Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Gospel Book from Cologne

253. MS M.651, fol. 125r
254. MS M.651, fol. 125v
255. MS M.651, fol. 126r
256. John Portrait, fol. 126v
257. Initial Page for John, fol. 127r
258. MS M.651, fol. 127v
259. Prologue and Chapter Listings for John, fol. 128r
260. MS M.651, fol. 128v
261. MS M.651, fol. 129r
262. MS M.651, fol. 129v
263. John's Gospel, fol. 130r
264. MS M.651, fol. 130v

Treasure bindings, like medieval reliquaries, were often modified and added to over the centuries. Here, only the ivory Crucifixion may have been part of the original binding. Possibly made in Liège, it is unusual because John is shown writing at the Crucifixion, Mary holds a book, and a dragon is beneath them. The evangelist portraits in the corners, carved from walrus tusk, are late-twelfth-century Rhenish work. The silver-gilt metalwork and the settings for the bloodstones, deliberately placed on axes with the Crucifixion, date from succeeding centuries. The bloodstone was thought to symbolize the blood of Christ, which is also alluded to in the last addition: the fifteenth-century painted head of Christ with the crown of thorns, located behind the large crystal at the bottom.