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Highest Heaven: Spanish and Portuguese Colonial Art from the Collection of Roberta and Richard Huber

Christ Descending into Hell, Peruvian, 18th century, Oil on canvas, Roberta and Richard Huber Collection, Photograph by Robert Schwarz

March 11 – July 9, 2017

Now on view at the Worcester Art Museum.

Highest Heaven explores the cultural and religious world of the Spanish Colonial possessions of the Altiplano (high plains) of South America. Through approximately 100 paintings, sculptures, ivories, objects in silver, and furniture, the exhibition traces the development and spread of the Catholic faith through the creation and usage of religious art for devotion and instruction.

The objects are drawn from the distinguished collection of Roberta and Richard Huber of New York City. Over three decades the Hubers have built one of the most significant assemblages of this material in private hands.

Rather than group works by media as an introduction to the world of Spanish Colonial art, the exhibition returns the objects’ original context as, literally and symbolically, articles of faith. It focuses on the didactic aspects of the collection, especially as they relate to the life of Christ, the Christian religious orders, and the cult of the saints. It explores ways in which such religious art was used in the propagation of Catholic beliefs by use of visual art to illustrate biblical moments in the life of Christ—from the Annunciation and birth to the Crucifixion and Resurrection. Furthermore, it examines visual representations of saints, exemplar proponents of the Christian life. Finally, Highest Heaven will focus on religious orders that provided organizational and philosophical underpinnings for the propagation of the faith.

The exhibition is organized and circulated by the San Antonio Museum of Art.

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Jeppson Idea Lab: Renoir’s The Jewish Wedding

Pierre-Auguste Renoir (French, 1841-1919), after Eugène Delacroix (French, 1798-1863), The Jewish Wedding, about 1875, oil on canvas, Museum Purchase, 1943.1

On exhibit September 24, 2016 – March 26, 2017 at Jeppson Idea Lab in Worcester Art Museum.

This Idea Lab presentation gives insight into the recent conservation of The Jewish Wedding by Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919). In 1875, Renoir was commissioned to paint a replica of Eugène Delacroix’s 1839 The Jewish Wedding in Morocco, today in the Musée du Louvre in Paris. Although faithful to Delacroix’s original, Renoir adapted his Impressionist manner to the painting, creating a novel work of art, wholly distinct in its brushwork, palette, and use of light. Renoir’s work, obscured by a 70-year-old discolored varnish, has now been restored by Andrew W. Mellon Fellow Maja Rinck, a transformation that resulted in the recovery of its original tonality, revealing a major Impressionist painting.