4
Exalting
Honoring sacred and religious texts by adorning scrolls, books, architecture, and objects.
To convey the importance or spiritual significance of a message, scribes, artists, and designers throughout history added visual embellishments including illustrations, colorful patterns, borders, and ornate letterforms to manuscripts. They used visual communication to explain the unknown, show devotion, preserve and share knowledge, and create reverential objects for rituals and worship. This chapter looks at examples of these motivations and at a wide range of graphic forms, page layouts, illustration, calligraphy, and lettering styles used to exalt or honor.
Topics
- The Book of the Dead in Egypt
- Palm leaf manuscripts in South and Southeast Asia
- Illuminated manuscripts in Europe
- Judaic manuscripts
- Islamic manuscripts
- Ethiopian manuscripts