At the Museum

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First a disclaimer: I’m neither an artist nor an art aficionado, and many times when confronted with a work of art my mind goes as blank as when a high-school teacher asked me to explain “‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves.”

Which isn’t to say that I don’t appreciate art. I do, and at times even admire it, so I was thrilled to have the opportunity to attend the Jan. 25 opening of the “Spain and the Hispanic World: Treasures from The Hispanic Society Museum & Library” exhibition at the BYU Museum of Art.

The exhibit contains 163 objects that range from 4,000-year-old ceramics to an illuminated 15th-century Book of Hours, to “Lamentation” by El Greco to works from the 20th century. While many of the items are from Spain, artists from Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Mexico also are represented, as is a wide range of media: pottery, ceramics, mosaics, iron, silverwork, manuscripts, maps, paintings, drawings and sculpture. There’s even some exquisite jewelry that wouldn’t look out of place were someone to wear the pieces today.

I went to the opening with Father Martin Diaz, rector of the Cathedral of the Madeleine; and Maria Cruz Gray, director of the Office of Hispanic Ministry. Fr. Christopher Gray, pastor of St. Mary of the Assumption Parish in Park City, met us there. We only had time that evening to do a quick walk-through of the galleries, but all four of us were impressed with the exhibit. And how could we not be? There are silver bracelets from before the time of Christ, a 15th-century Alhambra silk with complex decorative motifs, not to mention works by artists whose names even I recognize: El Greco, De Goya and Vespucci (although it’s Giovanni, not his uncle Amerigo).

I spent much of my limited time on the religious objects in the exhibit, but thoroughly enjoyed some of the more mundane items, such as 16th-century iron door knockers from Spain in the shape of various animals, and a 17th-century earthenware vessel from Mexico that has fish and frogs in the bottom. All of these shattered my misconceptions about art from “more primitive times,” because rather than being plain and utilitarian, the workmanship is fine even to my untrained eye.

Talking with Maria Cruz and Fr. Diaz afterward, I found we all shared the desire to return and go through the exhibit at a leisurely pace. Each of us also was thrilled at the chance to see these items without having to travel to New York or London or Madrid.

Maria Cruz, who grew up in Spain, recognized several of the paintings either from having seen them in her native country or in books during her studies. Of those at the museum, her favorites were a couple of small drawings, brush and wash on paper, by De Goya, she said. She also liked the four polychrome sculptures from eighteenth-century Quito, Ecuador that depict the four fates of man after death: death, hell, Purgatory and heaven.  

Fr. Diaz particularly enjoyed “The Penitent St. Jerome” by El Greco, he said, because of its starkness.

Anyone interested in going to the exhibit should do so, he said, because “The culture which is manifested in the artwork is so important to appreciate the foundation on which we stand.”

The depiction of the Wedding at Cana disappointed him at first because the people in it wore dress contemporary to the artist, but then he realized that religious art “is not meant to be a story of just what happened in the past, it’s meant to be a story that tells you what goes on in the present,” he said, so “the artist was putting the people of his age in there and experiencing the miracle of Jesus.”

The BYU Museum of Art has several upcoming events related to the exhibition, including a via dolorosa on Good Friday. The museum is open Monday through Saturday; admission is free. For information, visit https://moa.byu.edu/.

Marie Mischel is editor of the "Intermountain Catholic." Contact her at marie@icatholic.org.