chrysler museum

Catholic Art Shines at Norfolk's Chrysler Museum

By Nora Hamerman
Special to the HERALD
(From the Issue of 7/13/06)

Three eras in Catholic art can be appreciated this summer at the Chrysler Museum in Norfolk, thanks to the unique character of the permanent collection and the treasures of an English aristocratic family on loan for a special exhibit until Aug. 13.
The loan show, “Masterpieces from an English Country House: The Fitzwilliam Collection,” includes a set of eight small devotional pictures that originated on the European continent between the 14th and 16th centuries, all honoring the Blessed Virgin and Child. The pictures include a “Holy Family” by the Manchester Master, an Italian artist very close to Michelangelo; an “Adoration of the Magi” by the Flemish Master of the Holy Blood; and the luminous “Head of the Virgin Mary” by Quentin Matsys, a Flemish painter of the early 1500s inspired by the Italian Renaissance. Many of these paintings are on a gold ground and all radiate an ethereal beauty worthy of the mystery they celebrate — the Incarnation.
The Fitzwilliam Collection exhibit, all by itself, makes a trip to the museum a special part of any vacation in the Tidewater area this summer. The galleries display a selection of the art that this powerful British family commissioned over four centuries from the leading artists of each era. An iPod tour included with admission offers an in-depth treatment of the history of portraiture, interwoven with the political history of Britain and America. The aforementioned gold-ground paintings were acquired in the 19th century as the family extended its art patronage to the past.
Two Views of the Savior
In the modern wing of the permanent galleries is the most imposing work by Georges Rouault in the United States, his “Head of Christ” of 1905. Rouault, a Frenchman, stands apart among 20th century artists for being an ardent Catholic who applied modern expressionism to the timeless Christian themes of sin and salvation. The blood-streaked face and enormous, tear-filled eyes of his Christ are rendered with the broad areas of pure color and heavy black lines that Rouault adapted from stained glass.
An alternative view of Christ is the over life-size marble “Bust of the Savior” of 1679 by the premier artist of papal Rome, Gian Lorenzo Bernini. Our Lord looks toward heaven while bestowing a blessing, showing His role as our intercessor to the Father. Bernini’s last work, created as a testament of his faith, it presides over a gallery filled with works by 17th century Catholic artists.
Around 1900, wealthy American art collectors were snapping up Old Master paintings in Europe, but as Protestants they disliked the art of the Catholic Reform (1550-1750), called Baroque. But in the 1940s, automotive heir Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. went against fashion to buy paintings and sculptures that were made for Catholic patrons in the 17th and 18th centuries. In 1971, he gave this unique collection to the Norfolk museum.
There is no lack of pictures of martyrdoms and ecstatic visions of saints in the Norfolk galleries, since the reformed Roman Catholic Church was combating the Protestant view that miracles ended with the Biblical era. At least four pictures, widely differing in expression, portray the deaths of the early martyrs whose sacrifice nourished the Church. As for visions, a 10-foot-tall altarpiece, by the Venetian decorator Veronese, evokes the “Virgin Appearing to Sts. Anthony and Paul” as the two saints are praying the rosary. Below all is desert browns, but as our eye rises, the heavenly vision bursts into a rainbow of color. Similarly exuberant is the Spanish artist Coello’s “Christ Child Appearing to St. Anthony of Padua,” a miracle said to have occurred as the saint was teaching the Incarnation.
Yet most of the Baroque pictures take their subjects straight from the Bible, making the museum into a veritable Scripture class. The Old Testament stories range widely in style, from the icy classicism of de la Hyre’s “Job Returned to Prosperity,” to the homey warmth of “Samson Bringing Honey to his Parents,” by Guercino; from the sharply outlined, bright hues of Guido Reni’s “Meeting between David and Abigail” to the rough brushwork and chaotic action of Castiglione’s “Moses Striking the Rock.”
Turning to the New Testament, Salvator Rosa’s “St. Philip Baptizing the Eunuch” shows why British collectors admired this artist, whose flair for dramatic action in the figures is echoed by the stormy landscape. A half-length portrayal of the same saint as a solitary and humble apostle, by the French Georges de la Tour, opens up another path of religious feeling. History painter De Troy chooses two episodes of Christ blessing an outcast woman for matching six-foot-tall canvases.
Cavallino, a Neapolitan painter, rivals Rembrandt in leading viewers to take in both the beauty and sadness of Christ’s atonement, by painting the cruel “Procession to Calvary” in a silvery palette of exquisite delicacy. As a faith-enhancing experience, this picture alone would be worth the modest admission charge.