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Current Exhibitions Future Exhibitions Sponsorship Opportunities Events & Tours The Saint John's Bible Project Back to Exhibitions ) Donald Jackson, with Andrew Jamieson and Sally Mae Joseph. To the Ends of the Earth, c. 2002. Natural hand-ground ink on calfskin vellum. )
Donald Jackson with Chris Tomlin. Adam and Eve, c. 2002. Natural hand-ground ink on calfskin vellum. )
Donald Jackson with Chris Tomlin. Creation, c. 2002. Natural hand-ground ink on calfskin vellum. )
Chris Tomlin with Donald Jackson. Damselfly, c. 2002. Natural hand-ground ink on calfskin vellum. )
Donald Jackson. The Genealogy of Christ, c. 2002. Natural hand-ground ink on calfskin vellum. )
Andrew Jamieson. Islamic border decoration, c. 2002. Natural hand-ground ink on calfskin vellum. )
Chris Tomlin, with Donald Jackson. Milkweed and Butterfly, c. 2002. Natural hand-ground ink on calfskin vellum. )
Aidan Hart, with Donald Jackson and Sally Mae Joseph. The Sower and the Seed, c. 2002. Natural hand-ground ink on calfskin vellum. |
Illuminating the Word: The Saint John's Bible Through September 3, 2006  Illuminating the Word: The Saint John's Bible exhibition presents what has been called "the most significant handwritten and illuminated Bible" commissioned since the advent of the printing press. The Saint John’s Bible, a richly ornamented masterwork hand-illustrated with gold leaf on oversized vellum, is an unprecedented undertaking in contemporary book arts and a major cultural and interfaith endeavor. The Saint John's Bible is the first illuminated, handwritten Bible of monumental size to be commissioned by a Benedictine Monastery in 500 years. Each page is 24.5 x 15.875 inches, making an open volume almost three feet wide. The completed works will contain 160 illuminations and marginalia (small decorative illustrations appearing in the margins, often created with gold leaf and other gilding) among the approximately 1,150 pages which comprise all 73 books of the Bible (New Revised Standard Version). Theologians from Saint John’s Abbey and University and the College of Saint Benedict, together with consultants from Protestant and Jewish faiths, have worked with Donald Jackson, the artistic director, providing theological briefs that direct the interpretation of scripture in the illustrations. Based on these briefs, Jackson and his team of scribes and artists have created illuminations reflecting a multicultural world and humanity’s enormous strides in science, technology, and space travel. Because the project is an interfaith undertaking, Jackson has incorporated imagery from Eastern and Western religious traditions, as well as influences from Native American cultures. For example, an illumination in Gospels and Acts depicts the Earth as seen from space, a contemporary interpretation of our place in the universe. Illuminations throughout Psalms show artistic renderings of digital voice prints of Saint John’s monks chanting the Psalms–intersected with digital voice prints of calls to prayer in Jewish, Islamic, Buddhist, Sufi, and Native American religious traditions. The exhibition at the Tyler Museum of Art will feature approximately 100 original unbound pages from Gospels and Acts, Psalms, and Pentateuch, the first three completed volumes of The Saint John's Bible. Among the pages on view are The Seven Days of Creation, Adam and Eve, Jacob’s Ladder, The Ten Commandments, The Parable of the Loaves and Fishes, The Sermon on the Mount, The Parable of the Sower and the Seed, The Birth of Christ, Dinner at the Pharisee’s House, The Woman Accused of Adultery, The Raising of Lazarus, The Death of Moses, The Crucifixion, the frontispieces for the four Gospels, and images of flora and fauna indigenous to Minnesota. Additional items in the exhibition include original text and illuminated pages from the Bible, Donald Jackson's process sketches, as well as other manuscripts (including examples of sacred texts from non-Christian religions), Bibles and art from special collections at Saint John's University. Original artist sketches also will be on view, as is a worktable from Jackson's scriptorium in Wales displaying materials such as quills, hand-ground pigments, gold leaf, calfskin vellum, and ancient inks from China. Jackson, who also serves as Senior Scribe to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth's Crown Office, leads a team of calligraphers in writing and illuminating the Bible at his scriptorium in Wales. The team consists of skilled scribes, some who work at the scriptorium and others who take pages of vellum back to their own studios. The Saint John’s Bible incorporates many of the characteristics of its medieval predecessors. The calligraphic script was specially designed for The Saint John’s Bible by Jackson. Letters are written in lamp black ink (from century old Chinese stick ink made from carbon) on calfskin vellum using goose, swan and turkey quills. The team of scribes uses natural handmade inks, pigments (hand-ground from precious minerals and stones such as lapis lazuli, vermilion, malachite, silver, copper, and 24-karat gold), and gold and silver leaf gild. This great work was begun in 1998 and should be completed in 2007. About the Finished Bible The finished Bible will be bound into seven distinct volumes: Gospels and Acts, Pentateuch, Psalms, Prophets, Wisdom Literature, Historical Books, and Letters and Revelation. Each volume will be bound between oak boards and measure 15 3/4 inches wide by 23 1/2 inches tall when closed. The exhibition at the Tyler Museum of Art will feature approximately 100 original unbound pages from Gospels and Acts, Psalms, and Pentateuch, the first three completed volumes of The Saint John's Bible (see above).
The first to be completed, this volume is heavily illuminated with more than 25 illuminations including full-page frontispiece illuminations for each of the four gospels and several others throughout the 135 pages. Some of the prominent illuminations included in the first volume that have been filmed, displayed or written about are the Genealogy of Jesus, Birth of Christ, Raising of Lazarus, Crucifixion, Christ Our Light, Last Supper, Road to Emmaus and Pentecost. Pages from Gospel and Acts will be shown at the Tyler Museum of Art. The Pentateuch, the first five books of the Old Testament (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy), includes 158 pages of beautiful illumination and text. The seven prominent illuminations in this volume are Creation, Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve, Jacob’s Ladder, Abraham and Sarah, the Ten Commandments and the Death of Moses. Pages from the Pentateuch will be shown at the TMA. This volume has 80 pages and consists of five books, paralleling Pentateuch. Unlike the first two volumes, Gospels and Acts and Pentateuch, Psalms has its own font, a lighter weight script, which underscores the melodic and poetic nature of Psalms. Donald Jackson has done special treatments, which hint at the ways in which we might “see” Psalms if they are sung or read poetically. Jackson chose colors to represent the different themes and designs to symbolize the different types of Psalms. He devised a way of weaving the two together that resulted in a unique script, colors and shading in Psalms. Pages from Psalms will be shown at the TMA. This volume includes 272 pages and 20 illuminations. Prominent illuminations include: Messianic Predictions, Suffering Servant, Ezekiel's Prophetic Vision, Valley of the Dry Bones, Vision of the New Temple, Vision of the Sun of Man and Demands of Social Justice. (Not shown at the TMA.) Wisdom Literature will include 102 pages and 24 illuminations. (Not shown at the TMA.) Historical Books will include 319 pages and 20 illuminations. (Not shown at the TMA.) Letters and Revelation will include 93 pages and 30 illuminations. Donald Jackson plans to hand write and illuminate Revelation entirely by himself. (Not shown at the TMA.) “Illuminating the Word: The Saint John’s Bible” will be a ticketed exhibition, with free admission to TMA members. Admission fees are $10 for adults; $8 for seniors (65+) and college students with ID; $5 for children 13-17; $2 for children 3-12. Special group rates are available for churches, clubs and organizations, or tour groups with advance reservations. Related Books and Catalogues Three exhibition-related books will be available at the TMA Gift Shop for purchase: Illuminating the Word: The Making of The Saint John’s Bible, Gospels and Acts, and Psalms: The Saint John's Bible. To find out more about the exhibition, become a TMA member, or sponsor this exhibition call the Tyler Museum of Art at 903-595-1001. Sponsors This exhibition was organized by The Minneapolis Institute of Arts and Saint John’s University. The exhibition and its national tour are made possible by Target. 
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