#biblical image

[charlesreeza]

The Return of the Prodigal by the Italian painter Pompeo Batoni, 1773.  This work was purchased for the Habsburg’s imperial picture gallery directly from the artist as soon as it was finished.  It is remarkably beautiful in person.  Photo by Charles Reeza at the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.

[uwmspeccoll]

Staff Pick of the Week

I want to present Jesús, made by a local poet and several artists in Matanzas, Cuba. This publication contains the fold-out text of a poem by Digdora Alonzo, a contemporary Cuban poet. It was published by Ediciones Vigía, a group of volunteer writers and artists in Matanzas, Cuba, in 2000. Rather than using new materials, this group uses repurposed materials such as paper from the local butcher, fabric, tin foil, and so on. Their commitment to using recycled materials indicates not only an aesthetic choice, but also the financial limitations of small presses and the everyday economic hardships of Cubans.

This publication will be in a major exhibition in Special Collections this summer (on view through September 14) on publications containing images of the Nativity and Crucifixion of Jesus. I am curating this exhibition because as an Art History graduate student I have an interest in the graphic depiction of the duality of Christ, humanity and divinity. I consider the images of Jesus as an infant and at the moment of his death as exemplars of this duality. The juxtaposition of the two images shown here demonstrates my interest well: the humanity of his birth, and the divinity of his resurrection. One image shows a silver star in the manger where the Infant Jesus should be, and the other shows Christ with a baby in his heart and the star missing.

- Youngchul,  Special Collections Graduate Intern

View other Staff Picks.

[charlesreeza]

David with the Head of Goliath by Andrea Mantegna, c. 1490.  Photographed at the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, by Charles Reeza.

[charlesreeza]

Two versions of The Tower of Babel by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1563.  From the 2018 Bruegel exhibit at the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.  Photos by Charles Reeza.

www.insidebruegel.net/