PAST EXHIBITION

The Decorated Letter

November 13, 2007—January 27, 2008

LOS ANGELES—Throughout the Middle Ages, handwritten manuscripts were elaborately decorated with initials that called attention to the important part of a text, testified to the authority of the written word of God, and brought the vibrancy of speech and song to the manuscript page.  Medieval initials were often intricately designed, lavished with gold, and painted with expensive pigments.  The Decorated Letter, at the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Getty Center, November 13, 2007-January 27, 2008, explores the stylistic traditions of decorated initials preserved from a period that spans over 700 hundred years.

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