Harvard's Fogg and Busch-Reisinger museums may be closed for renovations, but the Arthur M. Sackler Museum remains open. It now houses some of the most important pieces from all three collections. The Sackler's fourth floor highlights Western art from antiquity through 1900 as a part of "Re-View," a survey of the Harvard Art Museum collections. Art from around the world is shown next to Greco-Roman and European art, illustrating how Western art has drawn inspiration from other cultures.
The exhibit is organized in chronological order, starting from antiquity and traveling through Impressionism. This order is broken only when pieces are placed next to another for comparison. For example, a Lucanian Red-figure Nestoris from 340-320 B.C.E. is juxtaposed with "Diana on a Chase," an oil painting from 1805 by Washington Alston, emphasizing Alston's reference to a common Greek myth. These sorts of pairings can be found throughout the gallery, and placing objects from different areas — or eras — next to Western pieces highlights continuities between objects of Western art and that of other cultures as well as between different time periods.
One such comparison is made between a wooden statue called "St. Anthony" by a follower of Tilman Riemenschneider in 1510 and a marble statue by Arnolfo di Cambio entitled "Censing Angel" from 1294-1302 C.E. The sculpture of St. Anthony is carved in Linden wood and the thin, vertical grain of the wood complements the lean form of the saint, who is depicted with a full beard and robes. The sculpture is deeply carved, but its shallow back suggests that at one point it was part of an altarpiece.
The piece by di Cambio is rendered in marble and it too was once part of an altarpiece in the Florence Cathedral; it would have been facing an image of the Virgin and Child. Di Cambio's work is naturalistic in style, contrasting with the more gaunt, vertical depiction of St. Anthony. Both images indicate the artists' interest in the depiction of the human form, but St. Anthony's robes take on a life of their own and are almost a substitute for his body. This ethereal quality is found in the angel as well, but achieved through the delicate rendering of the form and the paleness of the stone. These two pieces complement one another and explore the portrayal of divinity in art.
A marble Palmyran funerary relief from 150 C.E. and a marble sarcophagus depicting an Amazonomachy from 175-225 C.E also make for an interesting comparison. The Palmyran relief depicts a woman from the waist up. Her face and body are deeply carved with large eyes and she wears a veil which she touches with her right hand. Over either of her shoulders are small figures, a young boy and girl who may represent her children. The woman's eyes are emphasized, rendered in a linear fashion akin to the treatment of eyes in Mesopotamian art. Her robe too is draw with an emphasis on line.
This relief is placed next to an intricately-carved sarcophagus portraying a battle between the mythical Amazons and the Greeks. It is writhing with figures, its emphasis clearly on the action of the battle. The figures are rendered naturalistically, but an element of the linear treatment used in the Palmyran relief is also evident.
Echoes of the same themes in each work are unsurprising since they were both made during the Roman Empire. Though there are clearly parallels between the two works, the labels under each piece seem to heavily favor the technique of the sarcophagus. Unfortunately, this leads to more of a contrast than a comparison; more effort is invested in citing the differences between the works than drawing attention to their similarities.
Harvard's collection of Western art from antiquity through 1900 is impressive. It includes pieces by Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso, Rembrandt von Rijn and John Singer Sargent as well as examples of Persian and Old Kingdom Egyptian art. Unfortunately, the collection's emphasis on Greco-Roman style as the superior form of Western art seems one-sided. Though there are certainly instances in which the exhibit successfully points to bridges between different forms of Western art, at times the exhibit falls short of truly recognizing the dynamic formation of the Western tradition. There are many facets to the Western tradition, and the collection would benefit from a more diversified view of its development.
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Western Art: 1900 Through Antiquity
At the Arthur M. Sackler Museum, through Jan. 17, 2010
Harvard Art Museum
32 Quincy St., Cambridge
617-495-9400
