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Docent Council Dialogue Winter 2013 Published by the Docent Council Volume XLIIl No 2 From Ethereal to Earthy The Legacy of Caravaggio 1 Inside the Dialogue Reflections on a Snowy Morning.......................Diane Macris, President, Docent Council Page 3 Winter Message..................................................Charlene Shang Miller, Docent and Tour Programs Manager Page 3 A Docent’s Appreciation of Alona Wilson........................................................JoAn Hagan, Docent Page 4 An Idea whose Time had Come................................Sandy Voice Page 5 Presentations:Works of Art from Burst of Light ......Docent Contributors Pages 7-20 The Transformative Genius of Caravaggio...............JoAn Hagan Page10 Flicks: The Dialogue Goes to the Cinema....................................................Sandy Voice Page 10 A Docent’s Guide to the Saints..................................Beth Malley Page 11 From the Sublime to the Ridiculous and Back..........Hope Vath Page 13 The Bookshelf: A Book Review.................................BethMalley Page 15 A Passion for Stickley ...............................................Laura Harris Page 20 From the Collection of Stephen Gray Docent Council Dialogue The Dialogue is created by and for docents and provides a forum for touring ideas and techniques, publishing information that is vital to docent interests such as museum changes, and recording docent activities and events. The newsletter is published in Fall, Winter, and Spring editions. Editorial Staff Sandy Voice Co-Editor Copy Beth Malley Co-Editor Layout and Graphics Lillian Kezerian Associate Copy Editor Contributors: Maria Adams, Judy Barton, Nat Brody, JoAn Hagan, Laura Harris, Lillian Kezerian, Beth Malley, Leta Marks, Susan Meisler, Carol Urick, Hope Vath, Sandy Voice Cover Art: Joan Traverso Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, 600 Main Street, Har8ord, CT 06103-2990 www.wadsworthatheneum.org 2 Reflections on a Snowy Morning Diane Macris, Docent Council President It’s a snow day! Schools are closed, so I no longer have visitors? What could be better than sharing that a tour and suddenly find myself with a day to indulge in experience in a debriefing session with fellow docents other pursuits. Some of you may know that my home is who are both valued friends and colleagues? We docents pretty much buried in the woods. So on snowy days put a great deal of time and effort into attending training when I walk our basset hound, Emma, I often recite to and preparing our tours. Sometimes we feel tired and myself Robert Frost’s poem, Stopping by Woods on a wish for a break. When we get the break, however, as I Snowy Evening. It complements the feeling of hushed did today, we realize that we miss being at the museum beauty and solitude I get when surrounded by the giving that tour and seeing each other. towering trees cloaked in white. The poem also By the time you read this, 2012 will be over and there encourages reflection. Emma doesn’t so much walk as will be no more snow days this year. We will be looking meander, so I can take the time to reflect while I ahead to spring and enjoying both Burst of Light: meander with her. Caravaggio and His Legacy and the burst of light that This morning, I reflected on the tour I would have given comes with longer, and soon to be warmer, days. I know and the friends I would have seen. I had looked forward that whatever the season, we will enjoy sharing the to both. While it was nice to have a free morning, I also incomparable works of art in the Wadsworth Atheneum realized that I was missing something. What could be with the public and will cherish the company of all our better than sharing favorite works of art with museum docent friends. Winter Message Charlene Shang Miller, Docent and Tour Programs Manager As I write this message, anticipation for Burst of Light: can be seen in Morgan Great Hall. Interestingly, Caravaggio and His Legacy is building towards its Amaryllis, a large-scale sculpture by her father, Tony opening on March 6. We expect a busy touring schedule Smith, was recently placed on the lawn in front of the for this exhibition and appreciate the docents signing up museum. Newly conserved, this reinstallation celebrates for the additional tour opportunities. Thank you the 100th anniversary of the artist’s birth. Another especially to the advance team of docents who have contemporary art installation of note is Deb Sokolow/ been diligently working to be ready to conduct tours on MATRIX 166 (on view through June 30) which intrigues opening day and week. Happily, Eric Zafran, co-curator and challenges with commentary on contemporary of the exhibition and former curator of European art, politics, human nature, and the cult of personality— returns to talk with the docents about the exhibition, and asking viewers to consider what is fiction and what is additional docent training focused on touring will then truth. The artist’s talk with the docents was illuminating follow. Mark your calendars: we look forward to the and humorous and certainly added to our understanding Docent Memorial Lecture with Keith Christiansen, of her exhibition. These works raise particular Chairman of European Paintings at the Metropolitan challenges in touring regarding audience, content, and Museum of Art, on Tuesday, April 23, at 6:00. In this even physical location and type; in training we free program, which is open to the public and discussed the opportunities for rich discussions, open- generously sponsored by the Docent Council, he will ended interpretations, and meaningful connections discuss Caravaggio and the revolution he led in painting. across the collections. Be sure to check out the other public programs planned Finally, I want to thank the Docent Council again for the in conjunction with Burst of Light which remains open wonderful festivities for my 10 year anniversary. I began through June 16. my tenure at the Wadsworth in September 2002 and the Concurrent with the Caravaggio exhibition, Ascension time has certainly flown by. I cannot thank you all by Bill Viola, a recently acquired contemporary work of enough not only for your dedication to the museum and art, is going on view in the Heublein Gallery. This video our visitors, but for the caring and the friendship that and sound installation coincides with the Caravaggio you express to me. Docents never cease to inspire me, exhibition as both artists utilize strong light and shadow and it is such a great pleasure and joy, professionally to communicate the subject matter with intense drama. and personally, to work with you! Another newer acquisition, Kiki Smith’s Daisy Chain, 3 A Docent’s Appreciation of Alona Wilson By JoAn Hagan Te Amistad Centr for Art and Culture Welcomed Alona in 2010. She guided te Evoluton of David Driskel And shared his works of print and pen. She curatd Memories, Colectve and Contmporary – Twent five years of te Simpson Colecton, Revealing stries of race and culture, Creatng a place for fact and reflecton. She gave docent taining on Duncanson and Tanner, Te American in Afican American Art, And opened our tought t deeper meanings, Connectng te artsts wit insight and heart. We feel Alona’s rapport wit docents. She gives us insights tat ilustat ways Alona Wilson To share te objects wit deeper meaning When turing visitrs trough te displays. A greetng fom Alona is warm and wonderfl. Her taining insightfl, we al agree. We wish her wel as she leaves te Wadswort, And Godspeed in finishing her Ph.D. 4 An Idea whose Time had Come At the heart of what Protestants dismissed as By Sandy Voice institutionalized deception were images: the pictures and sculptures of saints and Madonnas, of the Savior, and— most blasphemous of all—the Heavenly Father himself (see the Sistine Chapel). It was their firm conviction that these were the idols that that kept the faithful in thrall to the Pope of Rome and his minions. Perhaps the Reformation’s most dramatic expressions were the covert distribution of the vernacular bibles and the bonfires across the Netherlands, Germany, England, and much of Switzerland that consumed the “graven images.” Appalled and shaken by the scale and fury of the destruction, the Vatican marshaled its troops at the Council of Trent to mount a counterattack. One of the Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, Saint Francis of Assisi in Ecstasy, major issues the Council tackled in its final session in c. 1595–96 The Ella Gallup Sumner and Mary Catlin Sumner 1561-3 was the role of sacred paintings in inspiring the Collection Fund, 1943.222 faithful to worship, venerate, and obey. The Church Fathers knew that since the vast majority of men and women in Europe were illiterate, images were still the It was Caravaggio’s moment. The Roman church had most powerful way to instruct the masses and foster been waiting for him. Assailed by the Northern devotion to the sacraments (particularly that of European Reformation, it urgently needed a sacred penance). To do otherwise was to condemn the poor and visual drama that simple believers could respond to unlettered to ignorance, heresy and, ultimately, the tangibly as if it were acted out in their presence. The damnation of their immortal souls. Perversely, the time had come to humanize the Gospel. church commissioned more works, actually many more. But it was prudent. It banished the extravaganzas that When Martin Luther nailed his Ninety-Five Theses to had found their way into churches: depictions of the doors of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany fabulous wonders done by dubious saints, liberties taken in 1517 on the eve of All Saints’ Day, the hammer blows with the likenesses of the Father and the Holy Virgin, sounded a death knell to Roman Catholicism as the sole and gross indecencies that made worship seem more like Christian religion in Western Europe.
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