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Old and new come
together in gathering of illuminated manuscripts
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Illuminating the Word: The Saint John’s Bible
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The Early History of the Bible
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Selections from the James Melikian Collection
December 11, 2007 – March 9, 2008 /
Steele Gallery
The book format as we know it – a
portable, bound volume of pages – was born in the late
years of the Roman Empire, replacing stone and clay
tablets, scrolls and sheets of papyrus. Printed books
would not come along until the 15th century,
however. From the late 4th century through
the Renaissance, the only means of reproducing books was
by writing each by hand in ink, usually on tanned animal
skins called vellum. The most popular book reproduced
was the Bible, and its status as a sacred text led book
artists to decorate, or “illuminate,” it with paint and
gold to make the manuscript beautiful.
Phoenix Art Museums presents three
important exhibitions devoted to the book arts, all
focusing on handmade Bibles from throughout history –
Illuminating the Word: The Saint John’s Bible
showcasing the monumental manuscript being crafted right
now, The Early History of the Bible from the
world-class collection of sacred manuscripts at the
Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, and Selections from
the James Melikian Collection here in Phoenix. They
bring together the old and the new: illustrated
hand-written manuscripts produced in the Middle Ages and
the Renaissance, and the only handwritten and
illuminated Bible commissioned since the advent of the
printing press more than 500 years ago, combining a
centuries old tradition of craftsmanship with modern
imagery and technology.
The Early History of the Bible
and Selections from the James Melikian Collection
present more than 20 rare manuscripts and early printed
Biblical texts, several deluxe bindings and Bible
covers, and three important Jewish texts, including a
Torah scroll made in the early 1600s. Also included are
such stunning pieces as a fragment from an Egyptian
Bible written in Coptic script in the 8th
century, a New Testament written in Aramaic in Assyria
(probably Nineveh) in the 11th century, a
leaf from a Byzantine Book of Psalms from about 1300,
two French illuminated Bibles from about 1250, an
Armenian Four Gospels from about 1350, a leaf of the
first printed Bible – the so-called Gutenberg Bible of
the mid-15th century – and the largest Bible
ever printed in English, created in 1680.
Illuminating the Word: The Saint
John’s Bible features nearly 50 two-page openings
from the newly-created Saint John’s Bible – a millennium
project commissioned in 1998 by Saint John’s University
in Minnesota. Donald Jackson, the project’s artistic
director, is one of the world’s foremost calligraphers
and scribe to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth’s Crown Office
at the House of Lords. He has worked with a cadre of
scribes and artists to write and illuminate the Saint
John’s Bible entirely by hand, using quills and paints
hand-ground from precious minerals and stones such as
lapis lazuli, vermilion, malachite, silver, copper and
24-karat gold. They have created illuminations
reflecting a contemporary multicultural world, with
enormous strides in science, technology and space
travel.
An interfaith undertaking, the
Saint John’s Bible incorporates imagery from Eastern and
Western religious traditions, as well as influences from
Native American cultures. When completed, it will
comprise 1,150 pages in seven volumes. On view along
with selections from the Saint John’s Bible – the
Gospels and Acts, Pentateuch, and Psalms – will be
preparatory drawings, and the tools and materials being
used to craft it.
These concurrent exhibitions
provide an uncommon opportunity to view some of the
rarest books and manuscripts from antiquity, to look
beyond the pages to see how and why they were made, and
to explore the contemporary revival and culmination of
more than 1,600 years in the tradition of the book arts.
Illuminating
the Word: The Saint John’s Bible is organized
and circulated by The Minneapolis Institute of Arts and
Saint John’s University. The exhibition and its national
tour are presented by Target. The Early History of
the Bible is organized by Walters Art Museum,
Baltimore. Selections from the James Melikian
Collection is organized by Phoenix Art Museum.
Major support for Phoenix Art Museum’s presentation of
these exhibitions is provided by Meridian Banks and
Marquette Asset Management, E.G. and Carol Barmore,
Sharron and Delbert Lewis, Matthew and Marysia Gerson
and The Virginia G. Piper Exhibition Endowment.
Promotional support is provided by The Arizona Republic.
Phoenix Art Museum, 1625 N. Central
Avenue, Phoenix, AZ 85004. (602) 257-2105
www.PhxArt.org
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