Ende, pintrix et Dei adiutrix.

-Inscription found in the Gerona Beatus colophon, presumably written by the artist.

The Middle Ages teaching system is deeply rooted in Ancient Greece, where Hippias, a sophist and a Socrates contemporary, was considered the man who embraced the concept of teaching from the liberal arts.1

A picture of the Gerona Beatus.

In the Middle Ages, liberal arts where called so because they where considered worthy of free men and were made with a non profit purpose. Their number was set in seven, starting with grammar, dialectics and rhetoric, which conformed the trivium (three ways), and arithmetics, geometry, music and astronomy made the quadrivium (four ways). There weren’t manual arts among these, neither sculpture or painting; these were given the name artes mechanicae.

It is important to remark that the medieval art concept is pretty different from the one we have today. In those ages it meant “theory, doctrine” and the scholars dedicated to the study of Etymologies related the word ars (art) with artus (narrow), in other words, arts adapt everything to tight rules.

It wasn’t until Florence’s Quattrocento2 when artists became aware of their individuality and wanted to be differentiated from artisans.

Art from the Middle Ages was functional because it was offered to God and his Celestial Court to gain grace. It had scholastic functions like explaining dogmas and affirming God’s power and the Church’s as well as political power.3

Because medieval artistic production had a teaching function, there are a lot of beautiful illustrated manuscripts which explained to the reader the way God’s power displayed itself. These manuscripts were generally illustrated in monasteries and abbeys.

Artist were little known; but among the texts that survived until today theres a manuscript named Gerona Beatus, in its colophon are written the names of the artists: Ende pintrix et Dei adiutrix, frater Emeterius et presbiter (Ende, painter and God’s helper, Emeterious, brother and presbyter).

As far as we know, Ende was a Spanish nun and illustrator who lived in the late 10th Century and is considered the first european female artist to be recorded4. A lot of researchers think they can tell apart Ende’s traces in the Gerona Beatus, an illustrated copy of the Commentary of the Apocalypse by Beatus of Liébana.

We can see here the author’s painting’s Mozarab features, big eyes, loud and contrasting colors.

Wide color palette for the tree coloring, meticulous decoration and a great sense of geometry.

Ende’s work is very fascinating. Because the author was a nun, we can’t overlook the possibility of a quality education. This character draws new guidelines for the study of education of women in the Middle Ages.

1 (Curtius, 1995, p. 63)

2 Ibid., p. 63

3 (Duby, 1998)

4 (Hourihane, 2012, p. 426)

Sandra González.

She has a Bachelor of Classic Literature. Specialist in Middle Ages Literature and Culture.

The opinions expressed in the articles are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of Mujeres Artistas/ Female Artists.