Illustrious Illuminations presents a selection of illuminated Christian Manuscripts from the McCarthy Collection. Ranging in date from the High Gothic to the High Renaissance (1250–1540), the miniature paintings give evidence of the talent and culture connected to the art of book illustration. Many of the vibrant hand-copied volumes contain some of the finest illustrations ever produced across Europe, well before Johannes Gutenberg introduced the printing press around 1454. These particular illustrations were chosen from Bibles, books of hours and psalters in order to exemplify a shift in style, from Gothic to Renaissance lines, which likewise was apparent in the architecture and paintings produced under the auspices of the Church. The often harder, more contrasting, lines of the Gothic give way to the Renaissance’s altogether natural contours, as well as to softer and increasingly personal facial features.

《輝煌的啟示》展出了一系列來自麥卡錫蒐藏的基督宗教泥金插畫手繪本，時間自哥德盛期至文藝復興盛期（一二五零年至一五四零年），此類微繪體現著插畫藝術的才華與文化。在一四五四年左右約翰內斯 ‧ 古騰堡引入印刷機之前，品種豐富的手抄卷本以及一些最優秀的泥金插畫手繪本的製作已遍佈歐洲。這些特別的插畫取自《聖經》、《時禱書》與《聖詩集》，例證了一種由哥德式轉向文藝復興式的線條風格轉變，這種轉變在建築與繪畫中尤為明顯，並同樣深受教會的歡迎。哥德式中通常更硬朗且更具對比度的線條，總體上讓位於自然的輪廓與更柔和且愈發個人化的面部特徵。