Special Collections

016

This revealing exhibition tells the story of the religious and cultural origins of early Christianity through ancient Jewish and Christian artifacts recovered from the Holy Land. Visitors can examine more than 70 artifacts unearthed from Hellenistic and Herodian Palestine, including ancient coins, lamps and juglets, as well as typical Jewish burial ossuaries from the time of Jesus.

Visitors will also be able to view some of the earliest Jewish writings that gave rise to Christian thought and belief. Among the documents on display is a Dead Sea Scroll that preserves the oldest known copy of the messianic prophecies from the Book of Isaiah. The exhibit also showcases for the first time in public the controversial Dead Sea Scroll in Stone from the collection of Swiss collector David Jeselsohn, which some say reveals the Jewish origins of the Christian belief in a resurrected Messiah.^b

From Cecil B. DeMille to Mel Gibson and Martin Scorsese, filmmakers have looked to the Bible for dramatic stories of intrigue, heroism and adventure. Reel Religion uses more than 60 rare vintage movie posters from around the world to explore the ways in which the stories of the Bible have been retold through the art of film over the past century. The colorful posters, which are themselves beautiful works of art, were used by filmmakers to highlight (and sell) the cinematic drama and exoticism of the Bible.

In addition to vintage movie art, the exhibit also features original costumes worn by Charlton Heston, Yul Brynner and other screen stars from sword-and-sandal epics. An illustrated Bible by the 19th-century French artist James Tissot is also on display. Tissot’s illustrations of Biblical characters and events had a tremendous influence on the posters, costumes, sets and cinematography of many Biblical films.

In 1998, Saint John’s Abbey in Collegeville, Minnesota, and the University of Minnesota asked British calligrapher Donald Jackson to begin work on a modern work of illuminated art: the Saint John’s Bible. Though this Bible was to be boldly contemporary in its artistic and religious perspective, it was also to be an authentic reflection of the medieval handwritten manuscript tradition.

Now, with the massive work just two years short of completion, this new exhibit (which is a follow-up to a previous traveling exhibit that began in 2005) is giving the public a chance to see more than 40 of the latest pages from Jackson’s seven-volume work. The Walters exhibit includes portions of the Prophets and Wisdom literature: the Vision of Isaiah, the Suffering Servant and the Seven Pillars of Wisdom (Proverbs 9:1, pictured in graphic). Also on display are 49 medieval manuscripts and rare books from Europe and the Middle East illustrating the long history of illuminated manuscripts.

Houston Museum of Natural Science

Houston, Texas