Contact details

Courtauld Institute of Art

Somerset House

Strand

London

WC2R 0RN

 

+44 (0)20 7848 2668

john.lowden@courtauld.ac.uk

 

 

After studying English as an undergraduate at Cambridge, John Lowden took the MA (1977) and PhD (1980) at the Courtauld. He had a temporary appointment in art history at St Andrews, before joining the staff of the Courtauld in 1982. He is active nationally and internationally as a member of scientific committees, advisory boards, and as a supervisor of doctoral research. As director of the Research Centre for Illuminated Manuscripts he seeks to facilitate and forward research in relevant areas. The Making of the Bibles Moralisées, was awarded the 2002 Gruendler Prize for the best book in medieval studies. His Early Christian and Byzantine Art (now in its fourth impression) has been translated into French, Greek, Japanese and Korean. He has been a British Academy/ Leverhulme Senior Research Fellow (1992-93), and he gave the Grinfield Lectures in the University of Oxford (1996-98). He is currently co-investigator with Dr Scot McKendrick (British Library) on the AHRC-funded ‘ROYAL’ project (2008-2011), and director of the privately–funded Gothic Ivories Project at the Courtauld (2008-2011).

 

Current research/interests

 

  • Illuminated manuscripts c. 450-c.1550
  • The Bibles Moralisées
  • Gothic Ivories
  • ROYAL.  Illuminated Manuscripts of the Kings and Queens of England

 

Programmes taught during the forthcoming academic year

 

  • MA. The Making of Art in the Middle Ages

 

Recent publications

 

2000

The Making of the Bibles Moralisées. I. The Manuscripts, The Making of the Bibles Moralisées. II. The Book of Ruth, University Park, 2000.

 

"Hugo Herbert Buchthal 1909-1996", Proceedings of the British Academy, 105, 2000, 308-36.

"An Inquiry into the Role of Theodore in the Making of the Theodore Psalter," in Theodore Psalter, electronic facsimile, ed. Charles Barber, Champaign IL/London, 2000, [essays] 1-20.

 

"Byzantium Perceived Through Illuminated Manuscripts: Now and Then", in Through the Looking Glass: Byzantium Through British Eyes, Robin Cormack and Elizabeth Jeffreys, eds. (29th Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies, London, March 1995), Aldershot 2000, 85-106.

 

"Illuminated Manuscripts: The Luxury Book in Byzantium, Imaging the Bible, Imperial Books", in The Oxford Illustrated History of Western Art, ed. Martin Kemp, Oxford, 2000, 76-78, 80-83.

 

"Manuscripts", in Encyclopedia of Greece and the Hellenic Tradition, ed. Graham Speake, Chicago & London, 2000, 995-97.

 

Review of Kurt Weitzmann and Massimo Bernabò, The Byzantine Octateuchs, The Illustrations in the Manuscripts of the Septuagint 2, 2 vols., Princeton, 1999, in Burlington Magazine, 142, 2000, 502-3.

 

Early Christian and Byzantine Art, Art and Ideas (Japanese translation), Tokyo, 2000.

 

2001

L’Art paléochrétien et byzantin (Early Christian and Byzantine Art, Art and Ideas, french translation), Paris, 2001.

 

Review of Richard H. Rouse and Mary A. Rouse, Manuscripts and Their Makers. Commercial Book Producers in Medieval Paris 1200-1500, 2 vols., Turnhout, 2000, in Times Literary Supplement, 21 December 2001, 29.

 

2002

“The Transmission of ‘Visual Knowledge’ Through Illuminated Manuscripts: Approaches and Conjectures,” in Literacy, Education, and Manuscript Transmission in Byzantium and Beyond, The Medieval Mediterranean 42, eds. Catherine Holmes and Judith Waring, Leiden, 2002, 59-80, ills. 1-13.

 

2003

“Illuminated Books and the Liturgy: Some Observations,” in Objects, Images, and the Word: Art in the Service of the Liturgy, ed. Colum Hourihane, Index of Christian Art Occasional Papers 6, Princeton, 2003, 17-53.

 

“The Medieval Artist as Copyist: Drawing a Line Between Similarity and Difference,” Avista Forum Journal, 13.2, 2003, 55-56 (Kalamazoo Roundup 2003 [abstract of paper]).

 

Early Christian and Byzantine Art, Art and Ideas (Korean translation), Gyeonggi-do, 2003

 

2004

“The Bible of Saint Louis as a Bible moralisée”, “The Artists of the Bible of Saint Louis,” in The Bible of Saint Louis/La Biblia de San Luis, 3-volume facsimile edition and 2-. Hervolume commentary [parallel Spanish and English editions], ed. Ramón Gonzálvez Ruiz, Barcelona, 2001-4, II, 119-55, 323-46

 

“The Apocalypse in the Early-Thirteenth-Century Bibles moralisées: A Re-Assessment,” in Prophecy, Apocalypse and the Day of Doom, ed. Nigel Morgan, Proceedings of the 2000 Harlaxton Symposium, Harlaxton Medieval Studies 12, Donington, 2004, 195-219, pls. 18-31

 

“Manuscript Illumination 1261-1557,” in Byzantium: Faith and Power (1261-1557), ed. Helen C. Evans, exhibition catalogue, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2004, 258-69, 600-1, and cat. nos. 160, 162, 170, 171

 

Review of Axinia Dzurova, Schätze der Buchmalerei vom 4. bis zum 19. Jahrhundert, Regensburg, 2002, in Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 55, 2004, 354

 

2005

“An Image in the three-volume Bibles moralisées, a Parallel in the Ambulatory Glass at Bourges Cathedral, and the Cult of the Relics of St Stephen: Exploring Possible Connections,” in “Tout le temps du veneour est sanz oyseuseté.”  Mélanges offerts à Yves Christe pour son 65ème anniversaire, ed. Christine Hediger, Turnhout, 2005, 229-48

 

“`Reading’ the Bibles moralisées: Images as Exegesis and the Exegesis of Images,” in Reading Images and Texts.  Medieval Images and Texts as Forms of Communication,  Papers from the third Utrecht Symposium on Medieval Literacy, 7-9 December 2000, Utrecht Studies in Medieval Literacy 8, eds. Mariëlle Hageman, Marco Mostert, Turnhout, 2005, 495-525, and col. pls. 17-19.

 

Review of Barbara Zimmermann, Die Wiener Genesis im Rahmen der antiken Buchmalerei. Ikonographie, Darstellung, Illustrationsverfahren und Aussageintention. Spätantike - Frühes Christentum - Byzanz. Kunst im ersten Jahrtausend, Reihe B: Studien und Perspektiven 13, Wiesbaden 2003, in Jahrbuch der Österreichischen Byzantinistik, 55, 2005, 335-38

 

2006
“Beauty or Truth?  Making a Bible moralisée in Paris around 1400,” in Patrons, Authors and Workshops: Books and Book Production in Paris around 1400, eds. Godefried Croenen, Peter Ainsworth, Synthema 4, Leuven, 2006, 197-222

 

2007
“The Word Made Visible: the Exterior of the Early Christian Book as Visual Argument,” in The Early Christian Book, eds. William E. Klingshirn, Linda Safran, Washington DC, 2007, 15-47, figs. 1-15

“The Sacrifice of Isaac in the Bibles moralisées,” in Opfere deinen Sohn! Das ,Isaak-Opfer’  in Judentum, Christentum und Islam, eds. Bernhard Greiner, Bernd Janowski, Hermann Lichtenberger, Tübingen, 2007, 197-241

“The Bible moralisée in the fifteenth century and the challenge of the Bible historiale,” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 68 (2005), 73-136

“Les rois et les reines de France en tant que ‘public’ des Bibles moralisées: une approche tangentielle à la question des liens entre les Bibles moralisées et les vitraux de la Sainte-Chapelle,” in La Sainte-Chapelle de Paris. Royaume de France ou Jérusalem céleste? Actes du Colloque (Paris, Collège de France, 2002), Culture et société médiévales 10, ed. Christine Hediger, Turnhout 2007, 345-62.


 2008
Medieval Ivories and Works of Art, the Thomson Collection at the Art Gallery of Ontario,  John Lowden and John Cherry, Toronto 2008
 
Under the Influence.  The Concept of Influence and the Study of Illuminated Manuscripts, ed. John Lowden and Alixe Bovey, Turnhout, 2007

“Under the Influence of the Bibles moralisées,” in Under the Influence.  The Concept of Influence and the Study of Illuminated Manuscripts (see no. 68), Turnhout, 2007, 169-85, 232-245

“Book Production,” in The Oxford Handbook of Byzantine Studies, ed. Elizabeth Jeffreys with John Haldon and Robin Cormack, Oxford, 2008, 462-72

‘Foreword.  “Wondering about the Journal”,’ Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 71, 2008 (Seventy-Fifth Anniversary of the Courtauld Institute of Art, ed. Paul Crossley and John Lowden), pp. i-v

“Treasures Known and Unknown in the British Library,” British Library, Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts, tours
http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanu///scripts/tours.asp

In Press
The Jaharis Gospel Lectionary: the Story of a Byzantine Book, Metropolitan Museum of Art/Yale UP, New York 2009

 ‘Making a pair of Bibles moralisées in thirteenth-century Paris: the role of underdrawing,’ in The Quest for the Original, Le dessin sous-jacent et la technologie dans la peinture, colloque XVI, Bruges, 21-23 septembre 2006

 “Manuscript Illumination,” “Atelier,” “Bible, Illustration of”, “Bible moralisée,” “Biblia pauperum,” “Nomina sacra,” in Oxford Dictionary of the Middle Ages, ed. Robert Bjork

“Biblical Illustration in Biblical Manuscripts, East and West,” in New Cambridge History of the Bible, vol. 2, eds. E. Ann Matter, Richard Marsden (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press)


 “Oktateuchillustration,” Reallexikon zur byzantinischen Kunst

 ‘Pseudo-Dionysios, Works,’ in The Painter Angelos, exh. cat., Benaki Museum, ed. M. Vassilaki (Athens)

 “The Illustrated Octateuch Manuscripts: a Byzantine Phenomenon,” in The Old Testament in Byzantium,ed. Robert Nelson and Paul Magdalino, Dumbarton Oaks, Washington DC

“The Limbourg Brothers Manuscript as a Bible moralisée,” in Biblia moralizada de los Limbourg custodiado en la BNF (ms. Fr. 166)

“The Holkham Bible Picture Book and the Bible moralisée”, ed. William Noel

In preparation

 “The Word Made Public, the Word Made Visible: Images on the Covers of Early Christian Books,” Bulletin of the Institute for Mediterranean Studies (in Japanese)

“Bindings and Covers,” “Illuminated and Deluxe Manuscripts,” “Liturgical/Sacred Manuscripts,” in The Oxford Handbook of Greek Palaeography, ed. Niels Gaul

Catalogue of Ivories in the Courtauld Gallery

 

 

See also BIBLES MORALISÉES: ELECTRONIC BIBLIOGRAPHY