Christian iconography; or, The history of Christian art in the middle ages (1851) (14765744305)

Identifier: christianiconogr02didr (find matches)
Title: Christian iconography; or, The history of Christian art in the middle ages
Year: 1851 (1850s)
Authors: Didron, Adolphe Napoléon, 1806-1867 Millington, Ellen J Stokes, Margaret, 1832-1900
Subjects: Christian art and symbolism Art, Medieval
Publisher: London : H. G. Bohn
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries



Text Appearing Before Image:
J Fig. 134.—THE TRINITY OF EVIL. From a French Miniature of the xiii cent.^ * The above drawing is taken from a curious manuscript in the BibliothèqueRoyale, entitled Emblemata Bihlica, and belonging to the thirteenthcentury. Few manuscripts are equally rich in miniatures; it contains no lessthan three hundred, + Delille, the poet, who was semi-pagan both in sentiment and language,strove to suppress the idea of the present when he wrote the following line :— Le moment où je parle est déjà loin de moi. THE MAl^IFESTATIONS OF THE TRINITY. 23
Text Appearing After Image:
Fig. 135.—THE TRINITY OF ABSOLUTE EVIL. From a French Miniature of the xv cent.* Janus, tlie genius or personification of Time, by a figure* French manuscript in the Bibl. Royale, Histoire du Saint-GraaL 24 CHEISTIAN ICONOGEAPHT. witli one head and t\YO faces. Their Janus Eifrons viewed the past with the face that looked backwards, andinspected the future with that placed in front ; certain ofthe Christian artists, inserted between these two faces thatof the present,* as in the engraving subjoined. This little figure with three faces on one single trunk,eating and drinking to celebrate the commencement of anew year, is in effect a Janus ; it is placed at the head ofthe calendar, forming a frontispiece to the month ofJanuary. But it is a Christian Janus or rather a perfectedimage of Time. AVhat indeed is life without the present ?The remembrance of the past, and anticipations of thefuture, apart from realities of the present, can be nothingmore than vanished dreams, or reveries yet u