Art Eyewitness Review: Of God and Country: American Art from the Jill & Sheldon Bonovitz Collection, Philadelphia Museum of Art

Of God and Country:

 American Art from the Jill & Sheldon Bonovitz Collection

Philadelphia Museum of Art

May 19, 2023 - January 1, 2024

Reviewed by Ed Voves 
Original Photography by Anne Lloyd 

Some special exhibitions stay in the mind long after the art works are taken down from the gallery walls. It may be the oeuvre of a particular artist, an especially accomplished display of curatorial talent or the unusual subject of the art works in the exhibition which make for an unforgettable show.

“Great and Mighty Things”: Outsider Art from the Jill and Sheldon Bonovitz Collection was definitely an exhibition which met the criteria of “all of the above.” And so does its sequel, Of God and Country: American Art from the Jill and Sheldon Bonovitz Collection.

“Great and Mighty Things” was presented in the spring of 2013. It was my first real exposure to “outsider” art. Self-taught artists like Bill Traylor (1854-1949), Elijah Pierce (1892-1984), William L. Hawkins (1895-1990) and many others in the exhibit were unfamiliar names. Their paintings and sculptures were radical departures from what I normally beheld on museum walls.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2023)

 William L. Hawkin's Boffo, 20th century

Ten years have gone by and these “Outsiders” are back at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Like the art works on view in the earlier show, all of the paintings and sculptures in Of God and Country come from the collection of a dynamic duo, Jill and Sheldon Bonovitz. Their perceptive eye for great folk art is matched by their magnanimous generosity. The Bonovitz collection is a promised gift to the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2023) 

Sheldon and Jill Bonovitz at the Of God and Country exhibit.

The new exhibition, Of God and Country, takes its name from the deeply-held religious sentiments and personal convictions of these “outsider” artists.

When considered in conjunction with notable events in twentieth century U.S. history, the art works on view in Of God and Country share in the idealism and civic spirit which motivated the Civil Rights movement and efforts to preserve the natural environment of our nation.

Use of the term “outsider art” to describe the work of artists lacking formal training is a matter of some controversy. Outsider Art appeared as the title of a 1972 book by a British scholar, Roger Cardinal, and was embraced by the art community in the English-speaking world.

Personally, I think “inspired art” is far more accurate than “outsider.” Not only were many of these artists devout members of Christian congregations, but several of the leading figures testified that actual religious visions motivated them to create their amazing - and occasionally alarming - art.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2023)

 Howard Finster’s Angel, #3,236, 1984

Howard Finster (1916-2001) claimed that at age 60, God's message appeared to him on a paint smudge on his finger and commanded him to make “sacred art.” Finster, who had been a preacher at religious revivals since his teens, heeded the divine calling, as we will examine in some detail later in this review.

                                       Anne Lloyd, Photo (2023)                                                             Gallery view of the Of God and Country exhibit,                        showing three of Felipe Archuleta’s carved animals.

Felipe Archuleta (1910-1991) is on record on how he came to sculpt his incredible animal statues, stating that “I asked God for some kind of miracle, some kind of thing to do, to give me something to make my life with. I started carving and they just came out of my mind after that.”

The most succinct statement on “outsider” inspiration – and one of the great quotes in American art history – is Bill Traylor's terse, ironic remark on the origin of his impulse to create art: “It just come to me.”

Of God and Country's inspired art is organized in four thematic sections: U.S. History & Life in America, The American Landscape, Christianity and Spirituality and Death and Mortality. All of the artists brought unique viewpoints to these topics, as might be expected. But many, indeed most, of their works are very subtle, open to different interpretations.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2023) 

Bill Traylor's House with Two Men, a Turkey, and a Dog, c. 1939-42

One of Bill Traylor's signature, silhouetted drawings is a good example of the challenges posed to quick and easy interpretation. The drawing is entitled House with Two Men, a Turkey, and a Dog, c. 1939-42. We see a top-hatted man climbing-up on a roof top to snatch a large bird, while another fellow, protected by a ferocious guard dog, appears to have passed-out, the victim of one drink too many.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2023) 

Bill Traylor's House with Two Men, a Turkey, and a Dog (Detail)

That is a conventional explanation for this cryptic scene. However birds frequently figure in Traylor's drawings. These birds are depicted in a generalized, schematic fashion, as with this supposed “turkey.” Art scholars have speculated that Traylor's avian imagery may reflect the folk memory of a sacred bird, the Sankofa from Ghana.

The African-American community preserved much of the heritage of their ancestral cultures during the long years of slavery, so this may well be the case for Traylor's drawing. Whether this intriguing drawing evokes a memory of a specific incident from Traylor's early life or an mythic image from Africa is only one of the many, many fascinating questions posed by works of art in the Bonovitz collection.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2023) 

Gallery view of the Of God and Country exhibition, showing William L. Hawkin's American Flag with Cone-Shaped Fireworks

Of God and Country opens with an appealing and easy-to-appreciate icon. The carved and painted American Flag with Cone-shaped Fireworks by William L. Hawkins recalls the Rogers and Hammerstein lyrics from South Pacific: High as a flag on the Fourth of July! But most of the works of art which follow are less straightforward. Of God and Country has a lot of gray area, mixed in with the red, white and blue.

Consider Uncle Sam by Leroy Almon (1938-1997). Is Uncle Sam a star-spangled superhero, returning to Capital Hill to rid the halls of Congress of corrupt politicians? Or has he become a demonic figure, his hands choking the American Eagle and crushing the symbolic arrows it normally holds in its talons?

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2023) 

Leroy Almon’s Uncle Sam, late 20^th century

Whatever is going on in this brilliant, disturbing work, it was surely based on deep thinking in the mind of its creator. Almon, who trained as a wood carver with Elijah Pierce, often addressed the theme of good and evil in his work. As we see here, the issue was often left very much in doubt.

Another talented African-America artist, Josephus Farmer, created two narrative scenes dealing with the experience of slavery in the American South. Both focus on the role of Eli Whitney, whose 1793 invention of the cotton gin led to the extension of African-American slavery at a time when many thought or hoped it was on the decline. Whitney, a New Englander, was also a central figure in the development of heavy industry which was a key factor in the Union war effort which ultimately triumphed over the Cotton Kingdom of the South.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2023) 

Josephus Farmer 's Eli Whitney Nemesis of the South, c. 1985

Josephus Farmer describes Whitney as the “Nemesis of the South.” Did this reference allude to Whitney's unintended role in spreading slavery or in laying the foundation for the Northern military machine? Either answer is valid but the decision is ours to make.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2023) Elijah Pierce's Love (Martin Luther King, Jr.)

We are - seemingly - on much firmer ground in judging works dealing with themes related to Christianity. Many of these are portraits of heroic figures, exemplified by Elijah Pierce's iconic Love (Martin Luther King, Jr. or based on readings from the Holy Bible. 

The gallery devoted to religious art is dominated by works of art by two other artists: the nearly life-sized  Preacher and his Wife, carved by S.L. Jones, and Simon Sparrow's Assemblage with Faces. Both are sensational works and, though sharply different in technique, these two masterpieces work together to anchor the entire exhibition. 

Both S.L. Jones and Simon Sparrow were men of deep religious faith, tempered by lives of poverty and toil. Their contrasting approaches to art embody the two essential aspects of religion: the practice of lives of devotion by members of a faith community and the mystical, contemplative experience of God by individual believers. 

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2023) 

Gallery view of the Of God and Country exhibition,

 showing S.L. Jones’ Preacher and His Wife, date unknown

Jones, a sharecropper's son from West Virginia, worked long years for the Chesepeake and Ohio Railroad.  A devoted member of the Primitive Baptist Church, he started carving religious figures to ease the pain in his heart, following the death of his wife. According to the beliefs of the Primitive Baptists, every man and woman can be called to preach the Gospel. There is no need for an ordained clergy as in other denominations.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2023)

Details of S.L. Jones' Preacher and His Wife

               

Jones did not aim to carve portraits of specific individuals but rather to evoke the expression of faith on the features of two Christian believers. Their faces radiate the inner light of grace, as they proclaim the word of God. Jones' Preacher and Wife is a brilliant illustration of communal worship, of the famous quote from the Gospel of St. Matthew.

For where there are two or three gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. (Matthew, 18:20)

For Simon Sparrow (1925-2000), the "variety" of religious experience devolved to a personal relationship with God. Sparrow had an amazing life-story. His father was a member of the Yoruba community from West Africa, his mother a Native-American. Details of his childhood are few and conflicting. Sparrow may have been born in Africa, but at some point his family moved to a Cherokee reservation in North Carolina, where he grew-up.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2023) 

Gallery view of the Of God and Country exhibition,

 showing Simon Sparrow’s Assemblage with Faces.

The spiritual traditions of his ancestors exercised a powerful influence, but Sparrow's approach to art was so unique that it is best to let him speak for himself. Sparrow said that when he began a work of art, he would allow his mind to go blank and let God take over. The process was "sweeter than anything on earth... I feel like I'm climbing."

                                       Anne Lloyd, Photo (2023)                                            Simon Sparrow’s Assemblage with Faces. (Detail), date unknow.

Before letting his mind ascend the "stairway to heaven", Sparrow collected a vast store of found objects, trinkets, shells, small toys and glitter... lot's of glitter. These, Sparrow would place at the service of his God-directed creative power. 

The resulting works are depictions of the numinous, the emergence of the divine presence into the prosaic reality of human life. Sparrow's "assemblages" are as close as an artist can go, I believe, to showing what it would be like to open one's eyes and glimpse heaven. 

                                      Anne Lloyd, Photo (2023)                                       Simon Sparrow’s Assemblage with Faces. (Detail)

Faces and patterns materialize on the mosaic-like surface of Sparrow's art works, seemingly from nowhere. These leave an indelible imprint on the mind of the beholder. But trying to grasp and understand these images is almost impossible, except perhaps by an act of faith. To see, as Simon Sparrow did, one needs to believe.

The final gallery of Of God and Country is, in some ways, the most affecting and perplexing.

To do justice to the treatment of Death and Mortality really requires an additional review. This will appear shortly in Art Eyewitness.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2023)

 Herbert Singleton's Going Home: McDonogh Cemetery. Date unknown

No one returns from the "undiscovered country" as Hamlet said so memorably. But judging from the extraordinary works of art in Of God and Country, I would not be surprised if some of the visionary artists in the exhibition had a few sneak previews. 

***

Text, copyright of Ed Voves. Original photography, copyright of Anne Lloyd.

Introductory Image: Anne Lloyd, Photo (2023) William L. Hawkin's American Flag with Cone-Shaped Fireworks ( Detail), 1983. Paint on plywood: 48 x 57 inches (121.9 x 144.8 cm) Collection of Jill and Sheldon Bonovitz, Promised Gift to the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2023) William L. Hawkin's Boffo, 20th century. Alkyd house paint on Masonite, fiberboard, alkyd paint mixed with broken starch chunks (possibly dried glue): 44 1/2 x 51 1/2 inches (113 x 130.8 cm) Collection of Jill and Sheldon Bonovitz, Promised Gift to the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2023) Sheldon and Jill Bonovitz at the Philadelphia Museum of Art's Of God and Country exhibition.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2023) Howard Finster’s Angel, #3,236, 1984. Paint on wood cutout: Collection of Jill and Sheldon Bonovitz. 

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2023) Gallery view of the Philadelphia Museum of Art's Of God and Country exhibition, showing three of Felipe Archuleta’s carved animals, Donkey (1981), Spotted Boar (1981) and Mule (1975). Cottonwood, paint, sisal, sawdust, glue. Collection of Jill and Sheldon Bonovitz, Promised Gift to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. 

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2023) Bill Traylor's House with Two Men, a Turkey, and a Dog, c. 1939-42. Graphite on thin cream card; punched for hanging:Sheet: 22 × 14 1/2 inches (55.9 × 36.8 cm). Collection of Jill and Sheldon Bonovitz, Promised Gift to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. 

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2023) Gallery view of the Philadelphia Museum of Art's Of God and Country exhibition, showing William L. Hawkin's American Flag with Cone-Shaped Fireworks. 

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2023) Leroy Almon’s Uncle Sam, late 20^th century. Paint on carved wood. Collection of Jill and Sheldon Bonovitz.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2023) Josephus Farmer 's Eli Whitney Nemesis of the South, c. 1985. Paint and ink on carved wood. The Jill and Sheldon Bonovitz Collection. 

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2023) Elijah Pierce's Love (Martin Luther King, Jr.). Paint, glitter, and local applications of varnish on carved wood; artist-made frame: 19 x 16 inches (48.3 x 40.6 cm) Collection of Jill and Sheldon Bonovitz, Promised Gift to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. 

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2023) Howard Finster's The Big Push, #1,765, 1980. Paint on plywood; artist-made frame of Douglas fir branded with artist-made metal stamps: Framed: 15 1/4 x 15 inches (38.7 x 38.1 cm) The Jill and Sheldon Bonovitz Collection. 

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2023) Gallery view of the Philadelphia Museum of Art's Of God and Country exhibition, showing S.L. Jones’ Preacher and His Wife. 

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2023) S.L. Jones’ Preacher and His Wife (Detail), date unknown. Paint on wood with nails; leather belt: Preacher (a): 62 1/2 x 19 x 14 inches (158.8 x 48.3 x 35.6 cm) Wife (b): 54 x 15 x 18 inches (137.2 x 38.1 x 45.7 cm) The Jill and Sheldon Bonovitz Collection. 

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2023) Gallery view of the Philadelphia Museum of Art's Of God and Country exhibition, showing Simon Sparrow’s Assemblage with Faces. 

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2023) Simon Sparrow’s Assemblage with Faces. (Detail), date unknown. Glitter, paint, and other found objects on wood; artist-made painted wood frame: 56 1/2 inches × 8 feet 11 inches × 3 1/2 inches (143.5 × 271.8 × 8.9 cm. Collection of Jill and Sheldon Bonovitz, Promised Gift to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. 

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2023) Herbert Singleton's Going Home: McDonogh Cemetery. Date unknown. Alkyd industrial paint, including metallic paint, on carved red cedar with yellow pine battens: 12 3/4 x 60 inches (32.4 x 152.4 cm) Collection of Jill and Sheldon Bonovitz.

Art Eyewitness Book Review: Catholica: the Visual Culture of Catholicism

 

Catholica: the Visual Culture of Catholicism

By Suzanna Ivanic

Thames & Hudson, $35, 256 pages

Reviewed by Ed Voves

For over a thousand years, the Christian Church was the greatest patron of the arts and architecture in the world. Beginning in the year 312, when the Roman emperor Constantine embraced Christianity, almost every aspect of thought, culture and craft in Europe was dominated by the effort to build and maintain a civilization based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth.

Catholica, a brilliant new book published by Thames and Hudson, explores the visual record of Roman Catholicism. This was the dominant form of Christianity in Europe, until it was divided into warring camps by the publication of Martin Luther's radical views on religious doctrine in 1517. 

Despite the Reformation, Roman Catholicism survived - and thrived. This was due in no small part because of the impact of Catholic art and the religious convictions upon which it was founded. After losing control over parts of Germany, England and the Netherlands, Roman Catholicism spread to Latin America, much of sub-Saharan Africa and to Asian countries like the Philippines. 

Roman Catholicism still exerts a strong and inspiring influence over millions of faithful Christians the world over. Yet many of its works of art, or sacred objects like the vestments worn by Catholic clergy and vessels used in devotional ceremonies, have an unfamiliar, even unsettling, feel to them. 

For instance, many people today have no idea as to the significance of the golden vessel known as the monstrance. 

Diego de Atienza, Spanish artist in Ecuador & Peru, Monstrance, c. 1646 

The monstrance is used to display the Host, unleavened bread transformed into Christ's body during the Mass. The role and importance of this sacred object is, needless to say, difficult to grasp by those unacquainted with Roman Catholicism. Thanks to Catholica, the process of understanding and appreciating Christian art and ideas will be a great deal easier.

Catholica was written by Suzanna Ivanic, who teaches history at the University of Kent, England. Ivanic has excellent credentials for investigating the works of art, architecture and artifacts of Catholicism, for her research field (according to the publisher's blurb) is the "lived religion and material and visual culture in Central Europe."

Equally important, Ivanic writes with conviction and insight. Indeed, the sensitivity of her commentary and the scope of her knowledge are awesome and admirable.

Catholica is organized into three parts. Tenet surveys the basics of Roman Catholic religious doctrine; Locus examines the sites where Catholics worship, ranging from magnificent Gothic cathedrals to prayer sites in the homes of the faithful; Spiritus focuses on Christian devotion, as practiced by communities and by individuals.

As noted above, many Catholic works of art or devotional objects may be unfamiliar. In some cases, they are "wondrously strange" and Ivanic has her work cut-out to explain them. This she does in "decoding" units where baffling, arcane details of famous paintings and church architecture are analyzed. 

Pieter Bruegel the Elder, The Fight Between Carnival and Lent, 1559

The Fight Between Carnival and Lent, painted by Pieter Bruegel the Elder in 1559 is one of the masterpieces decoded by Ivanic. Indeed, it was created with exactly that purpose in mind. A wealth of examples of folly, greed, gluttony and social mayhem during Mardi Gras was included in Bruegel's painting. These are compared with the sober performance of Christian charity during the season of Lent.

Bruegel's The Fight Between Carnival and Lent (details)

Other "decoded" paintings include The Penitent Magdalen by Georges de la Tour (c. 1640) and Caravaggio's The Seven Works of Mercy (1607). 

Anonymous (Japan), The Arrival of the Europeans, early 1600's

A fascinating Japanese screen painting, dating to the early 1600's, shows Catholic missionaries from the Jesuit and Franciscan orders in one of its vignettes. Here we can see the global outreach of Christianity as seen - and very attentively examined - by non-Europeans.

Profiles of important themes in Christian culture also feature prominently in the book. These range widely from the important events and rites associated with the seasons of Christmas and Easter, the "roles" assigned to the Virgin Mary - Mother of Sorrows, Mary of the Rosary, etc. - and the Catholic ways of coping with Death. This last profile is especially compelling, as I will comment in more detail later in this review.

With this investigative format in mind, it might seem that Catholica is primarily a reference work. Indeed it is, but the best way to appreciate Catholica is to begin on page one and follow Ivanic as she guides us along the path of Roman Catholicism's engagement with art of the spirt.

The profoundly moving nature of Ivanic's text is due to more than her command of source material. She writes about matters of religious faith with a real sense of what Christian belief in God and the divine ordering of the universe is like. 

A brief quotation from Ivanic's discussion of the role of Abbot Suger (1081-1151) regarding the rise of Gothic cathedrals is indicative of the marvelous and moving narrative of Catholica:

Key to understanding the birth of the Gothic is Suger's emphasis on the transformative power of the liturgical performance. Just as during the Mass the bread and wine are turned into the body and blood of Christ, so does the ritual performance of the cathedral transform it from stones, glass and metal into a divinely powerful space... 

Christianity traces its origin to Judaism. Like Jews, Christians base their beliefs on the written (and sanctified) words of the Bible. But early in the history of the Christian Church, images of Jesus, the Virgin Mary and saints like the Apostle Peter were treated with an unprecedented sense of importance. 

Metalcut print showing The Mass of St. Gregory, late 1400's

Pope Gregory I (540-604) realized that visual representations of the episodes of Biblical history and the life of Jesus were essential teaching tools. Vast numbers of Christians were illiterate and thus excluded from reflecting upon and understanding what they heard preached by the Christian clergy.

Yet, images of Jesus and other saintly people from the Bible were potentially dangerous. Pope Gregory was aware that Christians might come to adore sacred pictures or religious objects, rather than worship God. It was a risk he felt compelled to take. Ivanic quotes Gregory's famous, and hugely influential, pronouncement.

It is one thing to worship a picture and another to learn from the story of a picture what is to be worshiped. For what writing conveys to those who can read, a picture shows to the ignorant ... and for that very reason a picture is like a lesson for the people.

To understand a picture, people need to identify with its subject and message. As a result, depictions of the great events of the Bible and the life of Jesus stressed relevancy rather than historical accuracy of setting and costume. Artists frequently showed biblical characters in contemporary attire, surrounded by details of architecture and artifacts similar to those of the people gathered together to view such works of art as part of Christian worship.

Catholic images were modified to suit geography and social convention as part of the Christian missionary movement. One of the book's most fascinating images comes from Ethiopia in the 1600's where Jesuit missionaries sought to influence the Christian population to embrace Catholicism, rather than the version they practiced which was based on the Coptic Church of Egypt.

Anonymous (Ethiopia) Diptych of Life of Virgin Mary, c. 1630's-1700

The diptych above presents episodes from the life of Mary, mother of Jesus.  The bottom scene of the left-hand panel presents Mary showing the infant Jesus to the Three Kings, who look like Ethiopian nobles rather than magi from the Middle East.  Above, shepherds, having already seen Jesus, play a hockey-like game called genna. 

Diptych of Life of Virgin Mary (detail)

Unfortunately, such culturally-sensitive artwork did not always convince. The mass of Ethiopia's people resisted conversion to Catholicism, even when the country's ruler, Emperor Susenyos, did so in 1622. After years of dissension and civil war, the Jesuit mission ended in failure. 

Spanish missionaries experienced greater success in grafting Catholic cultural forms onto native roots in Mexico, Peru and other Latin American nations. The process led to the creation of enduring expressions of Christian piety. The image of Our Lady of Guadalupe (below) was based on the religious visions of a Mexican native, Juan Diego, in 1531, only a few years after the Spanish conquest of the Aztecs. 

Anonymous artist (Mexican), Our Virgin & Child of Guadalupe, 1745

Juan Diego's vision of Mary was depicted in various amalgams of ethnic attributes and styles of clothing. The facial features of Our Lady of Guadalupe in this version, almost obscured by layers of sumptuous Spanish robes, bears a strong resemblance to the Aztec earth goddess, Tonatzin. 

Roman Catholicism never missed an opportunity to present the guiding principles of Christianity in ways that believers and would-be believers could appreciate and enjoy. From soaring stained glass windows to the charming maiolica ensemble of movable figures at the Last Supper, Catholic art was on view everywhere one looked.

Maiolica model of the Last Supper, from Faenza, Italy, 1500's

Judged in this manner, Roman Catholic art represents an early - and very successful - form of corporate "branding." But there is one staggering difference. 

Modern-day public relations techniques emphasize sprightly images and upbeat banter to keep customers buying, consuming and buying some more in an endless cycle of happy days and Happy Meals. Roman Catholicism, by contrast, fixated upon the inevitable negation of earthly pleasure and human life by Death. 

The supreme symbol of Roman Catholicism is the Cross, the emblem based upon the crucifixion of Jesus. This form of torture and execution was reserved for slaves and criminals under Roman rule. 

Early Christians did not display the Cross, so terrible was the memory of Jesus' execution. Also, they lived in the daily expectation of the End Time. When the Apocalypse did not come, the brutal fact of Jesus' crucifixion remained. But so too, did the Christian believe that Jesus had secured redemption for them from sin, with the promise of immortal life for the souls of those who believed in him.

Death, Christ's death, has conquered death. 

This paradox, which St. Paul called the "scandal of the Cross," placed the reviled symbol of a slave's execution at the summit of human devotion, a place it still holds for millions. Christians, especially Roman Catholics, have created, collected and cherished works of art related to the Crucifixion since the Middle Ages and continue to do so. 

Aelbert Bouts, The Man of Sorrows, c.1525

From sublime depictions of the Crucifixion by Giotto and Velazquez to harrowing, nightmarish portraits of Jesus, like Aelbert Bouts' The Man of Sorrows, c. 1525, to tattooed images of the crucified Christ on human skin, the Cross is ubiquitous, recognizable to believers and detractors alike.

There will never - hopefully - be a final word on Christian art. For now, in a deeply troubled world, menaced by disease and war, Susanna Ivanic's Catholica is a much needed volume. To her, we will leave the final word.

The art of Catholicism is the art of the human condition. Devotional artworks that dwell on the gaze of the grieving mother or the lifeless body of Jesus resonate with the soul. They are designed to raise one's spirit and deepen one's reservoirs of faith, inspiring intense, reverential joy and pain.

***

Text: Copyright of Ed Voves, all rights reserved. 

Introductory Image: Cover art for Catholica by Suzanna Ivanic. Courtesy of Thames & Hudson

Diego de Atienza (Spanish, born in Ecuador, 1610) Monstrance, c. 1646. Silver gilt with enamel, cast, chased, and engraved: Height: 22 1/2 in. (57.2 cm) Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Friedsam Collection, Bequest of Michael Friedsam, 1931. #32.100.231a, b.

Pieter Bruegel the Elder The Fight Between Carnival and Lent, 1559,  Oil-on-panel: 118 cm × 164 cm (46 in × 65 in). Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Anonymous (Japan) The Arrival of the Europeans, early 1600's. Pair of six-panel folding screens; ink, color, gold, and gold leaf on paper: each screen: 41 3/8 in. × 8 ft. 6 5/8 in. (105.1 × 260.7 cm) Metropolitan Museum of Art.  Mary Griggs Burke Collection, Gift of the Mary and Jackson Burke Foundation, 2015. #2015.300.109.1, .2

Master of the Church Fathers' Border (German, late 15th century) The Mass of Saint Gregory, late 1400's. Metalcut with traces of hand-coloring; second state:  13-7/8 x 19-15/16 in.; 10-5/8 x 7-7/16 in. Metropolitan Museum of Art. Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1924 # 2448

Anonymous (Ethiopia) Diptych of Life of Virgin Mary, c. 1630's-1700. Wooden diptych: distemper, gesso and cloth, each painted panel having three registers, H x W x D: 51.7 x 43 x 2.5 cm (20 3/8 x 16 15/16 x 1 in.). Smithsonian National Museum of African Art. Gift of Ciro R. Taddeo in memory of Raffael and Alessandra Taddeo. #98-3-3

Anonymous (Mexico) Our Virgin & Child of Guadalupe, 1745. Oil on canvas:106 x 84.5 cm. Wellcome Library, London. #44828i

The Last Supper (Faenza, Italy), 1500's. Tin-glazed earthenware (maiolica): H. 8 1/2"; W. 12 5/6" (14 3/4" with base); L. 22 7/8" (24 1/2" with base) Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Bequest of R. Thornton Wilson in memory of Florence Ellsworth Wilson  #1983.61

Aelbert Bouts & workshop (Netherlandish, ca. 1451/54–1549) The Man of Sorrows, c. 1525. Oil on oak: arched top, 17 1/2 x 11 1/4 in. (44.5 x 28.6 cm) Metropolitan Museum of Art.  The Friedsam Collection, Bequest of Michael Friedsam, 1931. # 32.100.55

Art Eyewitness Book Review: El Greco by Fernando Marias

El Greco: Life and Work - a New History

by Fernando Marias

Thames & Hudson/349 pages/$100

Reviewed by Ed Voves

In 2014, the Prado Museum mounted an exhibition commemorating the 400th anniversary of the death of one of Spain's greatest artists - or perhaps it would be more accurate to say, of one of the greatest artists to work in Spain. El Greco and Modern Art at the Prado surveyed the career and legacy of the Renaissance-era painter who was "rediscovered" during the first years of the twentieth century, as the revolution of Modernism began to gain momentum.

Was Doménikos Theotokópoulos (1541-1614), better known as El Greco, really an ancestor of Modern Art?  Picasso is known to have studied El Greco's Vision of St. John, while he worked on Les Demoiselles d'Avignon. Franz Marc, writing in the Blue Rider Almanac, acknowledged "the case of El Greco, because the glory of this painter is closely tied to the evolution of our new perception on art."

El Greco, The Vision of St. John, 1608-1614

As compelling as these testimonials are, it is open to question whether El Greco's art fitted in with any "perception on art" other than his own.

El Greco is best understood as an "eccentric" painter. This is the view of Fernando Marias, author of what is surely the most definitive biography of El Greco. Marias uses "eccentric" in its sixteenth century connotation.

To be eccentric for the Spaniards of that time was to be different in life habits or  attitudes from the accustomed norms of society. Highly individualistic, perhaps, but not purposefully flamboyant or peculiar.

Gallery view of the 2003 El Greco exhibit, © The Metropolitan Museum of Art 

In reflecting on the use of "eccentric" to categorize El Greco, we ought not to think of him as a Salvador Dali figure, cultivating outlandish personal traits to flaunt in the faces of those who rejected him. Marias maintains that El Greco's eccentricity was "a quality that he deliberately strove for." Yet, this was a feature of his life-long act of self-definition and ambitious personal goals. Marias writes:

Since his arrival in Spain, or perhaps even before, El Greco had developed a new vision of art, one in which the painter ... had the right to give expression to his art with liberty, free from the asphyxiating requirements of iconography or the demands of clients, so often lacking in taste and understanding.

Marias has made a life-long study of El Greco. The present edition of this insightful, lavishly illustrated biography is based on an earlier version, published in 1995. Marias displays a fine command of literary style, as can be seen in the above-quote. But it should be noted that the exhaustive research which Marias has devoted to his task does not always make for easy reading.

El Greco, Portrait of an Old Man (believed to be a self-portrait), 1595–1600

Much of the scanty details of El Greco's life come from the court records of the many, many lawsuits in which he was involved. Most dealt with the payment promised him for works of art created for his clients in Spain. Like Michelangelo, El Greco was forced to devote much time and effort dealing with recalcitrant clients, unsatisfied patrons and demanding creditors. That was a depressing reality of his life and Marias' narrative reflects this.

Fortunately, Marias has been able to use two key sources, not available to earlier scholars. In 1967, El Greco's personal copy of Georgio Vasari's Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors and Architects (1568) was located. This was followed in 1981 by the discovery of a copy of De Architectura by Vitruvius which El Greco had also used. Both volumes were heavily annotated by El Greco, providing direct access to his thoughts on art.

Doménikos Theotokópoulos, aka El Greco, was born on the island of Crete in 1641. Crete, or Candia as it was called, was a colony of Venice's maritime empire. Culturally, Crete was a last bastion of the Byzantine Empire. The artists of Crete, closely organized into a medieval guild, painted in the traditional Byzantine style, albeit infused with elements of Western art due to the influence of Venice.

Several of El Greco's early paintings have survived. These testify to the fusion of artistic schools, Byzantine and Venetian, going on in his homeland. However, it is extremely telling to note that hallmarks of his future style in Spain are already present in some of his first efforts. 

El Greco, The Dormition, ca. 1566

In The Dormition of the Virgin, painted around 1566, El Greco showed his debts to late Byzantine iconography. The Dormition or death-bed scene from the life of the Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus, is more important to the Greek Orthodox rite than to the Latin form of Catholicism practiced by the Venetians. El Greco infuses a Venetian sensibility to the Dormition by the way he shows the spirit of the Virgin Mary ascending to Heaven. Here, also, is a foretaste of his greatest paintings from the years in Spain, notably The Burial of the Count of Orgaz.

In 1567, El Greco traveled to Venice in search of the patronage and professional success unavailable to him in Crete. Fame, of a sort, El Greco gained but alas not the degree of success which Titian and Tintoretto had attained in Venice. El Greco made a close-study of both of these celebrated painters and may have worked for a time in Tintoretto's studio. But he failed in his attempt to gain favor in Venice and later in Rome, where some ill-advised comments on Michelangelo lost him a place in the household of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, the most influential patron of the arts in Italy.

El Greco, The Modena Triptych, 1568

The decade El Greco spent in Italy, despite all the frustrations he encountered, was crucial in his maturation as an artist, A key work in understanding El Greco's transformation from a painter of Byzantine-style icons to a practitioner of Italianate art is The Modena Triptych, painted soon after he arrived in Italy. Though small in scale, the triptych was illustrated, front and back, with vivid narrative scenes from the New Testament. Several of these episodes would feature in the mighty works of devotional art El Greco later created for the churches in Toledo, Spain.

El Greco's hopes of being appointed court painter for Philip II of Spain were soon dashed after his arrival in 1577. Instead of royal preferment, he had to contract his services for religious paintings and portraits to a wide-ranging network of clients. Many possessed limited financial resources and El Greco had to submit to a rigorous assessment process after each devotional painting was completed. The cash-strapped churches of Toledo constantly sought to have their fees reduces by making carping criticisms of El Greco's "eccentric" works of art.

It would be fruitless to attempt a brief survey of El Greco's career in Spain, which Marias handles so brilliantly. A look at two of his works will suffice: The Burial of the Count of Orgaz and the ensemble of paintings for the Oballe Chapel in Toledo.

El Greco, The Burial of the Count of Orgaz, 1586-1588 

El Greco painted The Burial of the Count of Orgaz a decade after he arrived in Spain, for a parish church in Toledo. By virtue of its quality, it deserves to hang in a cathedral. It is a work of stunning dualities: earth and heaven, body and spirit, death and eternal life.

The striking realism of the bottom, earthly, half of the painting sets the stage for the upper, heavenly part. By softening his brush strokes and using cooler shades of color - except for the red dress of the Virgin Mary, who is reaching down to embrace the soul of the deceased count - El Greco created a vision of the celestial realm as imagined by the aristocratic mourners below.

The Burial of the Count of Orgaz is now recognized as one of the greatest treasures of Spanish art. Consequently, it never travels to international exhibitions. However, by an incredible stroke of good luck, I had the chance to visit Spain in 1979 in the company of an art scholar who was determined to see El Greco's masterpiece. The experience of viewing The Burial of the Count of Orgaz remains one of the defining moments of my life.

To fully grasp the magnitude of El Greco's achievement, it is necessary to focus on the late-career ensemble of paintings he created for the Chapel of the Immaculate Conception in Toledo, better known as the Oballe Chapel. It was the last of El Greco's great projects, completed by his son, Jorge Manuel, in 1615. 

Even by the standards of Spain during the early seventeenth century, the building and decoration of the Oballe Chapel proceeded at a glacially-slow pace. Construction began in 1595, funded by the Oballe family, who had made a fortune in the Spanish colony of Peru. El Greco joined the project in 1607 after the original artist, Alessandro Semini, had died. The financial complications of the assessment process were marked by the acrimonious disputes that characterized El Greco's entire career in Toledo. These continued after his death, contributing to the financial ruin and imprisonment of Jorge Manuel.

The Oballe Chapel, however, can only be appreciated by the results, not by the "backstory" of its creation.

Gallery view of the 2003 El Greco exhibit, © The Metropolitan Museum of Art 

El Greco's masterful treatment of the Oballe Chapel artworks can be appreciated by studying their placement in the 2003 Metropolitan Museum exhibition. Soaring in majesty in the center is The Immaculate Conception, with the Virgin Mary rising-up to receive divine grace in the form of the dove of the Holy Spirit. To the left is a powerful portrait of St. Peter and at right, in full church vestments, is St. Idelfonsus, the patron saint of Toledo.

These works were not closely placed, side-by-side, however. The portraits of the saints were positioned on adjoining walls, each at an angle to create a grotto-like effect, centered upon the stunning depiction of the Virgin Mary. 

Positioned above, and completing the ensemble, was one of El Greco's most remarkable paintings, The Visitation. This painting showed the Virgin Mary being greeted by her cousin Elizabeth, a key moment in Christian sacred history. Now in the collection of the Dumbarton Oaks Museum in Washington D.C., El Greco's Visitation is truly an Impressionist work of art.  

El Greco, The Visitation, 1607-13

El Greco's Visitation cannot be fully appreciated by looking at it straight-on, at eve level. Even today, it appears half-formed, almost incomprehensible. But when viewed from below, as El Greco intended, the meaning of The Visitation is readily apparent. The painting guides the viewer's sight line down to the dramatic central image of the young woman, born without sin, who will give birth to Jesus, redeemer of human kind.

To a believing-Christian in Toledo in the early 1600's, the experience of visiting the Oballe Chapel would have been spiritually overwhelming. Even today, with the component paintings separated, El Greco's visual plan is a revolutionary synthesis of concept and articulation. Fernando Marias writes:

El Greco also demonstrated the sculptural possibilities of living, moving, paint, and showed how daring his compositions could be. He rejected static contemplation of a dynamic work of art and demanded that the painting be seen in motion, as if it were a real and living being.

Whether one looks at a El Greco masterpiece with the eye of art or the eye of faith, Marias' statement above is undeniably valid. "Real and living being" is in every brushstroke of El Greco's works. 

El Greco, The Immaculate Conception, 1607-13

The fluttering wings of angels, the look of spiritual rapture on the Virgin Mary's face, even the numinous quality of the Toledo landscape over which these sacred beings soar on their way to heaven, have a vitality that carries us, the viewers, to the celestial realm that is their destination.

Marias concludes his final reflections on El Greco with a cautionary check on speculations about what beliefs, creeds and convictions motivated his artistic expressions. The comments which El Greco made in his copy of Vasari's Lives testify to his intelligence and ambition. Yet the truth remains that the inner El Greco remains an enigma. His paintings are not, Marias asserts, "reducible to his own personality and personal beliefs."

El Greco began his career painting Byzantine icons. While he rebelled against the stylistic formality of the maniera greca, he continued to do what the Icon painters of Byzantium had always done: create a visible space for belief, an interface for humans to commune with the Divine.

El Greco, Portrait of a Doctor (Rodrigo de la Fuente), details, 1588 

Wherever he went - Venice, Rome, Toledo - El Greco never stopped being Doménikos Theotokópoulos.

***
Text: Copyright of Ed Voves, all rights reserved                                                                                           
Introductory Image:
Cover art for El Greco: Life and Work - a New History by Fernando Marias, courtesy of  Thames & Hudson Publishers

Doménikos Theotokópoulos, El Greco (1541-1614) The Vision of St. John, 1608-1614.  Oil on canvas: 87 1/2 x 76 in. (222.3 x 193 cm); with added strips 88 1/2 x 78 1/2 in. (224.8 x 199.4 cm). Metropoltan Museum of Art, Rogers Fund, 1956. # 56.48

Gallery view of the 2003 El Greco exhibit, © The Metropolitan Museum of Art 

Doménikos Theotokópoulos, El Greco (1541-1614) Portrait of an Old Man, Ca. 1595–1600. Oil on canvas:  20 3/4 x 18 3/8 in. (52.7 x 46.7 cm). Metropolitan Museum of Art,  Joseph Pulitzer Bequest, 1924.  # 24.197.1 © The Metropolitan Museum of Art 

Doménikos Theotokópoulos, El Greco (1541-1614) The Dormition of the Virgin, ca. 1566. Tempera and gold on panel: 61.4 cm × 45 cm (24.2 in × 18 in). Holy Cathedral of the Dormition of the Virgin, Ermoupolis, Syros, Greece.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dormition_of_the_Virgin__(El_Greco)/media/File:Dormition_El_Greco

Doménikos Theotokópoulos, El Greco (1541-1614) The Modena Triptych, 1568. Tempera on panel: Height: 37 cm (14.5 in); Width: 23.8 cm (9.3 in) (central panel). Galleria Estense  Modena, Italy. # 8095. 
https://www.gallerie-estensi.beniculturali.it/opere/altarolo-portatile

Doménikos Theotokópoulos, El Greco (1541-1614) The Burial of the Count of Orgaz, 1586-1588.  Oil on canvas: 480 cm × 360 cm (190 in × 140 in). Church of Santo Tomé, Toledo, Spain.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Burial_of_the_Count_of_Orgaz#/media/File:El_Greco_-_The_Burial_of_the_Count_of_Orgaz.JPG

Gallery view of the 2003 El Greco exhibit, © The Metropolitan Museum of Art 

Doménikos Theotokópoulos, El Greco (1541-1614) The Visitation, 1607-13. Oil on canvas: 96.5 cm. x  71.4 (38 in. x  28.1 ) Dumbarton Oaks Museum, Washington D.C. # HC.P.1936.18.(O)

Doménikos Theotokópoulos, El Greco (1541-1614) The Immaculate Conception, 1607-13. Oil on canvas: 348 cm × 174.5 cm (137 in × 68.7 in).  Museo de Santa Cruz, Toledo, Spain  # DO1277
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Immaculate_Conception_(El_Greco,_Toledo)#/media/File:Inmaculada_Oballe_El_Greco.jpg

Doménikos Theotokópoulos, El Greco (1541-1614) Portrait of a Doctor (Rodrigo de la Fuente), details, 1588.  Oil on canvas:  96 cm. x 82.3 cm. Museo del Prado, # P000807