Saints and Sinners:

Caravaggio and the Baroque Image
February 1 - May 24, 1999

Saints and Sinners explores the style, subject matter and social function of religious art in Italy circa 1580 to 1680, a period traditionally called the Baroque. The exhibition presents thirty Baroque paintings from both public and private collections. The visual centerpiece is the recently rediscovered masterpiece by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, The Taking of Christ. Painted in Rome in 1602, it disappeared in the late eighteenth century. Two hundred years later, in 1993, it was rediscovered in the dining room of the Jesuit Fathers in Dublin. Cleaned and restored, it now hangs on loan in the National Gallery of Ireland, where it has been received with world-wide jubilation. The Taking of Christ makes its first North American appearance at the McMullen Museum of Art as a result of a special concession granted to Boston College by the Society of Jesus of Ireland. A group of scholars has come together from diverse academic disciplines to serve as curators for this exhibition, reading the art of Caravaggio and other major Italian Baroque painters, including Guido Reni, Domenichino, Ludovico Carracci, and Pietro da Cortona, from new, hitherto ignored or little explored perspectives.

HONORARY PATRONS
His Excellency Ferdinando Salleo, Ambassador of Italy to the United States
His Eminence Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, Archbishop of Milan
Princess Stefania Angelo-Comneno di Tessaglia, President, Academia Angelica- Costantiniana di lettere, arti e scienze, Rome
The Very Reverend Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, S.J., Superior General of the Society of Jesus, Rome

EXHIBITION CATALOGUE
Saints and Sinners: Caravaggio and the Baroque Image
Edited by Franco Mormando, S.J.

With essays by the curators of the exhibition:
Franco Mormando, S.J., Assistant Professor of Italian, Boston College
Gauvin Alexander Bailey, Assistant Professor of Art History, Clark University
Pamela Jones, Associate Professor of Art, University of Massachusetts, Boston
John W. O'Malley, S.J., Distinguished Professor of Church History, Weston Jesuit School of Theology
Thomas W. Worcester, S.J., Assistant Professor of History, College of the Holy Cross

Additional essays by:
Noel Barber, S.J., Irish Jesuit Provincial Delegate for the Taking of Christ
Sergio Benedetti, Senior Curator, National Gallery of Ireland
Josephine von Henneberg, Professor of Art History, Boston College
John Varriano, Idella Plimpton Kendall Professor of Art, Mount Holyoke College

 

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Saints and Sinners: Caravaggio and the Baroque Image is organized by the McMullen Museum of Art, Boston College. The exhibition and catalogue are underwritten by Boston College with an indemnity from the federal Council on the Arts and Humanities and additional support from the following:

Sponsors:
National Endowment for the Arts, a Federal Agency
Joan Vercollone Barry and Henry F. Barry ,'64
Linda Caristo Crescenzi, '64 and Adam Crescenzi

Benefactors:
The Jesuit Institute at Boston College
Nancy McElaney Joyce and John E. Joyce '61, '70

Patrons:
Jesuit Community, Boston College
Homeland Foundation, New York
Donna Hoffman and Christian M. Hoffman, '66
William J. McLaughlin, '58
Megan Carroll Shea, '89, L '92 and Timothy J. Shea II, L '92

Supporters:
Jesuit Community, College of the Holy Cross
Downer and Company
Hutchins, Wheeler & Dittmar
National Italian American Foundation
Paul A. Fugazzotto, '76
Paul J. McAdams, '57
Brigitte and Gerard Moufflet
Alexander H. Petro, '85