11th Century Gospels Illustrated by a German Illuminator

"This page is from a magnificently decorated book of the Gospels, executed in the eleventh century for Uota, Abbess of the convent of Niedermuster, at Ratisbon, in the reign of the Emperor Henry II. The whole page is a superbly decorative composition; in the center is a Crucifixion with figures of Life and Death at the foot of the cross. In the lower angles are minute paintings of the Rent Veil of the Temple, and the opened sepulches; above, at the sides, are symbolical figures of the Church and the Synagogue, or Grace and Law. At the upper angles are the Sun and Moon veiling their faces before the Passion of Christ. Graceful scroll foliage, of the Oriental textile type, fills in the spandrels." text by Middleton