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ART REVIEW In Wo chael I comin Desperately tercel Strick left; al Charl∎ Painting Twos The Plague

By HOLLAND COTTER

WORCESTER, MASS. OME of us thought the end of a world had come when AIDS started pick- ing off friends and lovers in the 1980's, and in a sense it had. A cer- tain world really did end. Yet even that experience left us unequipped to imag- ine the kind of despair today blanketing parts of Africa, where the disease has spread mon- very s strously, reducing whole communities to less the pa than a memory, to nothing. of pair Pandemics of one kind or another have P. always terrorized human history. And where a divir science has been helpless and politics mute, tamen religion and art have responded. That re- now: r sponse is the subject of "Hope and Healing: ble of worke in 590, zens id city s Legen pal foi emper chael

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Hope Worce OME of us thought the end of a world had come when AIDS started pick- ing off friends and lovers in the 1980's, and in a sense it had. A cer- tain world really did end. Yet even that experience left us unequipped to imag- ine the kind of despair today blanketing parts of Africa, where the disease has spread mon- very strously, reducing whole communities to less the IN than a memory, to nothing. of pat Pandemics of one kind or another have always terrorized human history. And where a divi science has been helpless and politics mute, tame] religion and art have responded. That re- now: sponse is the subject of "Hope and Healing: ble c work( V in 59(

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adopt appe frequ other embi renc( ed fo fame Blacl Painting in in a Time of Plague, 1500- 1800," at the Worcester Art Museum, a small, probe penumbral, single-minded exhibition that on tr does at least one thing museum shows almost congi never do. were It presents mainstream Christian "high cluck art," church art, in terms of function rather the a than form. The 35 paintings included are con- bleec sidered as devotional icons rather than as old selik master monuments. They are viewed from an existential rather than a doctrinal or so- rich ciopolitical perspective; through the eyes of the t a believer for whom a picture of the Virgin is the a moral lesson and an emotional encounter calle before it is a Tiepolo or a Tintoretto. rais( Although Americans have relatively lit- werE tle trouble seeing African or Indian filth: — art that isn't really "us" — in this light, Ju- tend deo-Christian religious art is another story. It's as if we are afraid of what it once was, or

embarrassed by it, or simply unaware of its Photographs courtesy of Worcester Art Museum WEEKENDArtSMIr ..■••••••■ New pork auto

In Worcester: Sirani's "Mi- chael the Archangel Over- coming Satan," left; Van Dyck's "Saint Rosalie In- -ely terceding for the Plague- Stricken of Palermo," far left; and Grammatica's "St. Charles Borromeo and Two Angels," below.

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STER, MASS. d of a world tarted pick- ers in the had. A cer- d. Yet even ed to imag- keting parts ;pread mon- very specific power to answer, in the case•of iities to less the paintings gathered here, a culture's dry of pain. - lother have Pain in the form of pestilence is taken:as . And where a divine rebuke to human sin in the Old Tes- &tics mute, tament, a directive telling us to shape up, d. That re- now: admit our guilt, change our ways, hum- ad Healing: ble ourselves. And sometimes contrition worked. When a shattering plague struck in 590, Pope Gregory the Great led the citi- zens in a penitential procession through the city streets, petitioning heaven for relief, Legend has it that as he approached the pi- pal fortress that was once the tomb of the emperor Hadrian, he saw the archangel Mi- chael perched on its summit, sheathing his sword. Soon afterward, the crisis lifted. The image of the archangel was quickly

Hope and Healing Worcester Art Museum

very specific power to answer, in the case ,of the paintings gathered here, a culture's Cry of pain. Pain in the form of pestilence is taken:as a divine rebuke to human sin in the Old Tes- tament, a directive telling us to shape ug, now: admit our guilt, change our ways, hum- ble ourselves. And sometimes contrition worked. When a shattering plague struck Rome in 590, Pope Gregory the Great led the citi- zens in a penitential procession through the city streets, petitioning heaven for relief. Legend has it that as he approached the pa- pal fortress that was once the tomb of the emperor Hadrian, he saw the archangel Mi- chael perched on its summit, sheathing his sword. Soon afterward, the crisis lifted. - The image of the archangel was quickly

Hope and Healing Worcester Art Museum

adopted as a talisman against disease, to be appealed to when needed. And the need was frequent. For centuries, one part of or an- other was either recovering from a plague, embroiled in one or anticipating a recur- rence. Cholera and typhus probably account- ed for some of these calamities, but the most famous killer was the bubonic plague, the Black Death. Transmitted by flea-infested rats, it probably arrived in Italy in the 14th century on trading ships from Asia. It spread fast in congested cities, and its primary symptoms were unmistakable and grotesque. They in- cluded agonizing swellings at the neck, undei; the arms and in the groin, and subcutaneous bleeding that turned parts of the body a brui- selike black. The only sure cure was avoidance. The rich hightailed it to the countryside. Inside the towns, quarantine went into effect, wits the sick isolated in prisonlike infirmar41 called lazarettos. Named for the man Jett* raised from the dead in the Gospels, t were often hopeless places, crowded filthy. Confinement could be a death set tence. .* Or so say reports from the 16th centlytt Continued on Page 29 • Photographs courtesy of Worcester Art Museum .* ART REVIEW Painting the Great Plagues, Hoping for Some Miracles tying a large cross. He is the subject of nu- Continued From Weekend Page 27 merous pictures, including some, like one done by Antiveduto Grammatica around onward, by people who witnessed epidemics 1619, that have the immediacy of portrai- in Rome, Naples, Venice and elsewhere. In ture. each city, holy images were marshaled as a And then there are the icons, like Anthony first line of defense. Some were old and Van Dyck's paintings of the Sicilian St. time-tested, others whipped up on the spot. Rosalie, clearly spun from the air. Rosalie Still others were produced as tokens of was an obscure figure even by provincial thanks once danger had passed, as was the standards. But when her remains were for- case with Guido Reni's towering painting of tuitously "discovered" near Palermo in St. Michael trouncing Satan, a copy of 1624, the year the city was hit by plague, she which, by Giovanni Andrea Sirani, is in the was elevated to official intercessor on be- show. half of the city. Many saints in addition to Michael were Van Dyck, who was in Palermo at the enlisted in the cause. St. Sebastian was a time, was asked to create an image of her, standby. A young soldier sentenced to death and he cooked up a shrewd all-purpose pas- in ancient Rome for his religious beliefs, he tiche. He gave her a Franciscan-brown robe had been tied to a tree, shot with arrows, and the long, tangled hair of a Magdalene, then nursed back to health by fellow Chris- but also a healthy peaches-and-cream com- tians. Both the method of his punishment — plexion and a look of self-assured bliss as the arrow was an ancient plague symbol — she soared heavenward. • and the fact of his recovery made him a nat- The concept was a big hit. The enterpris- ural as a protector. ing artist spun out several variations on it, He appears several times in the exhibi- and two are in the show, which has been or- tion. And in a deftly sketched oil painting by ganized by an impressive quartet of schol- Jacopo Bassano, probably intended as a cer- ars: Gauvin Alexander Bailey of Clark Uni- emonial banner, he is accompanied by a fel- versity; Pamela M. Jones of the University low disease-fighter, St. Roch. of Massachusetts, Boston; Franco Morman- Roch was actually a product of plague- do of ; and Thomas W. panic. He first turns up in popular culture in Worcester of the College of the Holy Cross. the 14th century, with a reputation for hav- Devotion alone, however, wasn't always ing cared for and cured victims in Italy be- enough. You said your prayers, and the fore catching the disease himself. Thanks to plague raged on. So some people pursued the miraculous ministrations of a pet dog, the more proactive, practical option of pious he regained his health. But he never forgot deeds. And no deeds were more usefully hu- • his ordeal: he is traditionally depicted point- mane than the so-called corporal acts of ing to a plague swelling or sore on his thigh. mercy. Some hero-saints were historical near- The church defined seven such acts. They contemporaries of artists who painted them. included feeding the hungry, caring for the St. Charles Borromeo (1538-1584), the aris- sick and burying the dead, and art served as tocratic archbishop of Milan, was one. He an instruction manual in how they should be tended to the sick during the pestilence of handled. Burial was especially crucial dur- Worcester Art Museum 1576-77 and walked the streets barefoot, car- ing epidemics, when corpses might increase Jacopo Bassano's "Saints Sebastian and Roch," an oil on canvas from about 1551. the spread of infection. And the Flemish "Hope and Healing: Painting in Italy in a painter Michael Sweerts contributes a san- itized, promotional image of charitable in- avoided by religious pictures, which were hauled off in hasty, unceremonious trips to Time of Plague, 1500-1800" remains at the meant to inspire hope and soothe fear. Carlo what might well have been a common Worcester Art Museum, 55 Salisbury Street, terment to the exhibition. A few artists, though, went for something Coppola's "Pestilence of 1656 in Naples" is a grave. Worcester, Mass., (508) 799-4406, through rare example of painting as reportage, doc- Giovanni Martinelli's "Memento Mori Sept. 25. stronger, an in-the-trenches realism usually umenting a grim scene of bodies being (Death Comes to the Dinner Table)" seems Painting the Great Plagues, Hoping for Some Miracles rying a large cross. He is the subject of nu- Continued From Weekend Page 27 merous pictures, including some, like one T done by Antiveduto Grammatica around onward, by people who witnessed epidemics 1619, that have the immediacy of portrai- ai in Rome, Naples, Venice and elsewhere. In ture. each city, holy images were marshaled as a And then there are the icons, like Anthony first line of defense. Some were old and Van Dyck's paintings of the Sicilian St. time-tested, others whipped up on the spot. Rosalie, clearly spun from the air. Rosalie ai Still others were produced as tokens of was an obscure figure even by provincial thanks once danger had passed, as was the standards. But when her remains were for- case with Guido Reni's towering painting of tuitously "discovered" near Palermo in to St. Michael trouncing Satan, a copy of 1624, the year the city was hit by plague, she tac which, by Giovanni Andrea Sirani, is in the was elevated to official intercessor on be- as show. half of the city. she Many saints in addition to Michael were Van Dyck, who was in Palermo at the tin, enlisted in the cause. St. Sebastian was a time, was asked to create an image of her, ala standby. A young soldier sentenced to death and he cooked up a shrewd all-purpose pas- vis in ancient Rome for his religious beliefs, he tiche. He gave her a Franciscan-brown robe the had been tied to a tree, shot with arrows, and the long, tangled hair of a Magdalene, ing then nursed back to health by fellow Chris- but also a healthy peaches-and-cream com- tians. Both the method of his punishment — plexion and a look of self-assured bliss as slit the arrow was an ancient plague symbol — she soared heavenward. val • and the fact of his recovery made him a nat- The concept was a big hit. The enterpris- od ural as a protector. ing artist spun out several variations on it, He He appears several times in the exhibi- and two are in the show, which has been or- pa( tion. And in a deftly sketched oil painting by ganized by an impressive quartet of schol- all( Jacopo Bassano, probably intended as a cer- ars: Gauvin Alexander Bailey of Clark Uni- rel. emonial banner, he is accompanied by a fel- versity; Pamela M. Jones of the University trig low disease-fighter, St. Roch. of Massachusetts, Boston; Franco Morman- chz Roch was actually a product of plague- do of Boston College; and Thomas W. panic. He first turns up in popular culture in Worcester of the College of the Holy Cross. onl the 14th century, with a reputation for hav- Devotion alone, however, wasn't always an ing cared for and cured victims in Italy be- enough. You said your prayers, and the sor fore catching the disease himself. Thanks to plague raged on. So some people pursued list the miraculous ministrations of a pet dog, the more proactive, practical option of pious enc he regained his health. But he never forgot deeds. And no deeds were more usefully hu- pre • his ordeal: he is traditionally depicted point- mane than the so-called corporal acts of 1 ing to a plague swelling or sore on his thigh. mercy. ing Some hero-saints were historical near- The church defined seven such acts. They why contemporaries of artists who painted them. included feeding the hungry, caring for the St. Charles Borromeo (1538-1584), the aris- sick and burying the dead, and art served as All tocratic archbishop of Milan, was one. He an instruction manual in how they should be cen tended to the sick during the pestilence of handled. Burial was especially crucial dur- Worcester Art Museum the 1576-77 and walked the streets barefoot, car- ing epidemics, when corpses might increase Jacopo Bassano's "Saints Sebastian and Roch," an oil on canvas from about 1551. will the spread of infection. And the Flemish qua "Hope and Healing: Painting in Italy in a painter Michael Sweerts contributes a san- elei itized, promotional image of charitable in- avoided by religious pictures, which were hauled off in hasty, unceremonious trips to hov Time of Plague, 1500-1800" remains at the meant to inspire hope and soothe fear. Carlo what might well have been a common Worcester Art Museum, 55 Salisbury Street, terment to the exhibition. lief, A few artists, though, went for something Coppola's "Pestilence of 1656 in Naples" is a grave. tair Worcester, Mass., (508) 799-4406, through rare example of painting as reportage, doc- Giovanni Martinelli's "Memento Mori Sept. 25. stronger, an in-the-trenches realism usually ear umenting a grim scene of bodies being (Death Comes to the Dinner Table)" seems pla( ■ LIIUJG LII/I./1-11G- all1G4 0I-,1GGII III LUG 1111U111G IJI W1111allt/11, IIIG 10/ / 11a,uUII la GALVIIUU III ,1.111,y L Lill ../fpGl1ll 1115 5w III., 10 %ASC. - 1 and Jack a gallery, "Psycho" acquires a monumental- real 1998 time, when Mr. Ganz's own life is lenging to survey. The catalog provides an eaking just ity that seems commensurate with its place two decades further along, and undoubtedly expansive backdrop by flanking Mr. Ba- ing creates in the popular imagination. more shadowed by the prospect of death. silica's lucid discussion of the works with,-es- roman who The most emotionally powerful work in Despite the literalness of its title, this says by Rob Yeo, on the history of film 'ap- ns, and the the show is Pierre Huyghe's 1998 "L'El- show is not entirely faithful to its premises. propriation in underground film (startjng lipse," a triple projection that is also the Mr. Fast's CNN images are taken from tele- with Joseph Cornell), and by Lawrence Les- age of the only one to add to an existing film. Mr. vision, while "Horror Chase," another work sig, on the creative chill that recent changes lead char- Huyghe has created a scene that was never by the McCoys, is appropriation-free. Made in copyright law are bringing to the arts. more than actually part of Wim Wenders's 1977 movie from scratch but relying heavily on movie You come away from this show wits a each actor "The American Friend," but was merely im- convention, it shows a terrified man, pur- new sense of film as a found object; as.an rrative. plied by that directorial staple of pacing and sued by an unseen monster, hurtling end- immense reservoir of untapped form and ninating or economy, a jump cut. The omitted scene is a lessly through the rooms of a movie-set feeling; and as a highly charged raw !Da- ing the im- 10-minute walk that would have been taken house, because the film repeatedly changes terial by which artists can celebrate, exam- ing "Long by Jonathan, played by Bruno Ganz, from direction, running backward and forward. ine and stave off the deluge of images b4r- y monitors his room in a Paris hotel, across the Seine, Such fissures highlight the absence of ing down on us from all sides.

les, es )ject of nu- e, like one Then (as now), sometimes ca around of portrai- art and religion had to std ke Anthony in when science had no 7: iicilian St. tir. Rosalie answers. provincial s were for- alermo in to be on an entirely different conceptlal plague, she tack: it's an old-fashion allegory, as didactic sor on be- as a medieval sermon. But it, too, carries a ∎ shock of real life. Three young dandies sit- •m at the ting down to a. bounteous meal register age of her, alarmed distaste at the sight of a skeletal irpose pas- visitor. But a young woman in the center of orown robe the picture reacts right from the gut, ga'sp- 'Iagdalene, ing in horror. She knows this is the end. - ream com- In some other show, this painting might ad bliss as slip into ready art-historical categories: it's vaguely Caravaggiesque, it embodies peri- enterpris- od attitudes, and so on. But in "Hope pa tions on it, Healing," it has a peculiarly visceral im- as been or- pact, because a context has been set up that of schol- allows for that, one that accepts the idea of a Clark Uni- religious image as, first and foremosC a University trigger of feelings, an agent of interior o Morman- change. homas W. I am far from suggesting that this is The ily Cross. only valid approach to take to Renaissance n't always and religious art. But it is an -ab- 3, and the sorbing and instructive one, a way to estab- le pursued lish direct connections to lives and experi- on of pious ences in the past that have links to the :sefully hu- present. •al acts of This approach also prompts an encout,g; ing thought. Maybe someday in the futere, acts. They when we are not here, a few bright schollirs ing for the will re-examine art produced in response to t served as AIDS in the in the late 21)th / should be century, and in Africa at the beginning of rucial dur- Worcester Art Museum the 21st century. And maybe those scholars it increase Jacopo Bassano's "Saints Sebastian and Roch," an oil on canvas from about 1551. will choose to focus not on the comparative e Flemish quality of objects or styles, but on intangible elements that science tends to be shy : rtes a san- hauled off in hasty, unceremonious trips to Lritable in- avoided by religious pictures, which were how art provokes emotion and conveys be- meant to inspire hope and soothe fear. Carlo what might well have been a common lief, and how a certain kind of art, at a Cer- Coppola's "Pestilence of 1656 in Naples" is a grave. tain time, gave certain people who felt the something rare example of painting as reportage, doc- Giovanni Martinelli's "Memento Mori 3m usually earth had been swept away beneath them a umenting a grim scene of bodies being (Death Comes to the Dinner Table)" seems place to stand.