Legends, Fictions, and the Manuscripts that Illustrate Christ's Story

September 22, 2011, The Getty Center

Illuminated manuscripts from the Middle Ages are significant for the literary texts they preserve. But they are also important, historically and culturally, for their illustrations of the life of Christ. These artistic representations tell tales of their own, and the visual stories are not always found in the corresponding texts. A careful examination of these images shows clearly and convincingly that medieval artists were not only familiar with the stories of the canonical Gospels, but also with many noncanonical apocryphal tales of Jesus. The apocryphal stories, in some instances, were understood to be "Gospel truth" on par with accounts found in Scripture. Bart D. Ehrman, the James A. Gray Professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, explores both canonical and apocryphal narratives of Jesus's life.

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