Archives for September 2013

As part of the Clark Library’s Dedication Ceremony today, Physical Plant Director Andre Hutchinson will read a passage from the book of Sirach:

13 Listen to me, my faithful children, and blossom
like a rose growing by a stream of water.
14 Send out fragrance like incense, and put forth blossoms like a lily.
Scatter the fragrance, and sing a hymn of praise; bless the Lord for all his works.
15 Ascribe majesty to his name and give thanks to him with praise,
with songs on your lips, and with harps; this is what you shall say in thanksgiving.

Fortuitously Andre’s selection is graced within the Saint John’s Bible by a text treatment (right) by calligrapher Diane M. Von Arx, a native of the state of Minnesota where the Saint John’s Abbey is located. Paying homage to her surroundings she refers in this treatment to the Abbey and the Bible. If you look closely at the left side of the image you can see a faint pattern of honeycomb which refers to the hexagonal stained glass windows at the Abbey (see image below). On the right-hand side you might discern voiceprint
representations from the SJB book of Psalms which will be the subject of a future blog post.

According to Susan Sink, author of The Art of the Saint John’s Bible, Donald Jackson wrote and illuminated the book of Revelation with no assistance. He began by laying down color backgrounds, working on all of the Revelation illuminations at once, with the intention of “turning up the volume full blast” and using all the colors of the rainbow. (vol. 3, p. 103)

As usual within the Saint John’s Bible, the artist includes elements from previous illuminations. Note the gold squares above the book title, recalling those in the Creation and Fulfillment of Creation images. The large image on the right-hand page recalls the prophecy of the Son of Man in the book of Daniel, and the lampstands from Isaiah’s vision of God seated on a throne.

Except for the seraph wings in the Ecclesiastes frontispiece, we have not yet seen stamps used to great effect, but in the bottom half of the large right-hand image Donald Jackson re-uses several that we will see in future posts. The stamp with concentric circles is based on a piece of cloth from India that was embroidered and appliquéd with mirrors; it appears frequently in the Wisdom Books volume. The fish surrounding that stamp were used most notably in an illumination for the Loaves and Fishes story in the book of Mark.

A Saint John’s Bible press release about this illumination says:

“As a Wisdom Book, Ecclesiastes focuses attention on life, death and God’s relationship with humanity. A raven, a common symbol of death, serves as a messenger flying up from the center of the illumination appearing to carry the breath of life back to God. It is pierced and surrounded by gold and silver bars, designations of divinity.

“The four elements of creation are all here: the green hues of fertile earth, the mysterious blues reflected in both sky and water, and the fire found in stars and comets. Despite the chaos of circling images spinning off the page, there is a constant communication between the heavens and the earth.”

Remember that the raven appeared as a messenger in the Creation image, and that bird eyes and wings were part of the Ten Commandments illustration. The Ecclesiastes frontispiece represents other messengers: seraph and butterfly wings abound. The rainbow bars, says Susan Sink, “are another sign of God’s presence, God’s ongoing covenant, asserting itself against the otherwise chaotic image of the cosmos.” (The Art of the Saint John’s Bible, vol. 2, p. 29)

A Saint John’s Bible press release about this illumination says “Just as the creation in Genesis brought order from the chaos, the Law, according to Jewish interpretation, brings order from the chaos of lawless society. In this sense, the giving of the Law is a new creation.” In this illumination we find several references to the Creation image, e.g. the multiple panels across the top, the inclusion of birds (look for eyes and wings). The panels represent four stories: the burning bush, the first Passover, the Red Sea crossing, and the twelve pillars erected at the foot of Mount Sinai. The architectural features and religious symbols you see here will appear in other SJB illuminations, such as the faint menorah in the burning bush, the pillars/skyline, and the Cubist elements in the middle panels.

The artist draws our attention to the typography on the page, saying “the most fascinating part for me in the Ten Commandments is their relationship to the history of writing. The Commandments were given in alphabetical form, rather than pictograms. As I see it, the Commandments could only be taken in as a mysterious code by the Hebrews (themselves slaves and not necessarily literate). The Lord, by the second Commandment which forbade the creation of engraved images, reinforced the mystery. His words, in alphabetical form, were the strongest evidence of his existence: I am who I am – no pictures, statues…..Words = God. This is clearly an abstract concept – just as the alphabet, when one really thinks about it, is a completely abstract concept.  I am interested in the idea that God presented himself as an abstraction and the abstraction was the Word.”

Susan Sink adds, “the familiar words of the commandments [are] stenciled in Stone Sans typeface as though engraved on tablets.” (The Art of the Saint John’s Bible, vol. 1, p. 27)

In these images, how many elements from the creation story do you see? The panels and gold squares at the top of the Garden image, the gold frame of God’s creation, including the coral snake, etc. Creation is abundant and fertile; it escapes the image’s boundaries. The predatory harlequin shrimp, the coral snake, and several poisonous insects are premonitions of the Fall from innocence.

The Adam and Eve figures, according to Susan Sink in The Art of the Saint John’s Bible  (vol. 1, p. 19), are “inspired by photographs of the Karo tribe of the Omo River in southwest Ethiopia,” representing current archaeological and anthropological theories that humankind evolved from African predecessors. Man’s dominion over nature is present in both images: in the Garden’s cave drawings that depict humans’ need to tell stories; in the figures’ painted faces and the colorful cloth frame, demonstrating humanity’s “desire to rejoice in being alive.” Sink continues, “people make patterns, like the textile patterns and the curved piece of a mandala at the center left of the Garden of Eden miniature.

The Saint John’s Bible contains many mandala (“circle”, roughly) images and through these images makes connections to many faith traditions. Hildegard von Bingen saw mandala shapes in the visions she received from God, and the mandala is found throughout Christian architecture, in decorated dome ceilings and in the rose windows of cathedrals. Donald Jackson says, “The Buddhist mandala…is about the birth of intellect.”

“Community” is a frequently-heard word at UP. When students, faculty and staff are asked what makes UP special, “the sense of community” is often part of their answer. In honor of this sense of community, Clark Library chose the illumination “Life in Community” for the next Saint John’s Bible display.

This detailed illumination appears in the Gospels & Acts volume, illustrating Acts 4:32:35 and its idealized vision of Christ’s followers, e.g. Acts 4:32, “Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions.” According to SJB art analyst Susan Sink it borrows from Eastern Orthodox icon traditions, especially icons of the Pentecost:

“Pentecostal icons traditionally show the twelve apostles sitting on curved benches as they are here. Additionally, there is usually the figure of an old man in the space below, where the altar is in this image. He is called “Kosmos” and holds a white cloth with twelve scrolls on it, one for each of the twelve apostles. He represents the world that the apostles are being sent out into with the good news.” (Sink, The Art of the Saint John’s Bible, vol. 1, p. 104) In the illumination, several figures hold scrolls; some hold books, and one has a small child.

The Virgin Mary sits at the center of the illumination community, with Peter at her right hand and possibly Paul at her left. Next to them, six apostles sit on each side, and beyond them figures representing saints of the church. The figures at either end of the row are meant to reflect the world church: a man in a Middle Eastern tunic and vest, and a woman wearing a Guatemalan skirt.