Exhibition "Golden Pictorial Worlds" - Julia Bangert

Julia Bangert presents manuscript illumination spanning the Middle Ages and the present day. Opening on Saturday, 25 April 2026 at 2 pm. Exhibition runs until 31 October 2026. Julia Bangert works for the Gutenberg Museum in Mainz, where she hand-decorates reprints of the famous Gutenberg Bible – available in the museum shop – with manuscript illumination and gold leaf following original models. Alongside this, she works as a freelance manuscript illuminator, designing individually crafted initials, ornately decorated capital letters, and animal depictions. Inspired by historical models, she creates her own works in a medieval style as well as in a contemporary style. In the exhibition, she shows a manuscript series with texts about animals in the style of a medieval bestiary. Originally, this was a moralizing literary form that connected the characteristics of animals and mythical creatures with Christian teachings of salvation. The artist offers insights into her working process and shows step by step how manuscript illuminations are created. She also presents reproductions of pages from the Gutenberg Bible that she has illuminated herself.

Admission to the museum