Dr Jim Lawson
MA , PhD
Lecturer in Architectural History

Room: 3.64
Tel: 0131 650 2619
Email: j.lawson@ed.ac.uk

Architecture: School of Arts, Culture and Environment (ACE)
The University of Edinburgh
20 Chambers Street
EH1 1JZ, Scotland

Profile

Jim Lawson studied Drawing and Painting, and History of Art as an undergraduate. He then went on to postgraduate research, sharing his time between Edinburgh and Italy. His Ph.D. thesis dealt with the architectural patronage of Lodovico Gonzaga, Marquis of Mantua (1444-78).

As a university and college teacher, he worked for several educational institutions. His subjects were History of Art, History of Architecture and History of Photography. Since 1995, he has taught exclusively in the area of History of Architecture in the School of Arts, Culture and Environemnt of the University of Edinburgh.

Jim's scholarly interests are in Renaissance art and architecture, European Enlightenment, and photographic history and criticism. He has published in all these areas.

 

Ermenonville Project

The theme of this collaborative project is the philosophical garden - specifically, the connections between Ian Hamilton Finlay's garden, Little Sparta, at Dunsyre and the parks created in the 1770s by the Marquis Rene de Girardin, at Ermenonville, north of Paris. Finlay's garden is created in the spirits of classical myth, historical Enlightenment and eighteenth century Revolution. Girardin created the landscape of his estate in accordance with current Enlightenment principles of social equity. It was also an evocative place, raising natural spirits and provoking natural sentiments. Its design was inspired by the writer of the Social Contract, The Confessions, La Nouvelle Eloise and Emile, Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

Girardin invited Rousseau to live a retirement at Ermenonville. Rousseau died and was buried there in 1778.

 

Publications

'Titian's Diana Pictures: the passing of an epoch', Artibus et Historiae, Nr 49, 2004, pp.49-63

'Giannozzo and Architecture in Alberti's Moral Writings', Albertiana Vol.VII, 2004, pp.79-98

The Philosopher's Garden: Le Jardin du Philosophe, National Galleries of Scotland, 2004

Explorations between image and space, In Navigating Stevenson: digital artworks by Sara Gadd. Exhibition catalogue. Edinburgh: Scottish National Portrait Gallery, 2003 pp 38 - 43

Alberti on Florence Cathedral , Word and Image, 2002, Vol.18, no.4, pp.332-347.

Various entries, in: Icons of Europe, edited by Peter Stepan. Munich: Prestel, 2002.

'Alberti's Prologue to Practice as a Church Architect: Alberti and Nicholas V on Architecture and the Practice of Religion in the Fifteenth Century', Albertiana, Vol.IV, 2001, pp.45-68