to illustrate for its religious purpose or from a more scientific aspect, seeing God as Geometer.To boot, interestingly, contradictory to the original purpose of manuscripts, the Bible Moralisee was intended for more informed people due to its lavish publications. This would then make the standpoint of God as an architect of the world make more sense, using the manuscript as an analytical piece instead of an icon, as the bulk of society would see …show more content…
Artistically, I’m smitten with the two pieces in different ways even though I’m not a fan of some aspects. But as a whole, I enjoy the effect that illumination making an art piece more sumptuous and brings another element to the manuscript. Even now, a gold accent on an art work really draws the eye and instinctively makes you think higher, because of the gold. Besides this, I have always been biased to details, which is why I find the ‘Chi-Rho-Iota’ so splendid. The page seems over the top, but the details are so minuscule that it comes off as subtle and will only ever see them if you look closely at a piece, which is a characteristic that i love. The fact that you can continuously find new things every time you look at it and learning new messages that the artist wanted to portray is wondrous. On the other hand, although it’s much more simplistic, I really like the approach given to “God Creator of the World’. Often times people tend to separate the sciences and religion, however in this piece the two come to meet. Using geometry and logic to explain the story of creation are actually concepts that I believe in. Being able to connect two vastly different subjects makes you approach a subject differently. Henceforth, that is how these two pieces influence me personally. It makes me understand and see things differently making connections that I wouldn 't necessarily