Tag Archives: religious art

Bemberg Foundation Treasures

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San Diego Museum of Art
Balboa Park, San Diego
September 5, 2021

We donned our masks and headed to the Museum of Art for our first conventional indoor museum visit in a year and a half.  We went to see the special exhibition “Cranach to Canaletto: Masterpieces from the Bemberg Foundation.”  The exhibition included more than 80 paintings belonging to the Bemberg Foundation collection in Toulouse, France.  Artists represented included, in addition to Cranach and Canaletto, Clouet, Boucher, Tintoretto, the younger Brueghel, and several others.  Their home is undergoing restoration, making it possible for the works to be sent on tour elsewhere.

We saw some impressive and beautiful works from the 16th through 18th centuries. They were gathered by type and subject matter, with portraits all shown together, interiors in another section, religious and mythological works together, and then landscapes and other exterior scenes in the final room.  Meredith particularly liked the portraits painted by Tintoretto.  We were both amused by Boucher’s putti (cherubs).  They were playing in their own paintings, apart from any larger scene, and looked as if they were taking a break from dancing attendance on God in some great theophany scene.

In the gallery just outside the Bemberg exhibition we looked at some contemporary paintings inspired by the pandemic.

The Bemberg exhibition has since closed. We are planning to go see the Renaissance to Realism exhibition currently on view which features secular paintings from the 17th century.

Il Guercino

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Timken Museum
Balboa Park
November 24, 2019

Recently Meredith discovered the 17th century Italian painter Giovanni Francesco Barbieri through a blog post featuring one of his paintings of the Annunciation.  The Angelus Project blog posts a new image of the Annunciation each week.  Barbieri is better known by his nickname “Il Guercino.”

She wanted to know more about Barbieri, and started with the Wikipedia article about him.  Apparently guercino is Italian for “squint-eyed.”  His Wikipedia entry has an image done by a contemporary artist, Ottavio Leoni, that shows Barbieri’s right eye crossing in, a form of strabismus (an umbrella term for several types of misalignment of the eyes).  Also intriguing was a link in that Wikipedia article to a medical journal article exploring whether Leonardo da Vinci may have had strabismus.  Other famous artists with various types of strabismus may include Rembrandt, Dürer, Degas, and Picasso.

We shared this information with our optometrist daughter, who told us that she had been discussing strabismic artists, particularly painters, with a colleague recently.  She was struck by the observation that paintings represent a 3D world in a 2D medium, and that translating three dimensions down to two may be easier for people who already see the world in two dimensions because of their strabismus.

Soon after that discussion we were visiting the Timken and discovered that there is a painting in their permanent collection by Barbieri, of the parable of the Prodigal Son.  In that parable, the father who welcomes back the errant son represents God forgiving sinners.  Luke 15:11-32.  A docent at the Timken explained to us that in addition to illustrating the original Gospel story, the painting also represents the Catholic Church of the Counter-Reformation, ready to welcome back Protestants.

Manet’s Later Years

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Getty Center 
Sepulveda Pass, Los Angeles
November 16, 2019

We drove up to the Getty to see Manet and Modern Beauty, their special exhibition of over 80 works by Edouard Manet, created in the final years of his life.  We had read a preview article about it in the Los Angeles Times, and we were reminded of it by the monthly email newsletter we receive from the Getty.  Meredith’s sister Kathleen met us there.

The works on display included not only oil paintings but also pastels, watercolors, and letters Manet sent to friends that he decorated with small sketches or watercolor images.

The marquee work, Jeanne (Spring), is a beautifully executed painting of a well-dressed young woman who symbolizes Spring.  Manet had originally intended to paint all four seasons, each represented by a woman in seasonal dress. He did not live long enough to finish the project. He did paint Autumn, and that work is displayed near Spring in the Getty exhibit.

We enjoyed seeing images of the artist’s black and white cat Zizi, first eyeing a brioche and then curled up on his wife’s lap, in typical cat pose.

 Manet also painted friends’ dogs, and the portrait of one named “Bob” was included in the exhibition.

As we finished touring the Manet exhibition, we were treated to an outdoor musical and dance performance piece that was part of the Bridge-S series created and produced by Solange Knowles.  On the drive up to the Getty, we had read an article about her production in the Los Angeles Times. 

We stopped for lunch in the museum cafe, then went to see two other smaller temporary exhibitions, Balthazar: A Black African King in Medieval and Renaissance Art and Peasants in Pastel: Millet and the Pastel Revival.

The magi who came to see the infant Jesus are not named in the Gospels; indeed they are not even stated to be three in number.  But legend has filled in the gap, and tradition has it that one of the three wise men came from Africa and was named Balthazar.  We were interested to see how depictions of Balthazar changed over the centuries, and some of the illuminated manuscripts on display were exquisitely beautiful.

The pastel collection only included about a dozen works, but they were very well done.  Jean-Francois Millet came from a peasant family and often depicted rural scenes.  He led a revival in the use of pastels; displayed with his works are some by other artists who followed his lead like Alfred Sisley and Camille Pissarro.

It was a beautiful day; we enjoyed the views both to the east to UCLA and downtown, and west toward the ocean. The Getty Center gardens are beautiful, and we made a mental note to leave time for a tour of the grounds when we next come.

Admission to the Getty is free, but parking costs $20 per car. The price drops to $15 in mid afternoon and to $10 in the evening. The Manet exhibition runs through January 12, 2020.  The Balthazar exhibition ends February 16, 2020, and the pastels run through May 10, 2020.

Masterpiece Double Header

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University of San Diego
Timken Museum of Art
September 27 & 28, 2019

Meredith’s USD alumni magazine alerted us to a special art exhibition several months ago, and Meredith explored it this past weekend.

The University of San Diego and the Timken Museum have joined together, in partnership with the British Museum, to bring to town a selection of outstanding Italian prints and drawings owned by the British Museum, mainly from the Renaissance period.

Some can be seen at USD’s Hoehn Family Galleries, in Founders Hall on the university campus.  The exhibition there is entitled Christ: Life, Death and Resurrection. 

The rest can be seen at the Timken Museum in Balboa Park, in the special exhibition room.  It is entitled simply Masterpieces of Italian Drawings.

The rarest and most exciting piece on exhibit is Michelangelo’s drawing The Three Crosses. That piece can be seen at USD. It figures prominently in the publicity for the exhibition, for instance on the cover of the alumni magazine, but it is by no means the only masterpiece on display.

Admission to both museums is free.

Postcript: both exhibitions closed in December 2019, but USD posted an excellent video online, with curatorial fellow John Murphy conducting a virtual highlights tour of the USD portion of the project.  It runs 28 minutes and can be seen here.

Knights of Columbus

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Knights of Columbus Museum
New Haven, Connecticut
January 26, 2019

We went back to New Haven at the end of January for the annual gathering of a student group we both belonged to when we were students at Yale. While most of our time was spent socializing with fellow Old Blues and current undergraduates, we took a little time for – what else? – checking out some local museums.

We had found information online about the Knights of Columbus Museum, when we were looking up Sunday Mass times at St. Mary’s church near campus.  The Knights were formed in New Haven in 1882, at St. Mary’s parish by Father Michael J. McGivney, so it is appropriate that their museum is located in that city.  We were impressed with the museum.  It is large, newly built, and well furnished.  We had not realized how big it was when we planned our visit, so spent our limited time viewing mostly the special exhibitions.  We left the permanent collection for another time.

There is a gallery near the museum entrance devoted to Father McGivney. When we visited, a relic of St. John Paul the Great was also on temporary display in the McGivney gallery, namely a piece of the cassock the pope was wearing when he was shot in 1981.  We spent a few minutes in silent prayer then moved on to the other exhibits.

We were particularly interested in the special exhibition on World War I, which will continue its run through April 14.  It offered general information about the causes of the war and other general information, but most of the displays focused on the experience of the soldiers.  There was an excellent video playing with archival footage near the entrance.  In another area there were replica uniform jackets and helmets that visitors can try on, which we did.  Near that was a sample pack visitors can lift, to get an idea what infantry soldiers had to carry when they were on the march.  Actual historic uniform jackets, helmets, and caps were also displayed.  One room was designed as a sample trench, and it gave a good idea of the height and dimension of an actual trench.  It was clean and dry, though – not at all like the miserable muddy and vermin infested reality the troops had to endure.

Other display cases contained a wide range of personal items once carried by soldiers, such as books, playing cards, a sewing kit, soap and other toiletries, and musical instruments, to name just a few.  There were also several pieces of trench art – some soldiers carved bullet and shell casings during their waiting time in the trenches, making pieces like the scrimshaw carved by sailors in earlier generations.  One soldier had carved the Knights of Columbus logo on the wall of a limestone cave, and a cast of that piece was on display.

Near the end of that exhibit was a large display devoted to Father John B. DeValles, the “Angel of the Trenches.”  Father DeValles was born in the Azores in 1879 and immigrated to the U.S. with his parents as a young child.  He served as a parish priest in New Bedford, Massachusetts.  When the war began, he was appointed as the Knights of Columbus chaplain attached to the 104th Regiment of the 26th Infantry Division and was one of the first K of C chaplains to arrive in France.  Later he was commissioned as a chaplain in the regular U.S. Army.  He often entered No-Man’s Land to search for wounded and dying Allied and German soldiers.  Father John, as he was known to the troops, risked his life on many occasions.  Once, he did not return to the trenches, and searchers found him unconscious and wounded next to a dead soldier whom he had been trying to help.  His injuries damaged his health, and although he survived to return to the U.S., he died from complications of his wounds in May 1920.  He was only 41 at the time.  He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, the Croix de Guerre, and the Legion of Honor.  General Edwards, who presented the Distinguished Service Cross posthumously said that he had known men as brave as Father DeValles but not braver.  Photos and a summary of his service can be seen on this video of a recent Massachusetts National Guard ceremony honoring him.

After the World War I exhibit, we strolled through the Christmas in Poland exhibit.  There were some beautiful creches of a type known as szopka, commonly made in and around Krakow. They are shaped like miniature churches, often with multiple floors, and contain nativity figures and other scenes inside them.  Some looked a bit like dollhouses, open to show the rooms and figures inside.  In addition to szopkas from Poland, the museum also displayed many made by local Connecticut students, as part of a competition sponsored by Polish cultural groups.

The museum is free, and it offers free parking under the building.  Donations are welcome, of course.  It is fully accessible.  Staff were numerous, cheerful, and helpful.  We really enjoyed our visit, and to any Knights who read our blog, we say thanks for supporting this excellent facility.

Art Sampler

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San Diego Museum of Art
Balboa Park
January 6, 2019

Our first museum trip of 2019 echoed our 2018 start. We used our Balboa Park Explorer passes to visit the San Diego Museum of Art. This time we concentrated our attention on two temporary exhibitions. The first showcased World War I propaganda posters; the second featured early 20th century prints that are not often displayed, due to light sensitivity.

We also spent some time in the permanent collection, viewing the gallery with European devotional art. El Greco is one of Meredith’s favorite artists, and his painting The Penitent St. Peter hangs at the entrance to that room. Further inside the room we got into a spirited discussion with a fellow enthusiast, comparing notes about the historic St. Nicholas, 4th century bishop of Myra, whose legend has evolved in odd ways to become the modern Santa Claus.

The Nile Comes to LA

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Getty Center
Sepulveda Pass, Los Angeles
August 5, 2018

We headed north, and met up with Meredith’s sister Kathleen at the Getty Center in Los Angeles. We went to see the special exhibition Beyond the Nile: Egypt in the Classical World. The exhibition runs through September 9, and we wanted to be sure not to miss it.

Various pieces of fine and decorative arts are displayed in the special exhibition pavilion. They span nearly two millennia, and the galleries are arranged in chronological order. The theme is cultural exchange in the Mediterranean world, that is how Egypt and the other civilizations around the Mediterranean traded with one another and how their interactions influenced their respective art. The first room displays the oldest pieces, including objects traded between the Egyptians and the Mycenaeans and other items from the Bronze Age. Among the early pieces is a wooden model of a river boat; this piece had been placed in a tomb. Meredith liked seeing a boat full of rowers, although she thought one rower on the port side was leaning back too far relative to the rest of his crew.

The next room shows Egyptian and classical Greek pieces. The gallery which follows features works from the Ptolemaic period. The last several rooms contain Egyptian and Roman pieces, including some from Pompeii and others from Hadrian‘s villa.

The three of us took a docent led tour, which lasted about an hour and was quite informative. After lunch in the museum café, we went back through the Egypt exhibit on our own. We were all interested by two separate ancient papyri with medicinal recipes and magic healing spells. Although the documents are thousands of years old, large parts remain intact and the writing is clearly visible. We saw numerous statues, busts, and other sculpture. One we particularly liked was a basalt sarcophagus made around 600 BC, on loan from the Rijksmuseum. The person entombed in it was a Greek who attained high office in the Egyptian government, so someone who exemplifies the multicultural theme.

We saw several other things at the center. We caught the end of Pathways to Paradise: Medieval India and Europe. There were some truly splendid illuminated religious manuscripts on display. Although that particular exhibit closed after the weekend of our visit, the Getty has an extensive collection of illuminated manuscripts and often rotates them through special exhibitions like this one. There are some ancient Roman and Greek sculptures on loan from the Santa Barbara Museum of Art. We found them in the south hall of the South Pavilion. The Santa Barbara museum is undergoing extensive multi-year renovation, and these works are on loan while that work is going on. The Lansdowne Hermes was particularly impressive.

Admission to the museum is free, but parking costs $15. A tram runs up the hill from the parking garage. Handicap access is good. The café offers a selection of cuisines, in a food court type arrangement. Food is good, prices are a little high, as is typical with most museum restaurants.

Pacific Standard Memories

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San Diego Museum of Art and Mingei International Museum
Balboa Park
January-February 2018
LACMA
Hancock Park
March 18, 2018

Over the winter we attended several exhibitions, now gone by, in the Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA series. Life got away from us, so we did not write them up here at the time. We did enjoy getting in touch with Latin American art spanning many centuries and revisiting some museums we had not been to in a while.

The first Pacific Standard Time series celebrated mid-twentieth century Southern California arts; it ran from October 2011 to April 2012. We took Meredith’s mother Margaret to six or more exhibitions in that first series. It was fun discovering small venues and offbeat subjects. Margaret was very taken by a vintage Studebaker Avanti on display at LACMA (the Los Angeles County Museum of Art) and joked about driving off in it while the guard was looking the other way. The thought of Margaret leaping out of her wheelchair and hotwiring a collector car still brings a smile. That first series of Pacific Standard Time visits took place before we started our blog.

The newer LA/LA series explored artistic connections between Latin America and Southern California (mainly Los Angeles) and ran from September 2017 to early 2018. Both PST series were organized by the Getty Museum, which brought together dozens of So Cal museums, each with their own special focus exhibit.

Earlier this year, we saw: (1) Modern Masters from Latin America: The Pérez Simón Collection at the San Diego Museum of Art; (2) Art of the Americas: Mesoamerican, Pre-Columbian Art from Mingei’s Permanent Collection at the Mingei Museum; and (3) Painted in Mexico, 1700–1790: Pinxit Mexici at LACMA.

In January, we saw the Pérez Simón Collection show at the San Diego Museum of Art in Balboa Park. It brought together art (mostly paintings) from eight different Latin American countries, spanning a little over a century, from the late 1800’s to now. We particularly liked the landscape scenes and portrayals of people in their daily lives. The abstract pieces interested us less. After we finished seeing the Perez Simon collection, we stopped in to see a visiting Monet painting, which was on loan from the Denver art museum and has since been returned.

The next month we headed to the Mingei Museum, also in Balboa Park. We had not been there in years, and it was fun to get reacquainted. The term “mingei” means “everyone’s art,” and this museum features objects from around the world made for everyday use. Although some are very beautiful, none were made purely to be decorative. Their Pacific Standard Time exhibition displayed an extensive collection of objects, particularly ceramics, from a variety of pre-Columbian cultures in Mexico, Central America, and South America. We particularly liked seeing the Mayan textile fragments – so fragile they were shown under dim lighting.

While in the Mingei we also strolled through a display of Native American weaving from the American Southwest. There were some strikingly handsome pieces on display, and the curator’s explanatory signs were very thorough. Two thumbs up on the Mingei visit; we will definitely come back.

Early this year we purchased a Balboa Park Explorer one year family pass, and we used the pass for both the SDMA and Mingei visit.

In March, we met up with Meredith’s sister Kathleen to see Painted in Mexico, 1700-1790: Pinxit Mexici at LACMA. This was an exhibition of Mexican painting during the 18th century. Over 120 works were on display, many of which had never been shown publicly before, and some were specially restored for this exhibition. Religious paintings predominated, but there were secular themed paintings as well. The works displayed were high quality, sophisticated pieces; this New World art can definitely take its place alongside the best of the Old World. We saw the exhibition on its final weekend in Los Angeles; it went on the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, where it will be on display through July 22.

We looked through several other LACMA areas. Outside we were amused by a sculpture that looks like a balloon animal. A little hard to take seriously, but hey, we took a picture, didn’t we?

Hadrian’s Wall

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Hadrian’s Wall
Northern England
June 17-24, 2017

We traveled to Scotland and England in June, primarily to see and walk along what remains of Hadrian’s Wall, a World Heritage Site. The emperor Hadrian ordered the wall to be built, to defend the northern border of the Roman Empire in Britain and to regulate trade across it. The legions built it, and Hadrian came to inspect it in 122 A.D. The wall itself was about 73 miles long, stretching from Wallsend in the east to Solway Firth in the west.

The modern Hadrian’s Wall Path National Trail is 84 miles long. We walked approximately 30 miles of it, including the central section between Chollerford and Birdoswald. That is the section where the most visible remains of the original wall and the associated fortifications can still be seen. It is also the section with the steepest hills and most dramatic scenery. The trail is well marked with acorn symbols and other signage.

We stayed in the town of Hexham and traveled by local bus (the “AD122” route) out to stops along the wall trail for each day’s hiking.

At first we walked over gently rolling hills. When we reached the Whin Sill rock formation we hiked up and down steep hills for a couple of days. The views were spectacular and well worth the exertion.

After that the terrain once again became more gently rolling hills. All along the way we walked past and through farms, mainly open meadows with flocks of sheep. We often climbed up and over stiles to get into and out of farm fields, and other times walked through “kissing gates.” We occasionally had to walk through cattle pastures. We had one particularly unnerving encounter, edging slowly around a bull and his cows, trying not to get between any cow and her calf.

We were amused by the sheep grazing over and around an ancient temple of Mithras which was located in the middle of their owner’s land. Meredith insisted on getting a photo of one sheep standing by the Mithraic altar; perhaps symbolic of the victory of the Lamb of God over ancient pagan faiths?

The best remains of the wall are in the most inaccessible areas, for the quite practical reason that it was easiest for builders in subsequent centuries to recycle (plunder) stones from the areas of the wall they could reach more easily.

When intact the wall was about 15 feet high and 8 to 10 feet wide. Each side of it was built with well cut rectangular stones and mortar; the middle of the wall was filled with rubble – roughly shaped stones — and mortar. Along the wall the Romans built several major forts. In between those large forts they built small forts called milecastles, which were staffed by detachments of 10 to 30 soldiers. Like the large forts, milecastles had gates through the wall. In between the milecastles the Romans built turrets, which were staffed by a couple of soldiers. Those were guard posts which did not contain gates through the wall. In addition to the wall, the Romans dug deep ditches on both sides of the wall, and even where the wall can no longer be seen, the remains of one or both of those ditches is often visible. We saw the ruins of a number of milecastles and turrets as we walked, and here is a photo of Bob at one of them:

We toured what remains of the forts at Wallsend, Chesters, Housesteads, and Birdoswald. There are excellent museums associated with each of those, although unfortunately for us the Birdoswald museum was closed for renovations. We also walked over and around the ruins of the fort at Great Chesters, which is mostly buried under a working farm. There we saw an ancient Roman altar, standing out in the middle of the farmer’s field, covered with modern “offerings” in the form of coins from many different countries.

We were blessed with generally good weather. For the first two days of our hiking the weather was sunny and about 78 to 80 degrees Fahrenheit. We were amused to hear the locals complain about how terribly hot it was; it seemed like normal San Diego weather to us! After that front moved on, the weather stayed partially sunny for several more days but with highs during the day in the mid 60’s; seemed cool to us, but great for hiking. It was windy most days, especially in the afternoons, and we had to be careful not to lose our hats. We had hard rain just one day, the final hiking day when we walked the area around the Birdoswald fort.

We visited museums along the way and will have to write separately about a few of those highlights.

Timken New Year’s Eve

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Timken Museum of Art
Balboa Park
December 31, 2016

We love the Timken Museum of Art; as we have said before, it is perhaps our favorite museum. It is a small museum located in the heart of Balboa Park, next to the (larger and unaffiliated) San Diego Museum of Art and the arboretum. Admission is free, although donations are encouraged.

We went there on New Year’s Eve to catch the last day of the exhibition Jewels of the Season, displaying many wonderful hand made ornaments created by local artists Florence Hord and Elizabeth Schlappi. Bob had gone to see it a week earlier with our middle daughter and son-in-law; this was Meredith’s first visit. Annually since 1988, the Timken has set up a Christmas Tree and displayed on it a selection of ornaments from the collection, which totals over 2000 pieces. Starting last year, the exhibition was expanded and is now an extended installation with more ornaments hung overhead and displayed in cases, in addition to those shown on the tree.

We browsed through the permanent collection as well. The museum is small, but for its size offers an excellent assortment of European and American paintings. It boasts the only Rembrandt painting in San Diego, Saint Bartholomew.

December 31 marked the last day of the Jewels exhibition; be sure to see it next holiday season! The Timken has another special exhibition coming up: Witness to War: Callot, Goya, Bellows, which will run from January 27 – May 28, 2017. We are also looking forward to the fall, when the Timken, in collaboration with the Metropolitan Museum of Art, will bring a small group of Monet paintings to San Diego. Details of that exhibition have not yet been released.

On our walk through the park, we stopped to enjoy the Nativity and related scenes displayed near the organ pavilion. According to the Union Tribune, the original sculptures were done over 70 years ago by noted Los Angeles artist Rudolph Vargas. They have been displayed at the park each Christmas season since 1953. In recent years they had become worn and tattered. Over the past year, local artist Barbara Jacobson donated her time, and together with numerous lay volunteers refurbished the entire set. The figures and backdrops look spiffy now, thanks to their efforts.