Something Beautiful To Look At (Part I)

Everybody wants beautiful things to look at, me especially. I may have my very own office at some point in the somewhat near future, and I've been thinking of images I want to get printed at the Target photo lab and hang on the wall. There will be sloths, of course. I'll share those later, when I've found my favorites.

For now, I was thinking of these two amazing works of art:

St. Matthew the Evangelist from the Ebbo Gospels (9th century):

I first saw this in Gardner's Art Through The Ages ("the" art history textbook) and wished with all my heart that European art had remained beautiful, fun, warm, and cartoonish like this, instead of getting all icky, cold, and boring with the Renaissance. Oh well.

And I just love this image of St. John the Evangelist as an eagle from the Book of Kells: