Jon's Newswriting

In the modern era, people have always longed for a simpler time, proverbial ‘good old days’, and a time when life was easy and not all rushed. These were the days when a religious scribe would be sitting at his desk sharpens his quill, pushes his small, sharp penknife through the tip to create a delicate but sturdy point and he thinks. The page is that of an 11th century manuscript that is part of a greater collection that may have taken upwards of five years to complete. This time period is the time of the lost art of illuminated manuscripts. This very skilled art has been in the dark since the dawn of the printing press in the more than 500 years ago.
The lost art is once again being bought back into the light with the dawn of the Walters’ Art Museum in Baltimore new traveling exhibit: The Saint John’s Bible: A Modern Vision through Medieval Methods. The works in the exhibit are 10 years in the making. In 1998, Benedictine monastery the Saint John’s Abbey in Wales in the United Kingdom and Saint John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota commissioned Donald Jackson a master calligrapher at the University to create the first manuscript to be commissioned by a monastery in over 500 years.
Nancy Zinn, the Walters’ Associate Director of Collections and Exhibitions said that the exhibition is a good match for the Walters’, “since it will feature 44 pages from the two volumes of the manuscript, the Books of Wisdom and the Books of Prophets, these manuscripts will be set alongside 49 manuscripts and rare books from the Walters’ permanent collection depicturing a variety of religious traditions.”
Public relations coordinator, Amy Mannarinom, said “that this exhibit was put together rather quickly in a time of 2 years due to an opening in the exhibition area… and due in part that the museum has a large amount of Biblical Rabbinical and Islamic text and manuscripts to enhance the exhibit.”
The flow of the exhibit was set up using an almost chronological basis. The first gallery presents Jackson’s 3-feet wide by-2 feet tall, classic interpretation of text from the book of Solomon, done with long, deep calligraphy strokes. Although the Saint John’s bible is an undertaking based in Christianity, the museum uses manuscripts from its private collection to show other faith’s text as influence. The Museum has a 15th century Islamic Koran from Central Asia, placed directly next to the Song’s of Solomon. The reason is clear since the Koran is most often written in highly skilled and refined calligraphic Arabic script. Though written in English the older Koran’s in the collection serve as inspiration to the modern illuminated Bibles.
The Saint John’s Bible is done with the aforementioned elaborate calligraphic writings, but is also decorated with the use of pictures, designs, and in some cases gold. The museum juxtaposes the Bible once again with text from the various faiths including the Hindu poem Mahabharata, a poem about the inner struggles of faith and one loyalty to God. The Walters’ does a good job showing the similarities in other religions by placing the Hindu place, next to a St. John’s Bible depiction of the prophet Job’s time of tribulations from the book of Job.
Since the manuscript is a work of modern art, Jackson uses many modern references in the ancient Christian Text. The most awe-inspiring work: the Suffering Servant the use of slavery and prison are used as to illustrate the book of Isaiah. The caption of the print explains that “the heavy black bars surrounding the boy were inspired by the ‘Door of No Return’ at Elmina Castle in Ghana where thousands departed for a life of slavery in America…[and] the images of chain-link fences allude to present-day prisons, refugee camps, and other places of bondage.”


The final leg of the tour is in a room most likely designed for children, where there are multimedia presentations on the methods of making illuminated text, and also the opportunity to make an illuminated, with makers, papyrus paper, and other adornments. While on a dreary Wednesday afternoon the exhibit and museum were very empty, staff said it has been popular among the public especially children.
Nancy Zinn, the Walters’ Associate Director of Collections and Exhibitions said via
e-mail that the exhibit was when “Abigail Quandt, curator of manuscripts, saw leaves from the Bible on display at the Phoenix Art Museum. She immediately recognized both the consummate artistry of the manuscript, and the rich and interesting connections it has with the history of illuminated manuscripts. Upon further investigation, we discovered that although The Saint John’s Bible has already been exhibited widely, no exhibition had focused on the historical background of the project. We decided that the Walters has precisely the kind of collection to make such an investigation possible.”
While the state of Maryland and the city of Baltimore provide funding to keep the museum open free to the public, Amy Mannarino of the Museum’s public relations department explains that funding for “The Saint John’s Bible: A Modern Vision through Medieval Methods” is being sponsored by the Women’s Committee of the Walters Art Museum with lead support from Edgar and Betty Sweren. Contributing supporters include Michael P. Cataneo, Carole Barney and Cynthia Alderdice. Additional support is provided by Mary Catherine Bunting and Mary Mangione in memory of Nick Mangione. The exhibition is organized by the Walters Art Museum in association with the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library, Saint John’s Abbey and University. The exhibit is at the Walters’ until May 24th and the cost is $8 for adults, $6 for seniors, $4 for Students and free for people under the age of 17.