The Kokkinobaphos Master is the conventional name by which modern historians call a master miniaturist active in

Constantinople Constantinople (#Names of Constantinople, see other names) was a historical city located on the Bosporus that served as the capital of the Roman Empire, Roman, Byzantine Empire, Byzantine, Latin Empire, Latin, and Ottoman Empire, Ottoman empire ...

, the capital of the

Byzantine Empire The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived History of the Roman Empire, the events that caused the ...

, during the 12th century. The name was given to the unknown artist by Jeffrey C. Anderson, His first known works, the manuscripts ''Paris gr.'' 75 (at the

National Library of France National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ce ...

) and ''Vat. Urb. gr.'' 2 (at the

Vatican Library The Vatican Apostolic Library (, ), more commonly known as the Vatican Library or informally as the Vat, is the library of the Holy See, located in Vatican City, and is the city-state's national library. It was formally established in 1475, alth ...

), date to the 1120s. Later works, representative of his mature style, are the Vatican copy of the homilies of James the Monk of Kokkinobaphos (''Vat. gr.'' 1162) executed for the wife of the ''

sebastokrator ''Sebastokrator'' (, ; ; ), was a senior court title in the late Byzantine Empire. It was also used by other rulers whose states bordered the Empire or were within its sphere of influence (Bulgarian Empire, Serbian Empire). The word is a compound ...

'' Andronikos Komnenos, and the so-called " Seraglio Octateuch" (''Topkapi gr.'' 8). The former work has given the painter his name, and is considered as his "grandest creation" and "the longest visual biography of the Virgin ever produced in Byzantium". Other works by the master include the Burney Gospels in the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. Based in London, it is one of the largest libraries in the world, with an estimated collection of between 170 and 200 million items from multiple countries. As a legal deposit li ...

.British Library collection item
/ref> He represents "the last Stylistically coherent group of manuscripts known from Constantinople before the city was sacked during the

Fourth Crusade The Fourth Crusade (1202–1204) was a Latin Christian armed expedition called by Pope Innocent III. The stated intent of the expedition was to recapture the Muslim-controlled city of Jerusalem, by first defeating the powerful Egyptian Ayyubid S ...

in 1204".

References

Sources

* * * * {{Authority control 12th-century Byzantine people Byzantine painters 12th-century Byzantine artists Manuscript illuminators