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Exhibit highlights work across
disciplines and institutions
By Donald N.S. Unger
 We often fail to see things that are right before our eyes:
we lack perspective; we lack context; we lack the right frame.
Five years ago, when Franco Mormando, associate professor
of Italian and chair of the department of romance languages
and literatures at Boston College, was involved in the rediscovery
of a long - lost painting by 16 th-century artist Jacopo
Tintoretto, “The Raising of Lazarus,” the meaning of
the painting wasn’t immediately clear to him.
“In doing the background historical research on the
painting,” Mormando says, “I discovered that
the painting was dated to a period of plague in Venice and
that ‘Saint Lazarus’ was historically considered
a ‘plague’ saint—a heavenly protector against
the plague—so I concluded that the painting was probably
an ex voto offering in time of plague, even though
there are no overt signs of the plague in the scene.”
This was interesting and familiar territory to Rev. Thomas
Worcester, S.J., associate professor of history at Holy Cross.
Fr. Worcester had team-taught a course “Saints
and Sinners: Christian Exemplars as Cultural History,” with
Professor Joanne Pierce of the religious studies department. “Several
of the saints we considered were ‘plague’ saints—such
as Saints Sebastian and Roch—saints to whom people
prayed for deliverance from the plague. So, when Franco Mormando
suggested doing a show on painting and plague, I was immediately
interested.”
This set of realizations led to the reconvening of an interdisciplinary
group of scholars, across four institutions, to mount the
forthcoming ambitious and historic exhibit at the Worcester
Art Museum , “Hope and Healing: Painting in Italy in
a Time of Plague, 1500-1800.” The exhibit will feature
37 paintings, on loan from museums and collections around
the world.
The four curators—Gauvin Bailey, an associate professor
of art history at Clark University; Pamela Jones, an associate
professor of art at the University of Massachusetts, Boston;
Mormando; and Fr. Worcester—had previously worked together
on a similar project.
Jones cites that previous experience as one of her motivations
for getting involved in the current project.
“On the personal side,” she says, “the
four of us curators had had a wonderful experience working
together on the exhibition, ‘Saints and Sinners: Caravaggio
and the Baroque Image,’ which was on view at BC’s
McMullen Museum of Art in 1999. Therefore, when Franco brought
up the possibility of working together on an exhibition focusing
on the plague, I was favorably disposed.
“On an intellectual level,” Jones continues, “I
have always been especially interested in interdisciplinary
topics. Often art exhibitions are concerned solely, or, at
least mainly, with artistic style and the attribution of
given works of art to given artists. Exhibitions of that
type are perfectly valid, but my own work has always been
deeply interdisciplinary, so I have welcomed the chance to
work on exhibitions of a broader historical scope with colleagues
who are not all art historians themselves.
“I also find particularly stimulating research projects
that resonate with contemporary socio - religious issues,” she
adds—“and the plague certainly fits that profile.
Although bubonic plague itself is fortunately rare these
days, plagues such as AIDS are still a horrifying reality.
Like early modern plagues, AIDS raises religious, medical,
philosophical and social issues of great importance. Our
exhibition treats these questions in the context of early
modern culture.”
“In spring 2001,” Fr. Worcester relates, “I
approached Fr. McFarland and Dean Ainlay, and they were very
enthusiastic. They contacted the Worcester Art Museum on
our behalf, and the project began to become a reality. Some
months later, Gauvin Bailey spoke to the president of Clark
University about the project. Holy Cross and Clark then formed
a partnership with the museum to sponsor this show.”
According to Fr. Worcester, one crucial aspect of the current
exhibit is its chronological—as well as interdisciplinary—scope.
That roughly a third of the population of Europe perished
in epidemics of bubonic plague between 1348 and 1350 is well
known, Fr. Worcester says, and this record has been thoroughly
studied. Less well known, he notes, is the degree to which
epidemics of plague recurred locally into the 18 th century.
Pointing out that, in 1720, half the population of Marseilles
perished in such an epidemic, Fr. Worcester explains that
the Italian peninsula, as a hub of trade—a nexus of
seaports with links to East and West—was particularly
susceptible to this problem, as new strains of plague were
constantly being imported.
“Italian cities often sought deliverance from pestilence
by enlisting the help of local saints who subsequently combined
the roles of city patron and plague saint,” Bailey
notes in his essay in the exhibit catalog. “We have
seen several examples of this in this catalog, notably Saint
Januarius, patron of Naples , or St. Charles Borromeo, his
counterpart in Milan . Such saints often dated back to early
Christian or medieval times, and their cults were only resurrected
in the context of the plague in the early modern period.
Borromeo, a contemporary figure who played an active role
in the post-Tridentine reconstruction of the church, was
a famous exception.”
The image of Borromeo may be seen from more than one angle,
Fr. Worcester suggests: Cardinal - Archbishop of Milan,
a diplomat of the Holy See under his uncle, Pope Pius IV,
and an important actor in the Catholic Reformation, Borromeo
is venerated for his selfless ministrations to victims of
the plague—in one sense, then, this and other paintings
of Borromeo serve to proclaim the good works of the Church
and its steadfastness in the face of disease and death. In
another sense, according to Fr. Worcester, these images may
be seen as a correction, intended for members of the clergy
and laity who fled a scourge—in a commonplace of the
time—and, in so doing, severed the bonds, husband from
wife, parent from child, neighbor from neighbor, priest from
congregation, which held society together.
Fr. Worcester places particular emphasis on the ways in
which an interdisciplinary approach to art, to history, to
culture “can provide a window onto times past—not
only onto institutional or political history—but to
the history of mentalities of fear and security, to the history
of popular and elite religion, to the history of daily life.”
In the here and now, all of the curators see the exhibit
as having direct impact on their scholarship, their teaching
and their students.
“My work on the exhibition is fully integrated into
my intellectual life at the University of Massachusetts Boston
,” says Jones, “and has seen fruit in recent
talks I have given in the United States , Britain and Italy
.”
Fr. Worcester points to the current semester:
“I am teaching in the College’s First-Year
Program this year,” he says, “and our theme is ‘Confronted
by Suffering and Loss, How Then Shall We Live?’ The
exhibition will be the culminating event of the year, in
April, when we take all 130 students to the museum.”
Bailey has similar plans:
“I intend to bring students into the galleries,” he
says, “and have them study and present in front of
artworks. This ‘up close and personal’ approach
to studying art is 10 times more effective than working with
slides in a darkened lecture room. Also, I hope that I can
get some of them hired as docents or interns, giving them
a better idea of how the museum works–invaluable expertise
for those planning careers in the museum field.”
“As a result of working on this project,” Mormando
says, “whenever I study, teach or write about early
modern Italian history and culture, I constantly ask myself: What
about the plague? How has it affected the history or particular
theme I am studying?”
The “Hope and Healing” exhibition will
run from April 3 through Sept. 25 at the Worcester Art
Museum. Additional information can be found online
at: http://www.worcesterart.org/Exhibitions/
Donald N.S. Unger is a New York City-born
writer of fiction and nonfiction and a political commentator
for NPR affiliate radio WFCR. He lives in Worcester.
More on the exhibit in this issue:
Hope and Healing>
Excerpt
from the exhibition catalog on
Antiveduto Grammatica’s work, “Saint
Charles Borromeo and Two Angels" >
From the Dean's Desk...>
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