Gospel Book
An Ethiopian Gospel book from about 1480, made by unknown scribes and painters, probably for liturgical use in an Ethiopian church, and held by the J. Paul Getty Museum. The pictures show rows of ten haloed apostles or saints in red, green and blue robes, each holding a book or cross against flat ochre fields with dotted outlines and zigzag hems. A designer could take the strict grid, the bold flat colour blocks and the rhythmic repetition of stylised faces.
