Museum Of Fine Arts Essay Research Paper

Maria Luisa Garza-ValdezArt History IISpring? 98Museum ProjectMan of Sorrows In my last visit to the Museum of Fine Arts, I really enjoyed the marvelous feeling of being surrounded by great art work. I focused on The Body of Christ in the Art of Europe and New Spain exhibition. This exhibition has been on display since December 21, 1997, and will end April 12, 1998. This exhibition is the life of Jesus Christ and the significance of his body in religious practice has influenced Westernart and culture for centuries. The Body of Christ in the Art of Europe and New Spain,1150-1800 reveals the underlying purpose of this fascinating subject within the Christian (and, specifically, Catholic) church. This exhibition, presented exclusively at the MFAH, enables visitors to see familiar images of Christ and religious objects in a new context, creating a deeper understanding of the importance of the works. The Body of Christ brings together 76 objects in diverse media – paintings, sculptures, illuminated manuscripts, drawings, engravings, woodcuts, etchings, textiles, metalwork, ivory, and even feather work – that demonstrate both the variety of imagery focusing on the human physicality of Christ and the consistency of the subject matter over seven centuries. Works from the Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque periods are arranged to lead viewers through four thematic sections: Christ as an infant; Christ’s Passion, Death, and Resurrection; the eucharistic significance of Christ’s body in the bread and wine of the Mass; and, finally, images of visions occurring after Christ’s Ascension. Many of these profound works encompass several or all the themes, reflecting their multiple layers of meaning. The piece that I chose for this project is ?The Man of Sorrows?. It is an engraving by Albretch Durer (German), around year 1480. The engraving technique that he uses is unique. He had the ability to engrave drawing lines in the picture to form the figure instead of shading it. It seems to be very spontaneous. His art work is extremely detailed and well defined (muscles, bones, wrinkles, etc.). In the picture of ?Man of Sorrows?, Christ is in a contraposto position. His eyes reflect sadness that you can feel while you?re looking at his face. It is amazing how the artist can make you live the suffering moment, and at the same time the happiness of a landscape in the background. It is important to notice the contrast of the picture itself. It is a symbol in a way of comparing the good and evil of life, or the beauty and ugly thing that we are surrounded with in this world. For me, the symbol represents a balance of the sins that we make daily, and the way of seeing things when you ask for forgiveness from the Lord. This type of emotion and deep thinking is what I really enjoy about Albretch because he always try to find the positive thing out of the negative side, the beauty out of the ugly things, or the good from the evil. It is something we have to learn about, and motivate ourselves to became more enthusiastic and positive in our daily performance. In conclusion even though the painting might be small in size, it is enormous in its significance to me. I am happy that I experienced this type of exhibit. As a catholic woman I learned a little more when I looked at each art work and think about the reason why the artist did their work that way. After merging my ideas and what the artist wanted to express, I feel very good with my self because of the different things I can learn and experience since I?m taking Art History class.