Late Antiquity

Rebecca and Eliezer at the Well, Vienna Genesis, early 6th century.

Illuminated Manuscripts were the first illustrated Bibles. This scene of Rebecca and Eliezer at the Well is one of the many depicted in the Vienna Genesis, a manuscript named for its location. The pages are a purple dyed calf skin and the text is written in silver inked Greek. This illustration is from the book of Genesis when Eliezer goes out to find a wife for Issac and meets Rebecca at a well. The manuscript depicts two scenes in one. You see Rebecca leaving and also you see her giving water to the camels and to Eliezer. The artist depicted just enough characters to tell the story and not anything more. This picture clear portrays the transition from the classical idealized realism of the Greeks to the iconic, stylized art of the Middle Ages. Unlike classical art, the art of Late Antiquity does not emphasize the beauty and movement of the body, instead it merely hints at a spiritual reality behind its subjects. The images are flat, with ill-composed space. In this illustration we see Rebecca is the focus as she is duplicated; however, there is little detail. From this manuscript we can infer women were respected spiritually. Interestingly, the water of the well is represented by a semi nude woman, possibly to represent the life-giving and life-sustaining nature of women.