Early Christian & Byzantine Art

Art & Ideas (Phaidon)

by John Lowden

John Lowden provides an authoritative account of early Christian and Byzantine art from the third century AD to the fall of Constantinople in 1453. From the grandest public buildings to the smallest personal items, it was - and still is - an art of extraordinary directness, but also of mystery and transcendence. Lowden explains how and why early Christian and Byzantine art was made and used, and situates it within the controversies of its time.

Genres: Art, Art History, Nonfiction, History, Religion, Medieval, Reference

448 pages, Paperback

First published April 24, 1997

About the author

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 academic staff of The Courtauld in 1982. He is active nationally and internationally as a member of scientific committees (Anjou Bible-Leuven), advisory boards (chair, Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts, British Library), 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. He is convenor of the Leuven-Lille-London study group, which has met annually since 1999.

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 sixth 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). He is a member of the editorial board of the Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, and Perspective: La revue de l’INHA. He was elected member of the Academia Europaea in 2006.

Reviews

[Edie Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book had a lot to offer. It gave you great pictures, a good sense of history, detailed descriptions and a lot of fact based information. Yet I felt something was missing. What was it? I thought more creative insights would have made it less dry.

Years ago I read about how the Byzantines used space in a unique way. I think this is the kind of thing I’m interested in. In my opinion the book also needed to say how Byzantine art differed from Western Art. What were its influences? How would you define its style, and why did it develop in that direction?

Although I wouldn’t call it a loss, the book disappointed me a bit. It was heavy on the art, but not so much on the ideas.

[Michael Pennington · Rating 4 out of 5]

How to depict the face of God? Moses on Mt Sinai received the commandment prohibiting the making of any image or likeness of anything in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, or in the waters under the earth. Yet in the days of early Christian & Byzantine art to conceptualise the spirit, the transcendental led to, perhaps, my favourite period in art. What do we see when we look above, inside and beyond? This book explores that journey, beautifully.