Christ sits enthroned, robed in purple and gold-toned orpiment, two peacocks flanking the throne and a pair of angels bearing flabella above — the fullest, most iconic devotional portrait in the entire Book of Kells, facing the Chi Rho page across the opening of Matthew's Gospel. The peacocks carry the same symbolism found on the manuscript's carpet pages: medieval bestiarists held that peacock flesh never decayed, making the bird a natural emblem of the incorruptible, resurrected body. Christ's frontal, hieratic pose owes a clear debt to Byzantine and Coptic icon traditions transmitted west through manuscript exemplars, evidence of how far a single Irish monastery's visual sources could travel. Paired with the Chi Rho page, this miniature turns the opening of Matthew into a two-page devotional diptych unmatched elsewhere in Insular art.

Maker: Unknown Insular scribe-artists
Date: c. 800 AD
Medium of the original: Illuminated manuscript
Original held by: Trinity College Dublin
Credit: Trinity College Dublin · via Wikimedia Commons
Rights: Public domain, verified
Catalogue number: PA-00920

As chosen: 8 x 10 in, art print, classic frame
Picture	8 x 10 in
Outside size	9.6 x 11.6 in
Depth	0.9 in (22 mm)
Weight	[[REAL PROOF NEEDED: shipped weight per size and frame]]
Hanging	[[REAL PROOF NEEDED: hanging hardware Prodigi fits to this frame]]
Material	Enhanced matte art paper, 200 gsm; acrylic glazing
Made in	Charlotte, North Carolina, by Prodigi

Before a size goes on sale, the file is measured against it: pixels per inch at that size, how much of the picture a crop would lose, tone and sharpness. A size that fails is not offered, so there is nothing to choose wrong.

How the print check works

Sizes offered
Size	dpi	Grade	How it fits
8 x 10 in	185	Good	Trimmed 4.1%

Sizes withheld
Size	Why
8 x 12 in	Wrong shape: a 13% crop
11 x 14 in	134 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
12 x 16 in	120 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
12 x 18 in	Wrong shape: a 13% crop
16 x 20 in	92 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
16 x 24 in	Wrong shape: a 13% crop
18 x 24 in	80 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
20 x 30 in	Wrong shape: a 13% crop
24 x 30 in	61 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
24 x 36 in	Wrong shape: a 13% crop
30 x 40 in	48 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
36 x 48 in	40 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
40 x 60 in	Wrong shape: a 13% crop

Scanned: 2026-10-07
Master file: 1,484 x 1,934 px, srgb, sRGB IEC61966-2.1
Tone: Darks 53, lights 200 of 255; 0% clipped light, 0% clipped dark
Colour: 0% vivid
Sharpness: 13.4