2-729-267 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Fragment from a Lectern Bible: Initial E[t fecit Josias] with Josiah Aspersing the Altar, c. 1300. This initial comes from a large bible (about 23 inches in height) and introduces the opening text of the Book of Esdras: Et fecit Josias in Jerosolymis Domino... (When Josiah celebrated the Passover festival in Jerusalem to his Lord...). The artist, a close follower of Master Honoré at Paris, set his figure against a diapered ground of alternating gold and blue diamonds with fleur-de-lys. Instead of portraying Josiah as a Jew, however, the artist abandoned historical perspective and painted him as a Christian priest sprinkling (aspersing) the altar with holy water in preparation for the Mass.