Frontispiece Design for the New Testament

1700

This frontispiece design was for the splendidly illustrated Bible published by Pieter Mortier in Amsterdam in 1700. It is an example of just how inventive and almost surrealistic the illustrations of title pages could be. An angel shows the shackled Church a tableau with scenes of the martyrdom of Christ and his twelve apostles. The instruments of their martyrdom lie in the foreground.