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

037. MS M.651, fol. 17r
038. MS M.651, fol. 17v
039. MS M.651, fol. 18r
040. MS M.651, fol. 18v
041. MS M.651, fol. 19r
042. MS M.651, fol. 19v
043. MS M.651, fol. 20r
044. MS M.651, fol. 20v
045. MS M.651, fol. 21r
046. MS M.651, fol. 21v
047. MS M.651, fol. 22r
048. MS M.651, fol. 22v

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.