Lumen

“Illuminates and marvels on every page.”

–Eric M. Ramírez-Weaver “caa.reviews” (4/8/2026 12:00:00 AM)
“The catalog for Lumen is a rewarding way to understand the exhibition. Lavishly illustrated with beautiful, full-page reproductions of the works, it contains more than a dozen scholarly yet eminently readable essays.”–Peter Plagens “The Wall Street Journal” (11/6/2024 12:00:00 AM)
“Interdisciplinary and methodologically and theoretically diverse, as well as beautifully illustrated, this book contributes to exciting recent investigations into the ephemeral facets of medieval objects and spaces, focusing attention on the meanings of light in Jewish, Muslim, and Christian religious and secular contexts. It examines how natural, artificial, depicted, and perceived light were used and understood in the long Middle Ages (800-1600), considering the legacy of ancient and medieval scientific texts and instruments, the dynamics of vision and perception, and the role of light in sacred spaces and rituals. From ancient and medieval texts, images, and objects to contemporary artworks and ideas, the effects and wonder of light shine in the radiant pages of this book.”
–Alice Sullivan, Assistant Professor of Medieval Art and Architecture, Director of Graduate Studies, Department of the History of Art and Architecture, Tufts University
“Well written and lavishly illustrated, Lumen: The Art and Science of Light, 800-1600 is a brilliant inquiry into the nature of light and human sight. It elucidates the cultural histories involving light in its religious-sacred, scholarly-scientific, and artistic-aesthetic settings and clarifies how light was translated into tangible form. This book reveals how, despite light’s invisible structure, and with the help of geometry, it set the ground for the invention of linear perspective, and how, with its law of refraction, it embodied the whole spectrum of colors and even influenced our perception of natural phenomena such as shade and darkness. This is a must-read book for any medievalist, early modern scholar, or anyone who wants to engage with the varied aesthetic, scientific, and cultural facets of light and its meaningful visible forms.”
–Avinoam Shalem, Riggio Professor of Art History, Arts of Islam, Department of Art History and Archaeology, Columbia University
“Among the most labile of media in medieval art, light served as a vehicle as well as a subject of representation. In works of architecture and stained glass to gleaming metalwork and gilded manuscript miniatures, medieval artists manipulated light effects not only to illuminate but also to mystify. Bringing together a dazzling array of objects and a kaleidoscope of scholarly perspectives, Lumen sheds light on medieval art and culture and shows that the Middle Ages were anything but dark.”
–Jeffrey F. Hamburger, Harvard University

Kristen Collins is curator of manuscripts at the J. Paul Getty Museum.

Nancy K. Turner is a conservator of manuscripts in the Department of Paper Conservation at the J. Paul Getty Museum.