Sinners and Saints
15th – 19th Century Paintings in the Collection

On View in the Raymond Jonson Gallery, September 10, 2011 to March 11, 2012

Sinners and Saints is a visual feast of religious painting from 15th century Renaissance through 19th century neoclassical period in Europe and the New World, drawn entirely from the museum’s collections.  Even though most have “Saint” in the title, and only one confirmed sinner – Cain, in Lodovico Lipparini’s painting of Cain and His Family Fleeing from the Wrath of God, for his murder of Abel – there is an abundance of sinners.  

Taking from Shakespeare’s reflection in Measure for Measure, that “Every true man’s apparel fits your thief,” there is a potential saint and sinner within each of us, changing from one to the other as circumstances require.  Even the most inveterate saint is no exception.   A few of them even started out as sinners, such as Mary Magdalen who, according to the Bible, was a prostitute before she found Christ.  A few others required the wickedness of a sinner to propel them to good deeds and their eventual beatification, such as the prefect’s son in Luigi Garzi’s Saint Agnes Raises to Life the Son of the Prefect, who was struck dead for intending to rape the young Agnes but then miraculously returned to life by her.  

Likewise, the classical world is full of imperfect beings, whether gods or men.  King Agamemnon in Giuseppi Marchesi’s Sacrifice of Iphigenia, could not wage war against Troy until he sacrificed his daughter Iphigenia – an abhorrent prospect even to the ancients, yet Agamemnon did not hesitate.  Similarly, consider the tale of motherly love gone awry in Andrea Michieli’s Judgement of Solomon, in which the false claim of an imposter almost caused a child to be cut in half.   The tales these paintings tell are timeless accounts of the complexity of the human condition, often confounding easy separations between the sinner and the saint.  Look carefully into each work of art and you will find them both.

A public talk by Ray Hernandez-Duran, Associate Professor of Art and Art History, University of New Mexico>> Take a Listen

Reviews of the Exhibition: Daily Lobo, October 20, 2011 in
UNM Today page 3, November, 14, 2011 in THE Magazine, December 2011and in the Albuquerque Journal, December 18, 2011

Past Exhibitions

Spring 2012:

Reasons, Excuses, Alibis and Non Sequiturs The 18th Annual Juried Graduate Exhibition

Bird

Sinners and Saints

Fall 2011:

Richard Deacon Dead Leg

Re-imagining American Identities

Spring 2011: