Mr John Mitchell

Job Title	Contact	Location
Reader	John dot Mitchell at uea dot ac dot uk Tel: +44 (0)1603 59 2458	Sainsbury Centre 0.24

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Biography

John Mitchell is an art historian with focuses of research have been in a series of major archaeological projects in Italy and Albania. His particular interests are in the architecture, art and visual culture of the late Roman and early medieval periods. His work spans the Mediterranean and northern Europe, with particular interests in Italy, the Balkans and the central Mediterranean in the late Roman period, and the British Isles, continental Europe and Italy in the early Middle Ages. He is particularly concerned with the social uses of the visual arts and with cultural and artistic outreach and interrelations both within and outside this Mediterranean and transalpine world.

John has recently published a book on San Vincenzo al Volturno, one of the great monasteries of early medieval Europe; is currently working on the mosaic pavements, art and craft production at at Butrint, a Roman and early medieval coastal city in southern Albania, found during recent archaelogical excavations; and is working on a book on the cultural dynamics of Europe in the early Middle Ages: Out of the Dark Ages: Art and State-Formation in post-Roman Europe (Duckworth), which re-evaluates the cultural dynamics of Europe in the immediately post-Roman period.

Career

John joined the School in 1975, after training in the Department of Western Manuscripts at the Bodleian Library Oxford (1966-7), postgraduate study in the History of Art at the University of Vienna (1968) and Harvard University (1968-72), research at the Bibliotheca Hertziana, Rome (1972-3), and a year as a Leverhulme Fellow in the History of Art at Jesus College, Cambridge (1973-4). During 1989-90 he was Visiting Professor in Medieval Art at the Bibliotheca Hertziana, Rome. Currently he is Reader in History of Art at UEA.

Academic Background

B.A. Greek and Latin language and literature; Swarthmore College (1966)

Key Research Interests

The social uses of art

Ways of seeing in the first millennium

Mosaic pavements in late antiquity

Practice and invention in the art and architecture of the early Middle Ages

Current Research Projects

John is working on a book on the cultural dynamics of Europe in the early Middle Ages: Out of the Dark Ages: Art and State-Formation in post-Roman Europe (Duckworth). The aim of this book is to re-evaluate the cultural dynamics of Europe in the immediately post-Roman period, on the one hand setting Italy at the heart of the phenomenon of the cultural promotion of state-formation and on the other identifying and analyzing some of the most significant architectural, artistic and material outcomes of the complex and varied movements of people, ideas and patterns between regions and places, around Europe, over the Mediterranean basin and beyond.

He is also working towards two other books, both outcomes of a major fieldwork project of archaeological excavation and survey at the early medieval monastery of San Vincenzo al Volturno in southern Italy, in the 1980s and 1990s. The first is an analysis of the painted decoration of the so-called crypt of Abbot Epyphanius, one of the most complex and probably the most complete and best preserved programme of wall-paintings to survive from anywhere in western Europe in the early Middle Ages. The the second is a summative study of the monastery of San Vincenzo, co-authored with the archaeologist Richard Hodges, which will offer a new analysis of the many-phased layout, architecture and art of the monastery and consider its position and role in the social, cultural and political history of early medieval Italy and Europe.

Another ongoing project is the description and analysis of the art-historical and artifactual aspects of major campaigns of archaeological excavation, 1994-present, at the Roman, late antique and early medieval coastal city of Butrint in southern Albania.

Forthcoming publications:

Lombard Legacy: Cultural Strategies and the Visual Arts in Early Medieval Italy, Pindar Press: London

Out of the Dark Ages: Art and State Formation in Post-Roman Europe, Duckworth: London

Past Research Projects and Grants

Project Title	Start Date	End Date	Funding Body	Project Members
San Vincenzo 5 - Excavations of San Vincenzo Maggiore and the associated temporary and collective workshops	1/10/2006	31/12/2007	Arts and Humanities Research Council	Richard Hodges, John Mitchell

Teaching Interests

Roman and late Roman art and architecture

The Mediterranean in the early Christian period

The architecture and arts of early Islam

The arts of the British Isles in the early Middle Ages

Research supervision

John is interested in supervising research students in all areas of late antique and early medieval art and architecture in the European and wider Mediterranean theatre.

Recent and current PhD dissertations supervised include:

Ayyubid metalwork with Christian subject-matter (current).

The mosaic pavements at Qasr el-Labia, Cyenaica (current).

The early Christian basilicas of Cyprus: some sources and contexts (current).

Coral (current)

Caravaggio: a neuro-art-history of engagement

Building and experience in Italy in the first millennium

Palace and hall in the Mediterranean basin between antiquity and the early Middle Ages

MA by Research Dissertations:

Mosaic pavements in Epirus Vetus in late antiquity.

Pottery and Trade in Late Roman Durres (Dyrrachium).

Terracotta figurines from Albania: their production and function in antiquity.

Teaching Activities

Examples of Modules Taught:

Undergraduate Modules:

Image, icon and identity: themes in Roman and late antique art

Early Islam: types, dynamics and diffusion.

The arts of the Celts and Anglo-Saxons 600-850

The arts of the book and the display of literacy in the first millennium

Art and architecture in Venice

Masters Modules:

The monastic tradition: art and architecture 650-1000

The uses of the visual from the Roman empire to early Islam

Mary Mother of God - cult and images - East and West

City, church and empire: Christian Rome and the arts in the first millennium

Jump to: Article | Book Section | Book

Number of items: 50.

Article

Hobart, Michelle, Campana, Stefano, Hodges, Richard and Mitchell, John (2013) Monasteri di contesa nella Tuscia Longobarda: il case di S.Pietro d'Asso, Montalcino. Archeologia medievale, 38. (In Press)

Mitchell, John, Hodges, Richard and Leppard, Sarah (2012) Reconstructing the later eighth-century claustrum at San Vincenzo al Volturno. Papers of the British School at Rome. pp. 145-55. ISSN 0068-2462

Mitchell, John, Hodges, Richard and Leppard, Sarah (2011) The sack of San Vincenzo al Volturno: 10th October 881 reconsidered. Acta Archaeologica, 82.

Mitchell, John, Brogiolo, G, Gheroldi, V and Ibsen, M (2010) The painted decoration of San Salvatore II in context. Hortus Artium Medievalium, 16. pp. 219-242.

Mitchell, John (2009) The main chapel of the Durres amphitheatre: decoration and chronology. Melanges d'archeologie et d'histoire de l'ecole française de Rome, antiquité, 121 (2). pp. 571-97.

Mitchell, John (2007) Ernst Kitzinger, 27 September 1912. 22 January 2003. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 151 (3). pp. 346-350.

Mitchell, John (2006) Preliminary report on the Early Christian basilica on the Vrina Plain, Albania. Archeologia medievale, 33. pp. 397-408.

Mitchell, John, Gilkes, O. and Çondi, D. (2005) A new Christian basilica at Butrint. Candavia, 2. pp. 107-130.

Mitchell, John (2004) Arkeologjia e pelegrinazhit gjatë antikitetit të vonë në shqipëri: baxilika e dyzet shenjtorëve - The archaeology of pilgrimage in late antique Albania: The Basilica of the Forty Martyrs. Monumentet. pp. 5-30.

Hodges, Richard, Francis, Karen and Mitchell, John (2002) Contro la nuova interpretazione del’atrio di San Vincenzo al Volturno. Archeologia Medievale, 29. pp. 557-560.

Mitchell, John and W Bowden, (2002) The Church of the Forty Martyrs – The Recovery of a Forgotten Master-Building from the End of Antiquity. Minerva, 13 (2). pp. 31-33.

Book Section

Hernandez, David and Mitchell, John (2013) The western cemetery: survey of the Roman tombs along the Vivari Channel. In: Butrint 4: The Archaeologies and Histories of an Ionian Town. Oxbow, Oxford, pp. 183-201.

Mitchell, John (2013) An 8th-century casting matrix for a gilt-bronze letter from Comacchio. In: Scavia Comacchio. UNSPECIFIED. (In Press)

Sebastiani, A, Gooney, D, Mitchell, John, Papadopoulou, P, Reynolds, P, Vaccaro, E and Vroom, J (2013) The medieval church and cemetery at the Well of Rufina. In: Butrint 4: The Archaeologies and Histories of an Ionian Town. Oxbow, Oxford, pp. 215-44.

Mitchell, John (2012) Gli intonaci dipinti della cripta della Cattedrale. In: Archeologia in Piazza dei Miracoli: Gli scavi 2003-2009. Felici Editore, Ghezzano, pp. 264-7.

Mitchell, John (2012) Believing is seeing: the natural image in Late Antiquity. In: Architecture and Interpretation: Studies in Honour of Eric Fernie. Boydell and Brewer, Woodbridge, pp. 16-41.

Mitchell, John (2012) The Bible in public art of the early Middle Ages, 600-1050. In: New Cambridge History of the Bible 2: c. 600-1450. CUP, Cambridge, pp. 755-84.

Mitchell, John (2012) Of eyes and dogs: a late Roman amulet from Butrint. In: Le plaisir de l’art du moyen âge: commande, production et reception de l’oeuvre d'art. Mélanges offerts à Xavier Barral i Altet. Picard, Paris, pp. 61-8.

Mitchell, John (2011) Giudizio sul Mille: Rome, Monte Cassino, San Vincenzo al Volturno and the beginnings of the Romanesque. In: Rome across Time and Space: Cultural Transmission and the Exchange of Ideas, c. 500-1400. CUP, Cambridge, pp. 167-181.

Mitchell, John (2011) Who’s the boss? Patterns of patronage at San Vincenzo al Volturno in the 9th century. In: Medioevo: I Committenti. Atti del Convegno internazionale di studi, Parma, 21-26 settembre 2010. Electa, Milan, pp. 43-55.

Mitchell, John (2011) The mosaic pavements and painted walls of the domus. In: Excavations at the Triconch Palace, Butrint. Oxbow, Oxford, pp. 231-276.

Mitchell, John (2010) England in the eighth century: state formation, secular piety and the visual arts in Mercia. In: L’VIII secolo: un secolo inquieto. Commmune di Cividale del Friuli, Cividale del Friuli, pp. 427-432.

Mitchell, John, Hodges, Richard, Leppard, Sarah and Sebastiani, Alessandro (2010) Le officine di San Vincenzo al Volturno: fasi di produzione e dinamiche del mondo del IX secolo. In: Medioevo: le officine. Atti del Convegno internazionale di studi, Parma, 22-27 settembre 2009. Electa, Milan, pp. 105-17. ISBN 978883707847

Mitchell, John (2009) Iscrizioni tardoantiche, altomedievali e medievali (pp. 57-68), Reperti marmorei e in pietra calcare di eta tardoantica, altmedievale e medievale (pp. 117-42), Pitture altomedievale (pp. 175-6). In: L’antica basilica in San Lorenzo in Damaso vol. 2. Reperti. De Luca Editore, Rome.

Mitchell, John (2008) The Power of Patronage and the Issue of Quality in the Era of 774. In: L'Anno 774: Atti del Seminario sull' VIII-XI secolo, Poggibonsi (Siena), 16-18 February 2006. Turnhout, Brepols, pp. 1-26.

Mitchell, John (2007) Keeping the demons out of the house: the archaeology of magic in Late Antiquity. In: Objects in Context, Objects in Use: Material Spatiality in Late Antiquity (Late Antique Archaeology 5). Brill, Leiden, pp. 273-311. ISBN 9789004165502

Mitchell, John (2007) San Vincenzo al Volturno nell’Alto Medioevo (also French, German and Spanish editions). In: Benedetto: L’eredità artistica. JacaBook, Milan, pp. 81-94.

Mitchell, John and Bowden, W. (2007) The Triconch Palace at Butrint: the life and death of a late Roman domus. In: Housing in Late Antiquity: From Palaces to Shops (Late Antique Archaeology 3.2). Brill, Leiden, pp. 455-474. ISBN 9789004162280

Mitchell, John (2006) The San Vincenzo Community in Capua. In: Between Territory and Text: Survey and Excavations in the Terra of San Vincenzo al Volturno. British School at Rome, London, pp. 269-278. ISBN 0904152480

Mitchell, John (2006) Strategies for salvation: the mosaic pavement of the Triconch church at Antigoneia. In: New Directions in Albanian Archaeology. Essays dedicated to Muzafer Korkuti. International Centre for Albanian Archaeology, ICAA, Tirana, pp. 261-276.

Mitchell, John (2006) The Painted Wall Plaster (pp. 245-8); The Tiles (pp. 249-52); Worked Stone (p. 258); The Roman Inscriptions (p. 249). In: Between Territory and Text: Survey and Excavations in the Terra of San Vincenzo al Volturno. British School at Rome, London.

Bowden, William and Mitchell, John (2004) The Christian topography of Butrint. In: Byzantine Butrint: Excavations and Survey 1994-1999. Oxbow, Oxford, pp. 104-125. ISBN 1842171585

Mitchell, John (2004) The archaeology of pilgramage in late antique Albania: the Basilica of the Forty Martyrs. In: The Archaeology of Landscape in Late Antiquity. Brill, Leiden, pp. 145-186. ISBN 900413607X

Mitchell, John (2004) The Mosaic pavements of the Baptistery. In: Byzantine Butrint: Excavation and Surveys 1994-1999. Oxbow, Oxford, pp. 202-218. ISBN 1842171585

Mitchell, John, Guest, P, Nallbani, E and Gongecaj, S (2004) The small finds and coins. In: Byzantine Butrint: Excavations and Survey 1994-1999. Oxbow, Oxford, pp. 293-304. ISBN 1842171585

Mitchell, John (2003) San Vinchenzo al Volturno: The Archaeology of the arts and magic at an early medieval monastery. In: I Longobardi dei ducati di Spoleto e di Benevento: Atti del XVI Congresso Internazionale di studio sull'alto medioevo, Spoleto Oct 2002. Centro Italiano di Studi sull'Alto Medioevo, Spoleo, pp. 1099-1124. ISBN 88-7988-115-9

Mitchell, John (2003) Contributions to Gothic: Art for England 1400-1547 (rood screen at Kersey, Suffolk; painted panels from St.Michael at Plea, Norwich; panel with risen Christ, Binham). In: Gothic: Art for England 1400-1547. Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

Mitchell, John (2002) Artistic patronage and cultural strategies in Lombard Italy. In: Towns and their Territories between Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. Brill, pp. 347-370. ISBN 9004118691

Mitchell, John (2002) Script about the cross: The Tombstones of San Vincenzo al Volturno. In: Roman, Runes and Ogham: Medieval Inscriptions in the Insular World and on the Continent. Shaun Tyas, Donington, pp. 158-174. ISBN 190028944X

Mitchell, John (2001) The High Cross and monastic strategies in eighth- century Northumbria. In: New Offerings, Ancient Treasures: Studies in Medieval Art for George Henderson. Alan Sutton, Far Thrupp, pp. 88-114. ISBN 0750915714

Mitchell, John (2001) The asymmetry of sanctity. In: Raising the Eyebrow. BAR Int.Ser.996 . Archaeopress, Oxford, pp. 209-222. ISBN 1841712779

Mitchell, John (2001) Introduction to the first session of the conference. In: Il colore nel Medioevo: arte, simbolo, tecnica: La vetrata in Occidente dal IV all’XI secolo. Istituto Storico Lucchese/Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa/Corpus Vitrearum Medii Aevi Italia, Lucca, pp. 27-30.

Mitchell, John Past and present in Mercia in the age of Offa. In: The Past Presented. Turnhout, Brepols. (In Press)

Mitchell, John Butrint. In: Encyclopedia of Early Christian Art and Archaeology. Wm.B.Erdmans Publishing Co, Grand Rapids. (In Press)

Book

Hodges, Richard, Leppard, Sarah and Mitchell, John (2011) San Vincenzo 5. San Vincenzo Maggiore and its workshops. British School at Rome, London.

Mitchell, John (2008) The Butrint Baptistery and Its Mosaics. Butrint Foundation, London and Tirana, p. 96. ISBN 0953555658

Kitzinger, Erns (2002) Studies in Late Antique, Byzantine and Medieval Western Art. Pindar Press, p. 620. ISBN 1899828435

Mitchell, John and Hansen, Inge Lyse (2001) San Vincenzo al Volturno 3. The Finds from the 1980-86 Excavations (2 volumes). Centro Italiano di Studi Sull'alto Medioevo, Spoleto, pp. 449-414. ISBN 8879884824

Mitchell, John Lombard Legacy: Cultural Strategies and the Visual Arts in Early Medieval Italy. Pindar Press. ISBN 978-1904597346 (In Press)

Mitchell, John Out of the Dark Ages: Art and State Formation in Post-Roman Europe. Duckworth: London. ISBN 978-0715636855 (In Press)

This list was generated on Sat Apr 6 06:29:08 2013 BST.