Full Name: Henderson, George D. S.
Other Names:
- George David Smith Henderson
Gender: male
Date Born: 1931
Place Born: Aberdeen, Scotland, UK
Home Country/ies: United Kingdom
Subject Area(s): architecture (object genre), manuscripts (documents), Medieval (European), and sculpture (visual works)
Overview
Cambridge University medievalist, particularly architecture and manuscripts. Henderson was the son of a professor of ecclesiastical history, George David Henderson and Janet Smith (Henderson). He attended the University of Aberdeen, receiving his B.A. in 1953. He moved to the University of London, completed an M.A., 1956. He married Isabel Bisset Murray, a librarian at National Library of Scotland in 1957. He was then admitted to Cambridge University, where he secured an M.A. and finally Ph.D., in 1961. He was a Research fellow at Barber Institute of Fine Art, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, England, between 1960-1961. Henderson was appointed to Downing College, Cambridge University, in 1961 (remaining until 1964). He won the Reginald Taylor Prize of British Archaeological Association in 1962 for the paper “The Sources of the Genesis Cycle at St.-Savin-sur-Gartempe.” In 1963 he began as a lecturer in the history of art at University of Manchester. He was named lecturer in art history at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1966. Henderson authored the two small introductory volumes for the Penguin scholarly survey initiatives, one on gothic art in 1967 and another on Chartres in 1968. He remained at Edinburgh until 1973 when he was appointed to Cambridge University as lecturer in the history of art and fellow of Downing College, beginning in 1974. He published his From Durrow to Kells: the Insular Gospel-books, 650-800 in 1987. His students included Michael Camille.
Selected Bibliography
“The Meaning of Leaf 5 of Fitzwilliam MS 330.” Burlington Magazine 133 (October 1991): 682-6; “Apocalypse Manuscript in Paris: B.N. MS Lat. 10474.” Art Bulletin 52 (March 1970): 22-31; “Late-Antique Influences in some English Mediaeval Illustrations of Genesis: the Caedmon, Aelfric and Egerton MSS.” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 25 (July 1962): 172-198; and Henderson, Isabel. The Art of the Picts: Sculpture and Metalwork in Early Medieval Scotland. New York: Thames & Hudson, 2004; Chartres. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1968; Gothic. Harmondsworth: Penquin, 1967; Vision and Image in Early Christian England. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999; From Durrow to Kells: the Insular Gospel-books, 650-800. New York, NY: Thames and Hudson, 1987.