Radoslav Gospels

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Evangelist John with the personification of Holy Wisdom

The Radoslav Gospel ( Serbian : Radoslavljevo jevanđelje , also Leningrad Serbian Tetra Gospel ) is an illustrated manuscript in Church Slavonic in Cyrillic script . It was made in 1429 by Radoslav, a Serbian illuminator from Dalsa . The manuscript is preserved in fragments and originally contained the text of the four Gospels of the New Testament . Some miniatures have survived, including the representation of the four evangelists . The manuscript is now in the Russian National Library in St. Petersburg .

history

The Radoslav Gospel was commissioned by Cardinal Bessarion (approx. 1403–1472) and copied in Serbia in 1429. Twelve of the original 300 sheets have survived. According to a note on Folio 12r, the book was given to the Athos monastery of Agiou Pavlou in the 16th century . During his visit to the monastery in October 1845, Bishop Porfirii Uspenskii (1804–1885) removed the twelve, in his opinion, most valuable sheets and added them to his collection at the Russian National Library. The pages that remained in the monastery are lost today. The miniatures of the Evangelists were made by Radoslav, who immortalized himself on the sheet with the portrait of St. John in gold. Each of the evangelists is accompanied by a female personification of holy wisdom.

Art historical importance

The four miniatures of the Radoslav Gospel are similar to one of the main works of fresco painting of the Morava School , the frescoes of the Kalenić monastery, so that the participation of Radoslav and his assistants in the painting of the church is assumed.

literature

  • Vojislav J. Djuric: Slikar Radoslav i freske Kalenića / Le peintre Radoslav et les fresques de Kalenic . Zograf 2, 1967, ISSN  0350-1361 , pp. 21-29.

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