Roger Stalley, professor emeritus of art history at Trinity College Dublin, will speak on “The Book of Kells: Art and Mystery in Early Medieval Europe” at 5 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 1, in Bloch Learning and Performance Hall, 200A Creative Arts Center. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Written around 780, “The Book of Kells” includes the Gospels in Latin, canon tables and summaries of the gospel narratives, and “fabulous illustrations,” according to Janet Snyder, J. Bernard Schultz Professor of art history in WVU’s School of Art and Design.

“Professor Stalley will discuss what makes ‘The Book of Kells’ so remarkable, looking in turn at the micro ornament and how it was done, the range of colors and new discoveries about pigments, wit and humor in the illustrations, the bizarre range of ornamental motifs throughout, and more,” Snyder said.

Stalley will also cover the circumstances under which the book was made, pondering why it was unfinished, and discussing the possibility that the book’s sole illuminator was murdered.

Stalley’s research is chiefly concerned with art and sculpture in the middle ages, particularly the dissemination of Gothic styles in the 12th and 13th centuries. He led a project devoted to Gothic influence in Ireland, funded by the Irish Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences.

-WVU-

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CONTACT: David Welsh, WVU College of Creative Arts
304-293-3397; David.Welsh@mail.wvu.edu

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