Ende (artist)
Ende (or En) is the first Spanish female manuscript illuminator to have her work documented through inscription: ENDE PINTRIX ET D(E)I AIUTRIX in the colophon of the Gerona Beatus.[1] She was probably a nun.[1] There are a number of hands discernible in the manuscripts. The chief scribe was a priest called Senior. Historians have also attributed elements of the manuscripts to Emetrius, whose style is attributable in comparison to an earlier signed work.[1] However, based on painting style attributes, some theorists conclude that nearly all of the manuscript illustrations were completed by Ende.[2]
Ende worked on a 10th-century group of manuscripts, of which there are 26 known copies with illustrations, however only Beatus of Girona contains the work of a woman.[3] These manuscripts contain the Commentary on the Apocalypse compiled by the Spanish monk Beatus of Liébana in 786.[1] The manuscripts were created in the monastery of Tabara in the mountains of[3] Leon in northwest Spain.[1]
The illuminations illustrate the Apocalyptic Vision of St. John the Divine in the Book of Revelation in the Mozarabic style.[4] This style developed in Spain after the Muslim invasions, blending elements of Islamic art and decorative traditions, particularly the emphasis on geometry, rich colors, ornamented grounds, and stylized figures.[4]
References
- ^ a b c d e Gaze, Delia (1997). Dictionary of women artists. Fitzroy Dearborn. pp. 498-499. ISBN 1884964214. OCLC 185867951.
- ^ Miner, Dorothy E. (1974). Anastaise and her sisters : women manuscript illuminators of the Middle Ages : a twentieth anniversary keepsake, the Baltimore Bibliophiles, 12 November 1974. Walters Art Gallery. OCLC 609732758.
- ^ a b Tsjeng, Zing. Forgotten Women The Artists. Octopus Publishing Ltd. pp. 158–160. ISBN 9781788400176.
- ^ a b Dodwell, C. R. (1993). The pictorial arts of the West, 800-1200 (1. publ. ed.). New Haven: Yale Univ. Press. p. 247. ISBN 0300053487.
Further reading
- Chadwick, Whitney, Women, Art, and Society, Thames and Hudson, London, 1990
- Harris, Anne Sutherland and Linda Nochlin, Women Artists: 1550-1950, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Knopf, New York, 1976