Thecla Catacomb gets a laser treatment

I meant to post this yesterday when I saw it in the morning paper, but the day escaped me.

Lasers help restore Thecla Catacomb paintings and uncover our earliest representations of Peter and Paul...and John and Andrew as young men. The technology is astonishing! Just like laser surgery removing the top layer of skin, the years of calcium build-up (5 inches worth!) were removed to reveal these beautiful fourth century paintings in the tomb of a Roman woman and dedicated to Thecla (!) and the (other) apostles...

If you haven't seen pictures yet, check out these posted on NPR's website.

Symposium on Early Christian Art at Kimbell Museum

It has come to my attention that there is a symposium planned at the beginning of March to go along with the terrific exhibition of early Christian art at the Kimbell Museum in Fort Worth. Here are the details from the website advertising it. Again, this is something not to miss.

Symposium on Early Christian Art

Saturday and Sunday, March 1–2, 2008

A two-day symposium featuring distinguished scholars from Europe and America will discuss various aspects of the function of Christian art, including its use in the format of Christian self-identity. The symposium will be moderated by the curator of the exhibition, Jeffery Spier of the University of Arizona, Tucson.

This symposium has been made possible by a generous grant from the Leon Levy Foundation.

Welcome and Introductions Saturday, March 1 10:15 a.m. Malcolm Warner, acting director, Kimbell Art Museum, and Timothy Potts, director, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, England

Temple, Church, and Synagogue: The Evolution of Religious Architecture in the World of Early Christianity Saturday, March 1 10:30–11:30 a.m. L. Michael White, R. N. Smith Endowed Chair in Classics and Religious Studies; director, Institute for the Study of Antiquity and Christian Origins, department of classics, University of Texas at Austin

Emblems of Catholic Identity in Rome and North Africa Saturday, March 1 11:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m. Annewies van den Hoek, lecturer on Greek and Latin, Harvard Divinity School, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Images at the Christian Tomb: What They Do and What They Expect Saturday, March 1 2–3 p.m. Ann Marie Yasin, assistant professor, department of classics and art history, University of Southern California, Los Angeles

Fountains, Apses, and the Meaning of Water Saturday, March 1 3–4 p.m. Beat Brenk, full professor of Early Christian and medieval archaeology, Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza," Italy

The Earliest Christian Decorated Books: Function and Use Sunday, March 2 11 a.m.–noon John Lowden, professor, Courtauld Institute of Art, London

Art and Liturgical Disposition in Early Christian Churches Sunday, March 2 1:30–2:30 p.m. Sible L. de Blaauw, Van der Meer chair of Early Christian art and architecture, Department of the History of Art, Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen, The Netherlands

"Countless Imaginations" and the Authentic Likeness of Christ Sunday, March 2 2:30–3:30 p.m. Herbert L. Kessler, professor of the history of art, Zanvyl Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore

Discussion
Sunday, March 2
3:30–4:30 p.m.

Picturing the Bible at Kimbell Art Museum

On display at the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, is a manuscript page I have always wanted to see. It is The Ascension from the Rabbula Gospels, Syria 586, vellum, Cod. Plut. I. 56, Fol. 13v (Biblioteca Mdicea Laurenziana, Florence). I have been fascinated with this rendering of Christ for years, since he is standing on nothing less than the wheeled merkavah!

If you are in Texas, go and see this exhibit. I haven't been yet. But as soon as the Codex Judas Congress is over, it is on my list of things to do. Maybe I will even try to organize a "field trip" with some of my students. It appears to be a gorgeous exhibit that is NOT traveling.

The Kimbell's website describes it as follows:

The Kimbell Art Museum announces Picturing the Bible: The Earliest Christian Art, a landmark exhibition of the earliest works of art illustrating the Old and New Testaments that will be on view from November 18, 2007, to March 30, 2008. Developed and organized by the Kimbell (its exclusive venue), and guest-curated by Dr. Jeffrey Spier of the University of Arizona, this highly important exhibition draws upon recent research and new discoveries to tell the story of how the earliest Christians first gave visual expression to their religious beliefs....

For more prose about the exhibition, CLICK HERE.