Some of the most celebrated Renaissance and Gothic masters of their day created illuminations for the choir books, Psalters, and antiphonaries used in churches and monasteries across Italy. Springing from a unique, artful marriage of painting, text and music, these miniature images glow with rich, jewel-like colors and shine with gold.

 

Bring the museum experience home with this widescreen DVD, which features more than forty images from The Metropolitan Museum of Art's superb collection of Italian Renaissance paintings and cuttings from choral manuscripts.

 

Period music performed by world-famous Early Music New York accompanies the almost 60-minute gallery tour of illuminations, and notes by curators from the Metropolitan Museum provide illumination of their own, offering insights into the lives and faith of medieval religious communities while describing the paintings and their subjects.

 

The medieval music heard on the DVD is also featured on a separate 60-minute CD, including tracks from “Music of Medieval Love”, “A Medieval Christmas” and “A Bohemian Christmas.” Selections include chants, motets, laudes and medieval dances, whose unexpected tonalities have abiding appeal today.