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Description: | An order of monks and nuns who followed a strict ideal of abstinence, the Carmelites or 'White Friars' became prominent in England in the 13th and 14th centuries. They were well-connected with powerful supporters in the royal court. The Carmelite Missal was probably made for use at Whitefriars in London. Its beautiful decoration can be seen as an expression of the White Friars' religious intensity and highly placed patronage. At least three artists, one - Hermann Scheere - from Germany, decorated it and introduced new ways of depicting the human figure and creating illusions of space. Their work brought English manuscript art into a new phase of the 'International Style' of western European painting.
The missal's early 19th-century owner allowed his children to cut it up to make collages. In the 1930s Margaret Rickert reconstructed the missal from its scraps. She assembled these fragments of a page of Mass prayers and hymns for Pentecost. This artist always divided the first letter's inside into upper and lower areas, each presenting an original representation related to the feast. Above, God the Father, the Holy Spirit, sun and moon emit descending rays; below, Jesus speaks to the disciples, his words from John 14:26 on the banner ("The Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name will teach you all things"). | License: | http://www.bl.uk/services/copy/permission.html | Rights holder: | British Library | Source: | Collect Britain | Identifier: | http://www.collectbritain.co.uk/personal... | Language: | en-GB | Go to resource |
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