Khludov Psalter
Type:
Illuminated manuscripts,
Psalters
Date:
Mid-ninth century
Location or Findspot (Modern-Day Country):
Turkey
Medium:
Parchment
Dimensions:
19.5 × 15 cm
Description:
The Khludov Psalter, named after its nineteenth-century owner, is one of only a few Byzantine manuscripts surviving from the ninth century. Many of its marginal vignettes serve simultaneously as illustrations of the Psalms and as anti-iconoclastic polemics. In producing the illustration for Psalm 69, the artist responded to the line, "they gave me gall for my food, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink." The imagery of the Crucifixion not only presents a Christian interpretation of this line in the Hebrew Bible but also overlays it with contemporary debates on the status of images. In parallel with the Roman soldier extending a vinegar-soaked sponge to Christ on the cross, John the Grammarian (an iconoclast patriarch of Constantinople, r. 847–43) extends a sponge to whitewash an icon of Christ. Thus, the actions of iconoclasts are condemned as vociferously as those of the original persecutors of Christ.
Relevant Textbook Chapter(s):
5
Image Credits:
The Picture Art Collection/Alamy Stock Photo
