Art LoVers: Celebrating Elisabeth de Bièvre and John Onians in Words and Pictures

This double Festschrift honours the distinguished careers and academic accomplishment of art historians Elisabeth de Bièvre and John Onians, as well as their shared life as a married couple on the occasion of the 55th wedding anniversary. Their intellectual paths together and individually have led to unexplored territories extending their discipline and leaving a profound impact on those who have encountered them. We have chosen to felicitate Elisabeth and John together in a book that is personal, creative, and visually engaging. This book offers a platform for the many people who have accompanied them on their journeys, whether for brief moments or across decades and is honoured by contributors from diverse fields, including practising artists, fellow art historians and former students, colleagues from other professions, as well as friends. Since this is a volume for married couple, some chapters are in pairs or jointly authored.

The first section of the book features artworks that resonate with the lives and work and is including paintings, drawings, photography, poetry, fiction and travel writing. The second section presents personal and professional accounts of the roles of Elisabeth and John as teachers, colleagues, scholars, and friends. Some recall first encounters, others collaborations, memorable events, visits, travels and conversations. The third section compiles scholarly articles of traditional Festschrift fare. Here are saluted the theoretical approaches Elisabeth and John have innovated and their influence: the World Art Studies so closely connected to the University of East Anglia, Elisabeth’s geography of art and John’s neuroarthistory.