Dutch-American academic (born 1954)
Jean-Pierre Isbouts (born 1954) is a professor in the Social Sciences PhD program of Fielding Graduate University in Santa Barbara, California, and an archaeologist, author, screenwriter, director, and producer of works addressing various historical periods, particularly the time period of Jesus and that of Renaissance and post-Renaissance art.
Biography.
Education and early works.
Born in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, Isbouts studied Attic Greek and Latin, archaeology, art history and musicology at Leiden University in 1980. He received his PhD from Columbia University in New York, writing his dissertation on the American Beaux-Arts architecture firm of Carrère and Hastings. In 1983, Isbouts wrote and directed one of the first documentary works specifically created for the LaserDisc format, and "the first successful commercial videodisc to index and show art works". The piece, "Van Gogh Revisited", was one side of "Vincent Van Gogh: A Portrait in Two Parts", examining the life and works of Vincent van Gogh; the other side features a performance of the one-man-play by its author and co-director of the project, Leonard Nimoy.
Isbouts, as executive producer, expanded this into a Great Arts Series by 1991, with multiple installments allowing users to "explore art galleries and paintings while listening to music of the period", including installments on "The French Impressionists" (1991), "The Art of the Czars" (1992), and "Dutch Masters of the 17th Century" (1993). In 1995, having formed the production company Pantheon in Santa Monica, California, Isbouts extended his interests to the historical backdrop of Jesus, directing a four-hour "multimedia presentation of New Testament stories from the birth of Jesus to his Crucifixion and Resurrection" narrated by Charlton Heston, the first production of the series, "Charlton Heston's Voyage through the Bible". In 1996, he produced "Hamlet: The Game", a CD-ROM game of Shakespeare's "Hamlet", combining material provided from the 1996 film adaptation by Kenneth Branagh with original footage, animation, and games and puzzles.
Writing and documentary directing career.
Through his documentary work with Heston, in 1998 Isbouts came to coauthor "Charlton Heston's Hollywood" with the actor. In 2000, Isbouts presented a three-part series examining ancient cultural and religious prophesies, In 2001, Isbouts directed ', a biographical documentary film about Walt Disney, narrated by Dick Van Dyke. In 2008, Isbouts directed ', on Operation Valkyrie, which was noted as showing "the advantages offered by a film treatment of a topic" as compared to accounts in print.
In November 2012, Isbouts again returned to Biblical history, publishing "In the Footsteps of Jesus" with "National Geographic".
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In 2016, Isbouts published two additional books, "Archaeology of the Bible: The Greatest Discoveries From Genesis to the Roman Era", also with "National Geographic"; and "Ten Prayers that Changed the World". A 2020 "Houston Chronicle" article noted that "Isbouts has two main passions: the message of the historical Jesus and the artists who shared and represented those sentiments". A musicologist, Isbouts also produced recordings for several of his films.
Investigations of the "Mona Lisa" and Leonardo da Vinci.
In October 2013, Isbouts published another book examining a Renaissance art theme, "The Mona Lisa Myth", examining the history and events behind the "Mona Lisa" in the Louvre and the "Isleworth Mona Lisa", endorsing the two-"Mona Lisa" theory and confirming the latter's attribution to Leonardo. A companion film was released in March 2014, also directed by Isbouts, with narration by Morgan Freeman. Describing his first examination of the "Isleworth Mona Lisa", Isbouts related that he was "sceptical but intrigued", stating, "I walked into the vault, it was very cold in there, and I spent about two hours with that painting. But after five minutes I recognised that this had to be a Leonardo". He described being "absolutely floored" by the quality of the preservation and the "intense luminosity of the face".
Isbouts presented a theory that the "Isleworth Mona Lisa" is an earlier work by Leonardo, and is the original portrait of the Florentine subject, "while the "Mona Lisa" in the Louvre is an allegorical representation of the Madonna Annunziata". He further noted that "24 of 27 recognised Leonardo scholars have agreed this is a Leonardo".
In his 2017 book, "Young Leonardo: The Evolution of a Revolutionary Artist, 1472-1499", also coauthored with Brown, Isbouts presents a theory that Leonardo also painted two versions of "The Last Supper", with the second being a replica of the first painted on canvas at the request of Louis XII of France. In 2019, the pair published "The da Vinci Legacy: How an Elusive 16th-Century Artist Became a Global Pop Icon". That same year, Isbouts edited and wrote a section of "Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa: New Perspectives", further exploring the evidence of Leonardo having painted the "Isleworth Mona Lisa".
References.
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