Imaging the Bible in Wales

Visual Culture of Wales

Photography

Graphic Design

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Work – Imaging the Bible in Wales

This research project brought together work on the Visual Culture of Wales with Biblical Studies, examining ways in which Biblical themes, subjects and characters have been expressed by visual artists in a variety of media. Funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the project was based at the University of Wales, Lampeter, from 2005–8.

Logo designed for the project, based on an image of the symbol of St Matthew from a window in the Church of Our Lady of Seven Sorrows, Dolgellau, and text by Henry Wilson at Brithdir, near Dolgellau.

Experience of working on the Visual Culture of Wales series proved that there was still much more work to be done and discoveries to be made in the field. Concentrating on just one theme and within a certain timespan, that of biblical images during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, produced a wealth of new and varied material, some of it of great quality and imagination.

Karl Parsons, The Good Samaritan, c.1930, Church of St John the Baptist, Newton Nottage, nr. Bridgend		After J. Tolhurst and Geoffrey Webb, The Annunciation, c.1927, detail of the reredos formerly at the Church of St James, Cardiff

Much of the material researched and recorded for the project was from places of worship in Wales. Some of this photography is now available on the online project database, which includes several thousand photographs by MC, who was employed as the project Artist, Designer and Researcher. In addition to designing the database together with specialist Nigel Callaghan, MC has also written and produced a DVD-ROM with the Project Research Fellow Dr John Morgan-Guy.

The project was directed by Dr Martin O'Kane, who is co-editing the forthcoming book Biblical Art from Wales with Dr John Morgan-Guy.

For more information and images, please visit the project websites:

Imaging the Bible in Wales | Imaging the Bible in Wales Database

Imaging the Bible Exhibition

With the completion of this research project the team has been pursuing further funding to extend the database and develop the study of stained glass in Wales.