A Cornucopia for a Polymath: Studies in Archaeology, Architecture and Art History for John Burnett Mitchell

This festschrift celebrates John Mitchell’s 80th birthday, showcasing his remarkable breadth as a polymath art historian. From Anglo-Saxon bibles to Roman mosaics and medieval knick-knacks, his infectious curiosity and deep insight defy academic categorisation.

This book celebrates John Mitchell on his 80th birthday. The festschrift brings together some of his army of undergraduate and graduate students, his fellow-travellers in the bi-ways of art history, his companions and colleagues on archaeological excavations and also a few admirers who have simply revelled in his friendship. The breadth of papers speaks volumes. John Mitchell describes himself as a jobbing art historian. It is a modest explanation to his peers as to why, while still working on the art historical canon from Anglo-Saxon bibles and crosses to Rembrandt, he has ventured far and wide into a field that he likes to describe, with a chuckle, as knick-knacks. This cornucopia of interests, as this volume attests, is quite simply remarkable. He has mastered Roman mosaics, late antique architecture and amulets, Umayadd painting, the familiar and unfamiliar quotidian objects of the early Middle Ages from nails to trap-door hinges and, if occasion demanded, flints used in Lombard contexts, as well as coins of all periods. It is not at all an exaggeration to describe him as a polymath. His excitement about the past is infectious. These are the hallmarks of someone who thrillingly pursues meaning in everything as far as it is possible. No matter what the object might be, his eye dwells longingly on its creation and its wider social significance. In sum, John Mitchell defies categorisation in the age of the corporate academy.

Preface

Finding meaning in images, objects and buildings

'You just have to look closer': a partial biography of John Burnett Mitchell - Elizabeth Mitchell

Flower Power: the Garland as a Floating Signifier - Jane Chick

Hexapteryga: The Versatile Deacons of Byzantine Cyprus - Richard Maguire

Selecting, Arranging, Dressing and Aging the Saints in S. Apollinare Nuovo - Bryan Ward-Perkins

The Church of San Zeno at Bardolino, the 'Carolingian Renaissance', and the Sources for Simulated Architecture in 'Court School' Manuscripts - John Osborne

Trittico Siciliano. 3. Il 'modello inglese' nei codici da Messina della Biblioteca Nazionale di Madrid (ed altri) - Valentino Pace

Diasporic artefacts re-connected: the case for St John and the Sea - T. A. (Sandy) Heslop

Under Construction: On Two Twelfth-Century Images of Book Production - Beatrice Kitzinger

The Triumph of Earsham - Paul Williamson

Michelangelo and Spolia - Joseph Connors

The Past and the Palette: Art, Archaeology, and the 'Plausible Realities' of the 17th-Century Dutch Republic - James Symonds

Connoisseurs and Antiquaries, or early histories of caricature in Britain - Katarzyna Murawska-Muthesius

Victorian and Edwardian House Names in Southeast England, or Queen Victoria in Bungay. A Preliminary Study - Stefan Muthesius

Small finds: the point of the needle - Victoria Mitchell

From Combs to Churches: The Archaeology of Northern Europe

From Roman Town to Anglo-Saxon Church: the origins of St Edmund's at Caistor-by-Norwich - Will Bowden

Ever decreasing circles and other pictorial mysteries at Tintagel, Cornwall - Jacqueline Nowakowski

Combs, Beads and Protection: Grave 210 from Eriswell, Suffolk - Ian Riddler

Voyager et echanger entre les VII^e et XI^e siecles : des objets francs en Angleterre / des objets anglo-saxons en Francie - Amelie Berthon

A 'new' Virgin Mary in Mercia: The Platytera at Deerhurst (Gloucs.) - Francesca Dell'Acqua

The Sheffield Cross - biography and significance - John Moreland

Status and planning of architectural groups in early medieval England - Anastasia Moskvina

Urban parish churches dedicated to St Cuthbert in eastern and northern England: exploration of a curious phenomenon - Brian Ayers

Exploring the Archaeology of the Mediterranean and Middle East

Aphrodite Anadyomene: A Roman hairpin (acus crinalis) finial from the Roman Forum at Butrint - David R. Hernandez

Is it 'a kind of magic'? A bronze magic nail from the environs of Sofiana (central-southern Sicily) in its archaeological context - Emanuele Vaccaro

Soft stone items found in Yughbi, a site of the early Islamic period in Qatar - Jose C. Carvajal Lopez

The Ninth-Century Monastic Treasury at San Vincenzo al Volturno? - Richard Hodges

The Octopus that turned into a Flounder and two Eels - The story of the Vrina Plain Basilica mosaic - Simon Greenslade and Sarah Leppard

Bombs, Beer, or Body Lotion? New Light on an Enigma in Islamic Archaeology - Joanita Vroom

Elementary, Mitchell: the Lombards, Anselm of Nonantola and the invention of mortadella. - Cesare Poppi

Not just for decoration. The ceramics on the bell tower of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome - Sauro Gelichi

Full Circle: Recollections and Reflections of Herbert Samuel Toms and the Pitt-Rivers way of Archaeology - Oliver Gilkes

An archon's tower at Middle Byzantine Sopot, southern Albania - Nevila Molla

Reflections

From Correctness to Communities of Friends: aesthetics and the end of getting art right at the origins of modern art criticism, or, chapter 1 of an unwritten history of art criticism - Sam Rose

Behind Closed Doors: Transparency and Legitimacy in Public Policy Making - Polly Mitchell

Three historical oddities: the fall of the Roman Empire in AD 476, the year zero at the BC/AD divide, and the continent of Europe - Eric Fernie

What John Mitchell doesn't know about Bells - Elisabeth de Bievre and John Onians

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Preface

Finding meaning in images, objects and buildings

‘You just have to look closer’: a partial biography of John Burnett Mitchell – Elizabeth Mitchell

Flower Power: the Garland as a Floating Signifier – Jane Chick

Hexapteryga: The Versatile Deacons of Byzantine Cyprus – Richard Maguire

Selecting, Arranging, Dressing and Aging the Saints in S. Apollinare Nuovo – Bryan Ward-Perkins

The Church of San Zeno at Bardolino, the ‘Carolingian Renaissance’, and the Sources for Simulated Architecture in ‘Court School’ Manuscripts – John Osborne

Trittico Siciliano. 3. Il ‘modello inglese’ nei codici da Messina della Biblioteca Nazionale di Madrid (ed altri) – Valentino Pace

Diasporic artefacts re-connected: the case for St John and the Sea – T. A. (Sandy) Heslop

Under Construction: On Two Twelfth-Century Images of Book Production – Beatrice Kitzinger

The Triumph of Earsham – Paul Williamson

Michelangelo and Spolia – Joseph Connors

The Past and the Palette: Art, Archaeology, and the ‘Plausible Realities’ of the 17th-Century Dutch Republic – James Symonds

Connoisseurs and Antiquaries, or early histories of caricature in Britain – Katarzyna Murawska-Muthesius

Victorian and Edwardian House Names in Southeast England, or Queen Victoria in Bungay. A Preliminary Study – Stefan Muthesius

Small finds: the point of the needle – Victoria Mitchell

From Combs to Churches: The Archaeology of Northern Europe

From Roman Town to Anglo-Saxon Church: the origins of St Edmund’s at Caistor-by-Norwich – Will Bowden

Ever decreasing circles and other pictorial mysteries at Tintagel, Cornwall – Jacqueline Nowakowski

Combs, Beads and Protection: Grave 210 from Eriswell, Suffolk – Ian Riddler

Voyager et échanger entre les VII^e et XI^e siècles : des objets francs en Angleterre / des objets anglo-saxons en Francie – Amélie Berthon

A ‘new’ Virgin Mary in Mercia: The Platytera at Deerhurst (Gloucs.) – Francesca Dell’Acqua

The Sheffield Cross – biography and significance – John Moreland

Status and planning of architectural groups in early medieval England – Anastasia Moskvina

Urban parish churches dedicated to St Cuthbert in eastern and northern England: exploration of a curious phenomenon – Brian Ayers

Exploring the Archaeology of the Mediterranean and Middle East

Aphrodite Anadyomene: A Roman hairpin (acus crinalis) finial from the Roman Forum at Butrint – David R. Hernandez

Is it ‘a kind of magic’? A bronze magic nail from the environs of Sofiana (central-southern Sicily) in its archaeological context – Emanuele Vaccaro

Soft stone items found in Yughbī, a site of the early Islamic period in Qatar – José C. Carvajal López

The Ninth-Century Monastic Treasury at San Vincenzo al Volturno? – Richard Hodges

The Octopus that turned into a Flounder and two Eels – The story of the Vrina Plain Basilica mosaic – Simon Greenslade and Sarah Leppard

Bombs, Beer, or Body Lotion? New Light on an Enigma in Islamic Archaeology – Joanita Vroom

Elementary, Mitchell: the Lombards, Anselm of Nonantola and the invention of mortadella. – Cesare Poppi

Not just for decoration. The ceramics on the bell tower of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome – Sauro Gelichi

Full Circle: Recollections and Reflections of Herbert Samuel Toms and the Pitt-Rivers way of Archaeology – Oliver Gilkes

An archon’s tower at Middle Byzantine Sopot, southern Albania – Nevila Molla

Reflections

From Correctness to Communities of Friends: aesthetics and the end of getting art right at the origins of modern art criticism, or, chapter 1 of an unwritten history of art criticism – Sam Rose

Behind Closed Doors: Transparency and Legitimacy in Public Policy Making – Polly Mitchell

Three historical oddities: the fall of the Roman Empire in AD 476, the year zero at the BC/AD divide, and the continent of Europe – Eric Fernie

What John Mitchell doesn’t know about Bells – Elisabeth de Bièvre and John Onians

• Edited by Jane Chick
• Edited by Richard Hodges
• Edited by Ian Riddler