2 Exhibitions…

…on art from the Catholic world in New York City.

New York is fortunate in having two museums focused almost entirely on art of Catholic cultures and eras. The Cloisters, of course, is dedicated to the art of medieval Euroope. The Hispanic Society of America concerns itself with the arts of Spain and of the Spanish-speaking world. Both were founded by non-Catholics: Archer Huntington (The Hispanic Society) and John D. Rockefeller (The Cloisters). But both men acknowledged the essential link between the Catholic faith and the arts of these cultures. Indeed, Archer Huntington went so far as to finance the construction of a Catholic church as part of his Audubon Terrace project. For how could one understand Spanish art without an understanding of the Catholic faith?

Of course such “European,” “Catholic” art is not uncontroversial in the United States today. The predominantly religious art on display at the museum of the Hispanic Society or the Cloisters thus becomes somewhat of an embarrassment to progressive administrators. For example, I noted that the curators of the Cloisters currently feel the need of providing the Bury St. Edmunds Cross, one of the late Thomas Hoving’s “blockbuster” acquisitions in the 1960’s, with the following tendentious description:

But among the Latin inscriptions are several insidious invectives against Jews, a sobering testament to the pernicious presence of anti-Jewish sentiment in medieval Europe. While the words on this particular cross would have been known only to a community of English churchmen, such hateful attitudes permeated society and led to waves of unconscionable persecution of Jews, from London to York. In Bury Saint Edmunds, the Suffolk town with which this cross has often been associated, scores of Jewish residents were killed, and the survivors expelled in 1189, about the time this cross was carved. A century later, in 1290, Edward I expelled all Jews from England. 1)

(The “anti-Jewish” nature of these inscriptions is in fact disputed.)

Undoubtedly also inspired by a felt need to provide a more “nuanced” view of the middle ages is the current exhibition: Spain 1000-1200: Art at the Frontiers of Faith. As Max Hollein, director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, writes:

(This Exhibition) celebrates the artistic exchange among Christians, Muslims and Jews in the medieval Iberian peninsula….Art at the Frontiers of Faith brings Islamic and Jewish works into the space (of the Fuenteduena chapel) for the first time, with the goal of telling a more nuanced story about Spain’s dynamic, interconnected past. (F)or the past thirty years, these exhibitions (of the Met) have led the way in exploring the intersections of medieval Iberia’s different faith traditions. Al-Andalus: the Art of Islamic Spain presented a diverse array of Iberian artworks….Art at the Frontiers of Faith continues this important work, bringing greater awareness of the global scope of the European Middle Ages to the Cloisters. 2)

The exhibition Art At the Frontiers of the Faith was for me somewhat disappointing. It is rather small, and mostly consists of exhibits already at the Met or at the Cloisters. Despite the praise the exhibition heaps upon the Islamic world, the majority of the items displayed are from the Christian side (which is understandable given Moslem iconoclasm). I am not sure the exhibition sucessfully makes the case for a fluid cultural interaction among three “traditions.” For it seems clear just from the exhibition itself that the art of Christian Spain – which provides the bulk of the works being shown – is influenced even more by French, Italian and even Byzantine art than by local Moslem culture. Of course the period covered by this exhibition was actually an era of intensified conflict between Christians and Moslems, not of peaceful coexistence. It was a time during which Spanish Christian art and culture were attaining their first maturity by drawing on the resources of the Christian world of which the Spanish kingdoms were an integral part. That is not to deny that some fine individual exhibits are on view – just that it will take more to demonstrate the alleged existence of significant mutual artistic enrichment between the Christians and Moslem worlds during this period.

The Hispanic Society of America has an easier time of it with its exhibition Gilded Figures: Wood and Clay Made Flesh. The museum of the Society unfortunately remains closed. Nevertheless, a limited selection of its holdings – painted sculptures from Spain and the Americas – is now on display in the current exhibition. When seen in the context of the Society’s entire collection, the polychromed sculptures from 1500 to 1800 are often overloooked in favor of the paintings by Velasquez, Goya etc. But in this very nicely arranged and illuminated exhibition these gilded works can be examined in isolation and the extraordinary versatility and expressiveness of these artists better appreciated. Many unique images can be seen – like the Four Fates of Man. The descriptions accompanying the exhibits honestly describe the religious foundations of this exuberant art.

Yet as Holland Cotter of The New York Times perceptively writes regarding a similar display of Spanish baroque art works :

(To serve as exhibits in a show – SC), however, they had to be stripped of their social, political and spiritual values. They were made “modern,” museumized. You still need to visit the great churches of Spain or Mexico or the Philippines to see and feel how these images were meant to work as devotional objects. And to fully understand this art, to be true to it, and to all religious art (which is, after all, the bulk of surviving art before the 20th century) you need to keep this need in mind.3)

Art at the Frontiers of Faith closes on February 13. Gilded Figures: Wood and Clay Made Flesh closes on January 9(!).

The Cloisters.

The Hispanic Society of America.

1. The Cloisters Cross, The Met (accessed 1/9/2022). The Wikipedia article on the cross quotes what is apparently an earlier version of this language: “Prominent among the inscriptions are several strong invectives against Jews. Though it is impossible to know precisely who commissioned this piece and with what aims, the cross certainly offers some indication of the anti-Semitism prevalent in England at this time. By the end of the thirteenth century, Jews were expelled from the country.” Cloisters Cross, Wikipedia (acccessed 1/9/2022), citing “Metropolitan: Cloisters Cross with another View” (accessed 11/1/2009; no longer online)
2. “Director’s Note,” “Spain 1000-1200: Art At the Frontiers of Faith,” The Metropolitan Museum Of Art Bulletin at 3, Fall 2021.
3. Cotter, Holland, “With Splendor and Saints, Hispanic Society Shows its Treasures” The New York Times, 10/21/2021