A young figure with a halo, barefoot.
Bible in art · Luke
Christ Among the Doctors (Ms. 101, fol. 60, from the Illustrated Vita Christi, with devotional supplements)
Unknown English painter · about 1190–1200
Getty Center, Los Angeles
This little painting was made in England, perhaps York, about 1190–1200, and three centuries later it was bound into a picture life of Christ written in East Anglia. Its background is burnished gold leaf, laid over a sticky ground and rubbed until it shone.
A young Jesus with a halo stands at the left and touches the hands of a group of bearded men. The scroll above holds Latin words: “quod est magnum mandatum in lege” — “which is the great commandment in the law”.
From the text
- Jesus sitting among the teachers in the temple (Luke 2:46)
- “Teacher, which commandment is the greatest in the Law?” (Matthew 22:36)
The artist’s own
- A scroll with words from Matthew — the museum calls the scene Christ Among the Doctors
- The temple as a walled city with towers
Details
Jesus
The teachers
Bearded men in long robes crowd forward.
The scroll
Latin words curve in a white band.
The city
Towers and a blue roof above the arch.
Unknown illuminator, English (perhaps York). The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles (Ms. 101 (2008.3), fol. 60) · Tempera colors and gold leaf, on parchment · Images provided here are believed to be in the public domain and are available under CC0 through Getty’s Open Content Program. (Getty record: "No Copyright", http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)