Visions of Saints December 23, 2011–March 18, 2012
Sir Peter Paul Rubens, Saint Catherine of Alexandria, c. 1620, etching with burin, the MFAH, museum purchase with funds provided by the Alice Pratt Brown Museum Fund.
Benedetto Luti, The Ecstasy of Saint Mary Magdalene, c. 1715–19, pen and ink and brown wash, heightened with white, with octagonal framing lines of brown ink, the MFAH, gift of Jay Baker, Marcel Barone, James B. Tenant, and Kane C. Weiner at “One Great Night in November, 2010,” in honor of their mothers.
Guido Reni, Head of a Young Woman Looking Upward, c. 1609, black and red chalk, with touches of white chalk, on brown laid paper, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Museum purchase funded by the Brown Foundation Accessions Endowment Fund.
Bartolomeo Coriolano, after Guido Reni, Saint Jerome, 1637, chiaroscuro woodcut on laid paper, the MFAH, gift of Marjorie G. and Evan C. Horning.
This in-focus selection of nine prints and drawings highlights images of saints from the late 16th through 18th centuries and celebrates the museum’s recent acquisition of Guido Reni’s beautiful chalk drawing Head of a Young Woman Looking Upward. Jusepe de Ribera and Sir Peter Paul Rubens are among the other artists represented.
Saints, found in almost all religions, are holy people bestowed with ritual devotion because of their exceptionally virtuous lives. Martyrs, known for giving up their lives for their faith, were the first saints officially recognized by the Catholic Church. By the 4th century, people who had confessed their faith not by dying—but by their honorable behavior and pious deeds in life—also began to be publicly venerated. In the 16th century, the Counter-Reformation was the Catholic Church’s response to the rise of Protestantism in Europe. Its campaign also challenged artists to make sacred subjects more accessible.
Saintly representations, such as those in Visions of Saints, proliferated. From scenes of penitence and devotion to representations of mystical visions, portrayals of the stories of the saints provided moral archetypes on which followers could model their own behavior.
This exhibition is organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.