Creation out of Black. On the Representation of the First Day of Genesis in Book Illumination

Philine Helas

Genesis, The first day, Bible historiale, ca. 1415-1420, Paris, Bibliothèque Mazarine, Ms. 313, fol. 4. — Genesis, The first day, *Bible historiale*, ca. 1415-1420, Paris, Bibliothèque Mazarine, Ms. 313, fol. 4.

Genesis, The first day, *Bible historiale*, ca. 1415-1420, Paris, Bibliothèque Mazarine, Ms. 313, fol. 4.

The idea of the gradual creation of the stars and the earth with its elements and creatures is connected with the six days of Creation established in the Old Testament (Genesis 1). The visualization of this process was an artistic challenge and was connected with the respective scientific world view the light is generated from the darkness before the creation of the sun and the moon and then it is separated from it. Particularly in medieval book painting there are numerous and very different pictorial representations. The project deals only with those which equate light and darkness with white and black and which appear in conspicuous frequency in the 14th and 15th centuries. The black is to be understood here as an artistic engagement, a creative act out of one color, which simultaneously unites and negates all other colors in itself.