This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Oct. 19, 2012 - A visit to the St. Louis Art Museum right now will lead to discovery even for the diehard museum-goer who knows the collection better than many museum personnel.
The reason for SLAM’s current placement as St. Louis’ New, New Thing is partially due to the sudden rearrangement of more than half the gallery spaces. This includes refreshingly novel presentation of Dutch and Flemish works in the European Art to 1800 Gallery and the presence of a considerable wealth of Native North American art works situated within the rest of the newly organized American Art (go to Bingham’s Election Series if you are looking for a historical voice on the pratfalls of democracy).
Second, and with much greater fanfare, you will find Federico Barocci.
The son of a watchmaker, Barocci became so famous during his lifetime that he was allegedly poisoned by jealous rivals after his participation in a fresco project for Pope Pius IV.
The trope about location as prime predictor of success is a fair explanation for the relative obscurity of this innovative and highly influential Renaissance painter. His work was largely hidden away in off-the-beaten-track central Italian churches and private collections until a revelatory show of his work in Bologna and Florence in 1975.
Barocci’s star is on the rise, evidenced in this unique display of traditional subjects seen through a fresh, arresting vision conveyed alongside studies that promote his remarkable technical expertise and innovative compositional form. His stature as an excellent draughtsman makes him one of the most important, though little known, painters of his time.
The visitor’s entry into the special exhibition space offers a brief orientation to 16th century Urbino. Compositional studies are the highlights of the first room. The Nude Study of Saint Joseph for the Rest on the Return from Egypt demonstrates the technique Barocci employed to create disarmingly naturalistic dynamic movement. His Study of a Donkey, for the same painting, is delightful in its own right as is the delicate chalk and pastel drawing of the head of a cherub made in preparation for the Immaculate Conception.
Barocci draws on many sheets horizontally and vertically. This poses a problem for hanging. Which image should be privileged? The dilemma was demonstrated for members of the press whose admittance into one of the rooms was delayed by a last minute request from a curator from the Uffizi Gallery in Florence to re-hang one such work with an alternative image right side up.
The real transportive experience begins in the second room of the exhibit. With effective use of the doorway as a second frame to the major work of this space, Crucifixion with the Virgin and Saint John, visitors begin to feel as if they have entered a sanctuary. This feeling increases in the following area where studies line the walls like Stations of the Cross around what is, in its original context, an altarpiece. Benches lined up like pews make this connotation impossible to resist.
Each room develops a theme that takes the visitor further into Renaissance Italy. Sensitively executed, rose-flushed figures bring playful enchantment to rather morbid subjects. A table laid with Jesus’ blood-tinged crown of thorns, crucifixion nails and tools painted into the lower left corner of The Entombment of Christ have a remarkable tactile quality, so that his area of the painting becomes a still life. The upper quadrant of the painting holds an ephemeral landscape with the recurrent theme of Urbino in the form of a castle alongside the three crosses at Calvary. Even Barocci’s Last Supper is a raucous, festive event with happy children and a friendly dog.
The curators have provided text panels worth reading. A photographic image of The Entombment of Christ over the main altar for the Chiesa della Crose in Senigallia makes the need for creating a reference to church space apparent. These works were commissioned to elicit awe.
Without the accompanying gilded majesty of church architecture, Barocci’s painted works are perceived as individual masterpieces. The photographs give a nod to the intended view of the artist, in which frames and decoration diffuse focus, and the combined effect is to fully encompass the churchgoer. The faithful attending churches adorned by Barocci were offered intimate images of domesticity looked over by a kind and gentle god who believed there could never be too much of a good/gilded thing.
Sequencing the Barocci figure studies along the sides of the gallery spaces creates a visual lesson in the process of the artist, as form, movement, depth and gesture are articulated and finally adorned by abundant garments painted in luminescent colors. The fabrics are lush with vibrant hues, the light reflected upon their folds, “It almost flickers on the wall when you look at it” says St. Louis Art Museum curator Judy Mann
To visit the exhibition is to partake in an old world experience. It is a journey across time and space as well as into the mind of the artist. And the territory is largely untread, making this prime ground for discovery. See if you, too, place Barocci in the esteemed company of Michelangelo, Titian and Tintoretto.
The basics
Where: St. Louis Art Museum
When: Oct. 21, 2012 through Jan. 20, 2013
Cost: Adult - $10, Seniors & Students - $8, Children 6-12 - $6, Under 6 – free Entry free on Fridays (advanced ticket purchase recommended)
Information: www.slam.org
Sarah Hermes Griesbach is a graduate student in art history at Washington University. She has been a teacher in the area and volunteers as a docent at the Art Museum. She will be reviewing the local art scene for the St. Louis Beacon.