Everyone loves to ply labels, from arts writers to art historians, yet Alison Bishop '94, in conjunction with co-curator Richard Rand, provides an alternative to the fixedly labelled, epochal structure of traditional art history with her "Medieval into Renaissance" show.
The exhibit, now showing in the Hood Museum of Art, focuses on the gradual shift between the two artistic eras, examining painting, sculpture, engravings and manuscripts as media in transition. Bishop has carefully chosen 18 works that resist the usual categorization into either period.
The four illuminated manuscripts of the exhibit demonstrate this theme. Known as "Books of Hours," or personal prayer books, these are similar to ones penned by monastic orders in the Middle Ages. But they date from as late as the beginning of the 16th century- decades after the invention of the printing press and well into the Renaissance.
At that time the art of illumination was far from forgotten. The vibrant colors of these Books of Hours have been mercifully preserved in their original splendor through the centuries. The detail and precision of the illuminations, often on an extremely minute scale, surpass all description.
But the exhibit's continuity is thematic rather than stylistic: The show is subtitled "Scenes from the lives of Mary and Jesus," and all the works share that motif.
The spectacular efforts of Albrecht Durer re-work the resilient religious themes with a new technical facility. His two engravings in the exhibit are notable for their shade and texture, which produce a remarkable depth of image.The woodcut "The Crucifixion" (1498-99) is perhaps the most moving work in the show.
The piece exudes lament: top to bottom, the scene seems to weep as the viewer's eye is led from the lowering moon, through a melting host of mourners, down to the dirt and bones at the bottom which punctuate the moment with an awful finality.
This is a view of traditional art not in terms of limited periods, places or styles but in fluid motion through the ages. The wise reader will not miss this small but challenging presentation of some of the most historically significant motifs in art as they evolved through periods Medieval to Renaissance.
The exhibit closes April 24.
