Leaf from Life of Apa Samuel
A leaf from a Coptic illuminated manuscript recording the life of Apa Samuel, a Christian monk, made around 950 by an unknown scribe and painter, probably in Egypt, for a monastic readership. The single picture shows a stylised yellow animal, perhaps a stag or a gazelle, drawn in flat ochre and red on a pale parchment ground, with bold outlines, spotted markings and decorative spiral forms that a designer could draw on for folk-art motifs, flat pattern repeats or simplified animal silhouettes.
