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Evangelist Matthew
From the Arenberg Gospels
Canterbury, England, ca. 1000–1020
The Pierpont Morgan Library, New York, M. 869
Perhaps better than any other contemporary book, this manuscript demonstrates that Anglo-Saxon patrons and artists deemed outline drawing a suitable technique for luxury manuscripts. With five full-page miniatures, a striking palette, and a liberal use of gold, this book likely kept company with other liturgical treasures in a church sacristy, rather than with the learned, less ostentatious works of a monastic library.