Saturday, October 14, through Sunday, January 7
Figge Art Museum, 225 West Second Street, Davenport IA
Drawn from the Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros and co-organized by New York's Museum of Biblical Art and Virginia's Art Services International, the Figge's latest exhibition boasts 56 objects ranging from paintings to silver candlesticks to bishop’s chairs, made in the Spanish and Portuguese colonies of the Americas from the late-17th to the early-19th Centuries.
Designed for use in churches, convents, monasteries, and private homes, these objects were made by American craftsmen but based on the iconographies, styles, and techniques of the European Renaissance. They attest to the tremendous interchange of cultures that occurred in the colonies, where craftsmen mixed native techniques and symbols with designs introduced by the church and also absorbed influences from around the world.
In the words of Power & Piety's collector, “Colonial society could be considered the first global society, with influences flowing in a reciprocal manner between Europe and South America, communicating the cultural news from Africa and Asia, as well as transporting artisans from one port to another who brought with them skills and traditions from home.” The exhibition also highlights the ways in which people practiced their religion at home and in public, with tiny paintings of patron saints contrasted with painted altarpieces and ecclesiastical furniture.
A reception for Power & Piety will be held on Thursday, November 9, and will feature a 7 p.m. “Miracle-making Images in the Spanish World” lecture by Dr. Monica Dominguez, director of Latin American and Iberian Studies at the University of Delaware. For more information on the exhibit and its related programming, call (563)326-7804 or visit FiggeArtMuseum.org.
