Nothing on TV again, so let's dial up Morgan manuscript 268, a 14thc. Historien Bibel. Kids, this thing is wild. Strong visual imagination, working with a surprising, eclectic set of stories. http://ica.themorgan.org/manuscript/thumbs/113135

The manuscript starts with a bang: To help visualize Genesis 1, the artist gives us an enthroned Trinity so strangely trifacial that the hovering dove of the Holy Spirit seems more inclined to brood over the faces of the painting than over the face of the deep.

But the illustrator makes up for it with this extremely sweet scene of God bringing all the animals into being. Cute points awarded for the rabbit face.

Who is this nice lady with the pet goats? Clue: We've jumped way forward in Genesis. The goats are licking her like she's some kind of ... salt block? Yes, it's Lot's wife.

Excellent storytelling here: Rebecca as helicopter matriarch; bedridden Isaac w/dim eyes, slurping soup & trusting to his tactile powers; smooth little Jacob with fine kid gloves, feet included, $49.95 from Lands End.

Pharaoh's dream of seven fat years swallowed up by seven lean years. Cowfight! Facepalm.

The illuminator should really have given the Exodus a longer panel. He had to cram it all in so tight that Pharaoh's army is obliged to stoop down politely to drown in a narrow sea. The horse at the back is skeptical.

I like how Moses' arms LOOK heavy, the way they feel to him (and to Aaron & Hur who hold them up). Bonus points for leaving the armies of Israel & Amalek in the foreground rather than off in the distance. Hard work all around.

Nobody here is happy. It's more great storytelling: God sends Moses down w/the 10 Commandments (in what realllly looks like a creased gift bag), to find the people of Israel having a joyless jig around the saddest golden calf evah.

Balaam raises a whip. The angel raises a sword. But the donkey easily upstages them both. How do I love her? Let me count the ways: The giant, shaggy ears. The bangs. The side-eye. The sassy mouth. The all-the-single-ladies front leg. The sinuous negative space around her neck.

Oh, you're a fancy lion, w/all your fluffy legs & frilly mane & flaring tail? Well, Leo, I'm Samson, rocking a fitted salmon shirt, silver concho link hip belt, gold lamé leggings, & pointy ballet flats. Nimbly I leap upon you & tear you up. Who's the "mane" man? Say it!

Compressed storytelling bonus points here: Samson is eyeless in Gaza, Samson is forced to grind wheat, Samson grows his hair back. To quote Blind Willie Johnson who was quoting Samson, "If I had my way, I'd tear the building down."

Probably a little too much to put in one panel.

Temptation of Job. Nicely done figures, but the artist started obsessing on the room interior and his new paintbox.

This manuscript has a number of idol pictures. They're always up on a pedestal, they're always lording it over their worshipers with some gesture of authority, and they always look stoooopid.

So here's the part of the Bible where Alexander the Great is walking around naked, some guy gets chopped up & fed to wild animals, Alex buys stuff at an island store, has a date, goes in a submarine, & flies a griffin-chopper w/a corn dog. It's, um, Second Miscellaneums.

My conception? Immaculate.

This manuscript is totally into apocryphal gospels and those early Christian urban legend collections sometimes called infancy gospels. Jesus goes to school, takes over the homeschool co-op, brings clay birds to life, and something something broken jar.

Illustration of the story of the woman caught in adultery. Illustrator has no problem giving Jesus a Bible and showing us what he's writing in the dust. I can't make out the words, but I'm guessing "let him who is without sin..."

Jesus said "I am," and they fell back. Nicely done.

If you're still with me, you know this artist was going to go all in on the harrowing of hell. Good attention to five demons who are upsot about their front door & hostages. Demons: No Two Alike, But All So Tediously the Same.

In conclusion, a real marvel of compressed theological illustration: The ascension (check out the feet & footprints), Pentecost, and global missions (I think): the apostles going each to their own corner of the world.