Boekomslag van een evangeliarium met reliëf 1850 - 1900

Médéric Mieusement captured this photograph of a book cover with relief, its exact date unknown, using a photographic process that renders a monochromatic palette. The dominant visual experience is one of ornate complexity. The cover is densely packed with decorative elements and the composition relies on symmetry and repetition. Oval and rectangular shapes are regularly interspersed within a filigree of floral motifs, drawing our eye across the surface. At the heart of the cover, a relief depicts a central religious scene, possibly a crucifixion, framed by an elaborately worked border. The photograph functions as a signifier of the medieval aesthetic where the book itself was venerated as a sacred object. Mieusement’s choice to photograph this cover evokes a sense of historical preservation, transforming the physical object into a reproducible image. This act of photographic reproduction challenges fixed meanings, engaging with new ways of thinking about representation.