BIBLE HISTORY DAILY

The Story of Creation

Artistic representations of the world's beginnings

Illumination from the Stammheim Missal. The J. Paul Getty Museum, Public Domain.

Through April 19, 2026
Getty Center
Los Angeles, California
getty.edu

An exhibition currently on view at the Getty Center in Los Angeles explores humanity’s enduring fascination with how the world began. Titled Beginnings: The Story of Creation in the Middle Ages, the exhibition focuses on medieval representations and interpretations of the well-known biblical narrative, which it contrasts with divergent cultural reflections on the world’s cosmic and spiritual origins.

The traditional creation story of the first two chapters of the Book of Genesis is illustrated through 15 medieval manuscripts from the Getty Museum’s collection. These are presented alongside contemporary paintings by Los Angeles-based artist Harmonia Rosales, whose artworks introduce West African Yoruba cosmology, exploring resilience and the identity of voices often left out of history.

The exhibit revolves around several themed sections, including “Visualizing the Creation,” which features a full-page illumination from the Stammheim Missal (above). Made in the 1170s in Germany, the lavishly painted parchment leaf presents the seven days of creation. It shows God between two heavenly creatures at the top, presenting a disc with six circles arranged in clockwise fashion, with an additional circle in their middle. Beginning with the creation of light at top left and ending with the creation of Eve in the center, these roundels are captioned with God’s commands to identify the dramatic events of each day. The bottom of the page features Adam and Eve’s expulsion from Eden, the killing of Abel, and a figure of King David.