Monday 23 January, 6.00 pm – 7.00 pm | followed by drinks reception | Pavilion Room, Hughes Hall | All welcome, including non college members. Register here.
‘The Art of the Lindisfarne Gospels and the Light of St Cuthbert’
The Lindisfarne Gospels are justly celebrated as the pride of the Community of St Cuthbert and as one of the masterpieces of Insular Art. As an artefact, they have been much studied and analysed from various perspectives, but they keep repaying closer attention, because, just as with their sacred text and Lectio Divina, new insights can be gained through meditation on their decorations and their function. The paper will consider afresh the art of the illuminations of the Lindisfarne Gospels, whilst reflecting on the life of St Cuthbert as monk, bishop and hermit as recounted by his biographers and as mirrored in the Gospels, pursuing the theme of light.
Speaker: Dr Anna Gannon, FSA, ObSB
Anna gained her first degree in Italy, where she studied Modern Languages and specialised in German Philology. She read History of Art at the University of Cambridge, and her PhD was published as The Iconography of Early Anglo-Saxon Coinage (Oxford University Press, 2003; paperback reprint, 2010). She worked in the Coin Department of the British Museum(and authored the Sylloge of Coins of the British Isles, 63, British Museum, London 2013) before becoming an affiliated lecturer in History of Art at Cambridge.
Her principal research interests and publications are in Anglo-Saxon coinage, Germanic and Insular metalwork and reliquaries, and she is a contributor to the Visual Commentary on Scripture (King’s College London) https://thevcs.org/
Anna is Fellow Emerita of St Edmund’s College, Cambridge.
About Richard Berg Rust
Those of you who knew Richard, our Development Director, who, in 2017 was so sadly and suddenly taken from us, will remember not only his huge contribution to the College but also his passionate love for the literature, culture and music of his native North of England, and especially of Northumberland and County Durham.
Richard grew up in Northumbria and was a life-long champion of the North of England. He wanted to showcase northern talent, helping to alter attitudes and to celebrate the wealth of culture he found there. He was Director of Development for the Theatre Royal in Newcastle and oversaw its expansion for three years. He was also the founding father of the Northumbrian Association and campaigned to get the Lindisfarne Gospels back to Durham Cathedral supported by Sir Tom Cowie and the then Bishop of Durham Michael Turnbull. In the process he raised money to take culture, history and copies of the Gospels to schools in the area of which he was rightfully proud.
In his memory the College decided to institute a yearly event – a lecture, a recital, or a performance – on Northern themes, which it hopes members and alumni will help to endow.
This lecture has been made possible by the kind support of alumni, seniors and friends of the College. If you would like to contribute to the Richard Berg Rust lecture fund to ensure that we can carry on with this fascinating and unique series please donate online and select ‘The Richard Berg Rust Lecture Fund’ or email development@hughes.cam.ac.uk.
