THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. LEISURE V ARTS WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 2005 ,n. Some People Are Idiots. Painting in Italy in a Time of Plague up to the parking lot del. The clouds rising rapidly from the By Tom L. Freudenheim Merriam Peak, Eric west look threatening and most of the gas tank is on empty group at the pass decide not to risk sum- Worcester, Mass. a if we will be able to miting in a storm. Eric and I plunge on- onfession: The Worcester Art Mu- the end of the day. We ward toward Mendel. We climb separate seum has made me rethink my ap- el in Bishop and as a routes up a ridge toward what looks like proach to exhibitions. I generally trting an hour later the top. It actually turns out to be the C [p, around 7 a.m. first of a series of towers. Ninety minutes just like the direct experience of visually feasting on a show, eschewing the various 7 of Bob's group as we later I'm standing on the last tower be- fore the summit, only a few feet lower, gallery assists—audio systems that have 'e stay on the trail too migrated to iPod mode, free brochures in [ the peak from the but a long down climb, traverse and climb from the mountain's apex. It's 1 large type for the visually impaired, jazzy LI blame Bob for this designer text panels of a size and force to rig late and we're still p.m., our turn-around time. Eric's no- where in sight. I turn around. compete with the art on view, impairing my m the bottom of Mer- vision of whatever they are explaining. So I climb a smaller peak Day 5: More espresso. I notice that was bound to have some misgivings about ne much closer to us. Bishop has a hand and foot spa. Worcester's "Hope and Healing: Painting A the climbing is en- Day 6: Since we've been on the Chal- in Italy in a Time of Plague, 1500-1800." pleasant 10-hour day lenge for almost a week without actually With 37 Baroque paintings by artists Bob's Web site, our bagging any of the marquee peaks, we )NF," for Did Not Fin- figure that maybe what we need is more who worked in Italy, this turns into a hich we are becoming of a challenge. So Eric and I decide to try brief art tour from Milan and Venice to to get up today's peak, Isosceles, by one of Rome, Naples and Palermo, while also le to catch up on our its harder routes, a moderate technical suggesting the interactions between re- Intl 9 a.m. Then we climb that will involve lugging rope and curring bouts of bubonic plague and at- Canaletto's Venetian painting 'Entrance to the Grand Canal' (1730) features the Santa gear. We start an hour tempts to cope with disasters that often Maria della Salute, a church built in hopes that God would end the 1630 plague. before the main group decimated as much as half of a city's and are sitting by a lake population. An added bonus is the oppor- text, as does Venice's wondrous Scuola di gested that AIDS is divine retribution for when they race past at 9 tunity to view masterpieces by Canal- S. Rocco (without which we can't begin a sinful world, and remembering South a.m. We're sitting at the etto, Bellotto, Van Dyck and painters to understand Tintoretto, but that's a dif- African President Thabe Umbeke's skit- lake because it wasn't who often receive less attention, such as ferent subject). In the Bassano and Luini tishness in addressing the impact of the until we got to the base Strozzi, Regnier and Sweerts. paintings, St. Roch and St. Sebastian are AIDS pandemic on his country, these of the peak that we real- Traditional art historians have even paired, perhaps for emphasis on plague-related paintings start to exert ized there are two sum- trained us to believe that the most signifi- their potential curative power. odd new force. Seeking aid from divine mits, the higher east cant and memorable art is disconnected intervention seems less bizarre when Biblical references are enriched in seen in our context of believing that in a one that Bob and his from the grubby realities the rest of us the plague context as well. Angelo group are heading up, face every day, and thus to address art world of amazing scientific advances Caroselli's rich "Plague at Ashdod" and sometimes risky trial therapies, we and the west one that with regard to the interface of move- (1630, National Gallery, London), a Eric and I were sup- ments, focusing on developmental and for- begin to believe that miracles may, in- copy after Poussin, graphically shows deed, be possible. posed to climb. Will Bob mal issues that explicate art history. Re- the dead and dying and the anticipatory give us credit if we don't cent approaches to deciphering meaning fright of those looking on; the gorgeous Yet a surprisingly large proportion of climb the same summit? in art have often gone to the other ex- formal qualities of the painting don't these paintings are satisfying just as Eventually we head diminish the gruesome realities of the paintings. Van Dyck's two (of four origi- up the southwest but- nal) emotive St. Rosalie paintings—her HOPE AND HEALING scene depicted. Moses and the brazen Magdalene look also shares a touch of tress, which turns out to Worcester Art Museum serpent, here seen in a painting by be easy climbing, no Rubens's Marie de Medici—have proba- Worcester, Mass. Gian Domenico Ferretti (1736, Collec- bly not been seen together since the 17th need for the rope or any tion Mary Jane Harris), demonstrate of the gear we've hauled Through Sept. 25 century. Bellotto's view of the Tiber com- Challenge: Junction Peak. how the recurrent horror of the plague bines the painter's unique clarity of light for seven miles. When is understood in the context of biblical we get to the summit we see that Bob and treme —asserting that everything can and (think: sharp-focus photography) with inking espresso and therefore must be viewed through social tradition: those who gazed on the ser- an eerie darkness—perhaps the miasma A in a café in Bishop, 0 some of his group have already climbed and/or political lenses. And the culture- pent would be cured. (dirty air) that was thought to be a cause thp nnlv thinag vim L2, the ridge to the even higher bonus peak. ie gear we ye uauieu IL now tne recurrent norror of tile plague bines the painter's unique clarity of light seven miles. When treme — asserting that everything can and is understood in the context of biblical (think: sharp-focus photography) with we see that Bob and therefore must be viewed through social tradition: those who gazed on the ser- an eerie darkness—perhaps the miasma we already climbed and/or political lenses. And the culture- pent would be cured. (dirty air) that was thought to be a cause higher bonus peak. war skirmishes of our day have probably While works have been lent by many of the plague. Sweerts's "Burying the beat us back to the made curators even more skittish about of the major collections—a seminal Mar- Dead" (1646-52) is one of several works assertive engagement in such issues. cantonio Raimondi engraving after that remind us how powerful was the [rows a barbeque at hold of Michelangelo (especially the Happily, this exhibition can't really Raphael from the National Gallery in yes us credit for our Washington, a luminous Crespi canvas writhing figures of "Deluge" in the Sis- re for six. And the be seen as a balancing act between those tine Chapel) and Raphael (not only in his common positions, but rather as a care- from the Getty, a Van Dyck from the Met- ropolitan Museum of Art—many of the own image of the plague, but also in the fully focused means of addressing a long- great Vatican room paintingS) on the there are four ago crisis that tends to be at the margins works are gathered from collections only uding the masochis- a diligent museumgoer would have visited— painters who followed them. 'eak, which involves of our consciousness, even if we com- and on those visits one might not have And many intriguing vignettes monly use it as a convenient frame of abound. I was struck especially by the an 8,600-foot eleva- reference (e.g., "avoid like the plague"). noticed Italian Baroque paintings while venient work crisis looking for the better-touted master- variety of arrow images—from the San Francisco. I History books (and guidebooks) give us works. This is a tribute to the project's wizened old lady ever so delicately remov- ing to find another information, but prior to the invention of team of imaginative scholars —Gauvin Al- ing the arrow from St. Sebastian's chest Area or renting a photography and the expansion of the exandra Bailey, Pamela M. Jones, Franco in Regnier's painting (1626) to the Roman- Der that I'll miss a mass media, painting was probably the Mormando, Thomas W. Worcester, Sheila wreathed Sebastian triumphantly holding rent if I finish the most potent tool for psychological and C. Barker, James Clifton and Andrew Hop- his own arrow aloft in the lower left cor- he car faster than visceral immersion in tragic events.