The President and Fellows of Harvard College Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology Truly a Worship Experience? Christian Art in Secular Museums Author(s): James Clifton Source: RES: Anthropology and Aesthetics, No. 52, Museums: Crossing Boundaries (Autumn, 2007), pp. 107-115 Published by: The President and Fellows of Harvard College acting through the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20167746 . Accessed: 02/09/2011 14:23 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. The President and Fellows of Harvard College and Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to RES: Anthropology and Aesthetics. http://www.jstor.org Truly a worship experience? art in secular Christian museums JAMESCLIFTON In the flood of critical and self-critical literature since "new museology" the advent of the so-called thirty-five years ago, scant attention has been given to the role of inmuseums or the exhibition of religious (the focus of this paper) or of objects, whether Christian other creeds, with some notable exceptions, such as essays in volumes edited by Crispin Paine and Ena in 1980, Carol Duncan and Alan Heller.1 Already took the "museum as temple" trope beyond Wallach its usual metaphorical the visitor use, describing as ritual, but not in direct in art museums experience religion relation to any lived religions.2 There is an assumption, as in the old, that religion per se in the new museology has no place in secular museums; its presence is allowed as a byproduct of the cultures that produced the as not but the raison d'?tre of that either objects in the past or the objects' production display in the present. Joshua Reynolds had already arrived at that point of view in his eleventh discourse to the Royal Academy in 1782. He considered how painting might transcend its ostensible subject, adducing as examples works by Veronese and Rubens: [OJf half the pictures that are in the world, the subject can be valued only as an occasion which set the artist to work; and yet, our high estimation of such pictures, without considering or perhaps without knowing the subject, shews how our much This essay annual meeting and organizer attention is engaged by the art alone. on a paper Art Association Igave at the College I am grateful to Jeffrey Abt and Ivan Gaskell, as well as to of the session, respondent, respectively, is based in 2006; Francesco Pellizzi comments. All ego- and an anonymous and eccentricities reader for RES, for their remain, of course, my own. 1. Godly Things: Museums, and Religion, ed. C Raine Objects, (London and New York: Leicester University Press, 2000); Reluctant in Dialogue, Partners: Art and Religion ed. E. G. Heller (New York: The at the American Bible Society, 2004). See also R. Grimes, Gallery inMuseum in Religion/Sciences "Sacred Objects Spaces," Studies 21, no. 4 (1992):419-430. Religieuses 2. C. Duncan Art History C. Duncan, New and A. Wallach, "The Universal Survey Museum," the notion was elaborated (1980):448-469; by Rituals: Inside Public Art Museums (London and Civilizing 3, no. 4 York: Routledge, 1995). We marriage cannot refuse the character of Genius of Paulo Veronese ... or to the altar to the of St. Augustine at Antwerp, by Rubens, which equally deserves that title. . . .Neither of those pictures have any interesting story to support them. . . . [T]he subject of Rubens, if itmay be called a subject where nothing is doing, is an assembly of various Saints that lived in different ages.3 Indeed, there have been relatively few temporary or permanent exhibitions installations of Christian art to in provide the focus of museological analysis, especially American museums: in Christian art usually appears museums in one of two ways. First, it is seen as or galleries the purview of museums ghettoized, with explicit Christian associations. Here we might think of the Loyola University Museum of Art in Chicago, or American the Museum of Biblical Art (MoBiA) in New York, or the Saint Louis University Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCRA). Or, second, Christian art is Religious into a narrative of the history of style, with subsumed little regard to its subject matter and initial function. The is one of the triumph not just legitimating metanarrative of form over content but also of the secular over the of the sacred by the sacred, or the displacement art collecting North American and museum are the heritage of Enlightenment secularism, and a canonical aestheticism, nineteenth-century history of art. Most museums with substantial collections and divide those collections encyclopedic pretensions to culture and arrange each group*?especially according so that European and American art?chronologically, aesthetic. exhibitions works of different subject matter, including religious, might be exhibited next to each other, and works of Christian subjects might well be seen in isolation from works of similar or even identical subjects in the same are usually inflations of museum.4 Temporary exhibitions 3. J. Reynolds, on Art, ed. R.Wark Discourses (New Haven: Yale Press, 1975), pp. 200-201. University 4. Called the "universal and Wallach survey museum" by Duncan collections" (see note 2), and the "comprehensive by N. anthological Harris in "The Divided House of the American see Art Museum," issue of Daedalus Museums, 128, no. 3 (1999):36. special For the role of museums in the triumph of the aesthetic and the America's 108 RES 52 AUTUMN 2007 neither an apologia nor a mea culpa for the exhibition, but rather a postmortem and critique of it,with a consideration of some of the general issues it raised.71 two issues raised take as my points of approach small units of this system: They include exhibitions consisting of the work of a single artist or of objects from a single place within narrower chronological in some exhibitions may be parameters. The objects in, to choose a few overwhelmingly religious?as from many possible, a number of exhibitions examples at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York: in Renaissance Siena, 1420-1500" (1988); or "Painting the great pair of Byzantine exhibitions?"The Glory of Era, Byzantium: Art and Culture of the Middle Byzantine " A.D. 843-1261 (1997) and "Byzantium: Faith and (1261-1557)" (2004), as well as its precursor, "Age of Spirituality: Late Antique and Early Christian Art, Third to Seventh Century" their parameters (1977)?but remain fundamentally determined by place and period Power of Christian art in secular I States are rare, reflecting, on a certain would the part of suggest, squeamishness a exhibition about discourse organizers entering public authoritarian that is religious devotion and practice, a discourse arts in the and media likewise avoided elsewhere (such as the major television networks).5 In secular European such exhibitions frequent, the toward, and different attitude result of a fundamentally and the history of, both public religious expression of and exhibition art.6 collecting in an American An analysis of one such exhibition museum?an I curated?and the viewer exhibition isolation its cultural see D. Crimp, On and London: The MIT Museum's Ruins (Cambridge, Mass., (note 2), pp. 16-19. 1993); see also Duncan in the Visual 5. "Divine Mirrors: The Virgin Mary Davis Museum and Cultural Center of Wellesley at the in 2001 as museums' audiences 1150-1800" in diverse Blaffer Foundation, Houston) Campbell media: paintings, textiles, sculpture, prints, drawings, a and feather mosaic illuminations, manuscript (fig. 1). in four sections, in a loose The objects were arranged narrative of Christ's life and afterlife. The first two Press, Arts" College as richly varied In 1997-1998, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston "The Body of Christ in the Art of (MFAH), presented a loan exhibition Europe and New Spain, 1150-1800," of approximately from North objects seventy-five American collections half of the objects (approximately were from the collections of the MFAH and the Sarah the context, are potentially are diverse. Spain, to it suggest of art from what "The Body of Christ in the Art of Europe and New of the potentially the complexity interests and ethical, professional, political conflicting in exhibiting that must be negotiated religious art in a at least in this country. This paper is secular museum, response inwhich the expository agent a positive constitutes unilaterally difference?a tacit difference which, given Weil's a not does include exclusion, religious dimension?and we must accept, even cultivate, viewer responses that posture determines about have been more calls the "expository agent" (the museum, including its intention is not coincident with its curators), whose is complicitous in a problematic agency, reception of an since attempted curatorial neutrality or even exhibition, of critique may be occluded by the re-presentation as museums must and Weil second, if, asserts, objects; in the quality of individual make "a positive difference and communal lives," we must guard against an rather than subject. Thematic exhibitions museums in the United museums in the second (indirectly, since neither, perhaps tellingly Christian addresses Mieke Bai in her case, material) by 1996 book Double and the late Stephen Exposures of in an essay published Weil in 1999,8 and I suggest that: the extent to which what Bal First, we must recognize is a notable exception. not be possible, 6. Itwould and lies outside the scope of this in any case, to list all the relevant exhibitions, but several essay ones come to mind: "Wallfahrt kennt keine Grenzen" noteworthy 7. There of curatorial in National museum, Munich, 1984); "The Art of Devotion (Bayerisches in Europe, 1300-1500" the Late Middle (Rijksmuseum, Ages is slightly more provocative: title in Dutch 1994), whose Amsterdam, organizing have been calls in recent years for the public declaration within that is, for exibition spaces; responsibility to identify themselves curators and explain aspects of the 1500"; of the objects, theses, significance exhibition?organizing principles, a first-person and so on?in narrative, thereby explicitly subjectivizing in question in the exhibition here This was not done the presentation. of this essay. but seems useful for the purposes vision France, Rome, 2000); and "Baroque, j?suite: de Caen, 2003). Rubens" (Mus?e des Beaux-Arts 8. M. Bal, Double The Subject of Cultural Analysis Exposures: "From Being about (New York and London: Routledge, 1996); S. Weil, to Being for Somebody: The Ongoing Transformation of the Something in America's issue of Daedalus American Museums, Museum," special 128, no. 3 (1999):229-258. van priv?-devotie in Europa 1300 in schoonheid: Schatten dans le "Le Jardin clos de l'?me: L'imaginaire des religieuses le 13e si?cle" (Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, Pays-Bas du Sud, depuis "Le Dieu (National Gallery, 1994); "Seeing Salvation" London, 2000); les peintres du Grand Si?cle et la vision de Dieu" cach?: (Acad?mie "Gebed de du Tintoret ? Clifton: Truly a worship experience? 109 Figure 1. Installation view of the exhibition 'The Body of Christ in the Art of Europe and New Spain, 1150-1800," The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, December 27, 1997, to April 12, 1998. Photo: Tom DuBrock. Made Flesh" and "Suffering and recounted Christ's life from the Annunciation Triumph" to the Resurrection and the post-Resurrection to the Apostles appearance (fig. 2). Although theological issues were raised in the didactic matter of the first two sections, "TheWord the significance of the Incarnation sections?explaining in the economy of salvation, for example?in the third "The Eucharistie the for the were, section, Body," images most part, less narrative, and the theological aspects of the material gained emphasis. The final section, "The of Visionary and Devotional Body," included depictions to various saints the miraculous of Christ appearance and their engagement with his body (fig. 3); as well as a few objects that were more explicitly devotional, offering the viewer Christ's body for prayer, meditation, and imitation. Iargued in the accompanying that the catalogue exhibition of these works together should serve to recuperate for the viewer some of their religious inwhich for the culture(s) they were significance was to an "to that the introduce purpose produced, seen not in the American often Christian public subjects Christian United States and to recontextualize images that are frequently seen, but only in the aestheticized (and anaesthetized) environment of the museum, where their original function and meaning may be obscured."9 in Bringing together works of diverse media separated even their manufacture and by centuries, countries, continents would demonstrate, inter alia, a persistence of subjects and themes in Christian Europe and the New in World that would not be evident or at least explicit most museum exhibitions and permanent installations. is vaguely called Thus, while all the works were of what "museum quality," Joshua Reynolds's priorities were nonetheless reversed, and the ethnographic displaced in an attempt to redress an imbalance in the aesthetic the apprehension of these objects and others like them. In terms deployed the exhibition by Stephen Greenblatt, to heighten the cultural and historical of the objects rather than the visual wonder at their aesthetic uniqueness.10 attempted resonance 9. The Body of Christ in the Art of Europe and New exhibition Museum of Fine Arts, catalogue, and New York: Prestel Verlag, 1997),. p. 12. in Exhibiting 10. S. Greenblatt, "Resonance and Wonder," Cultures: The Poetics and Politics of Museum ed. I. Karp and Display, J.Clifton, 1150-1800, Spain, Houston (Munich S. Lavine (Washington, Press, 1991), not mutually pp. 42-56; exclusive. Institution and London: Smithsonian D.C, as Greenblatt points out (p. 56), the two are 110 RES 52 AUTUMN 2007 of religion through dimension convey the non-material material objects."12 The subject of the exhibitions of such museums and is, therefore, "religious meaning,"13 the integrity or object-ness of the exhibited objects may not be fully respected. One of the objects Arthur discusses and reproduces is a nineteenth-century South Indian bronze sculpture of Shiva in the St. Mungo Museum of Religious Art and Life inGlasgow.14 The is a standard museum reproduction photograph of the a blank isolated from its object against background, context, but the lighting on the object has, to the light engineers for the installation, "a according custom moving effect unit to simulate the oil lamps used in temples which create a flickering light!;] this makes the shadow move and the Image of the God to exhibited seem to dance."15 The subject of art museums' exhibitions of religious on some not the is contrary, objects, "religious meaning" that ismanifested in objects, but (albeit imperfectly) rather objects that are informed by religious meaning. The task?or, at least, one task?of museum curators and use to educators Michael Baxandall's the is, terminology, "historical Figure 2.Workshop of the Master of the Berlin Triptych, Virgin and Child in Glory, second quarter of the fourteenth century. Ivory, 14 x 8.3 Museum Favrot cm, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 71.7. purchase with funds provided by the Laurence H. Bequest. of objects.16 Arthur, following explanation" to refers Georg Schmid, religious objects as "religious not is which far from Baxandall's reference to data,"17 as "material and visible left behind by pictures deposits earlier people's activity."18 Arthur asks: "Is it legitimate to present such data as intrinsically interesting, rather than as referring beyond themselves?"19 In the case of the in "The Body of Christ" and similar pieces, the Iwould assert, is a resounding yes. As Baxandall "we . . . expect to attend primarily to the out, points the inferences pictures. We will certainly make deposits, from these to the actions of man and instrument that made them as they are . . . but this will usually be as a objects answer, This approach is far more common inmuseum art. of non-Western in the ways The difference displays are Western in and non-Western treated objects museums?even in the same museum?is of considerable but the subject lies outside significance, the scope of this paper. Iwould like, however, to point to a distinction of a different kind: not how different kinds of objects are treated in a museum, but rather how similar objects are treated in different kinds of museums; that is, how religious objects are treated in a non-art museum such as a museum to of religion compared how they are treated in an art museum, including in In the essay "Exhibiting "The Body of Christ" exhibition. the Sacred," Chris Arthur addressed a conceptual Since most difficulty of presenting religion in a museum: religions have at their heart what he calls a "mysterious is "whether it is possible to silence,"11 the problem 11. C. Arthur, "Exhibiting the Sacred," in Raine (see note 1), p. 2. 12. Ibid., p. 11 ; see also p. 2: "How do you picture the a display about what, at root, is how do you mount unpictureable; resistant to all forms of expression; to visitors that how do you convey see as of primary what themselves is something religions importance which all the carefully lies beyond assembled material which museums 13. 14. present for their scrutiny?" Ibid., p. 4. Ibid., pp. 2-4. 15. Kevan Technical Shaw, "Theatrical Considerations," theatre/Lightfair.html. 16. M. Baxandall, Lighting Patterns of Intention: of Pictures (New Haven and Explanation Press, 1985). 17. Arthur (see note 11 ), p. 9. 18. Baxandall (see note 16), p. 13. 19. Arthur (see note in an Architectural Context: http://www.kevan-shaw.com/articles/tech/ 11), p. 9. On London: the Historical Yale University Clifton: Truly a worship experience? 111 Figure 3. Petrus Nicolai Moraulus, The Mass of Saint Gregory, ca. 1530. Oil on panel, 66.1 x 77.8 cm. Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation, Houston, 1963.1. means of thinking about their present visual character."20 be a question of emphasis, but our task was to and significance of appearance, explain the existence, class of objects. examples of a common in "The Body of Christ" were The artists represented not well known to the public, and the exhibition had a exhibition of religious art in a secular museum more generally.22 Many visitors wrote a simple "thank you." Others for example: "Thank you for reminding us elaborated; we have been given the greatest gift in our lives, God's . . . son." James Elkins's assertion that "Art museums but it proved very very small budget for marketing, popular, attracting over 125,000 visitors in under four It seems that visitors to the exhibition months. to a great extent, a "non-traditional" comprised, teach viewers to look without feeling too much"23 as having the exhibition was described notwithstanding, a religious effect on the visitors: Itwas called "moving," Itmay although not one usually identified as such.21 Many, possibly even most, had probably never been to the museum before. Church groups abounded. Around two hundred pages of visitors' comments, the vast majority of which were positive and religious in tenor? sometimes verging on the ecstatic?provide insight into the reasons for its popularity but also problematize the audience, 20. between 21. distinction (see note 16), p. 13. See also Baxandall's causes and final causes of pictures efficient (ibid., p. 108). For a critique of museums' (albeit attempts at "inclusiveness" Baxandall racial/ethnic lines), the practical along standard see I. Rogoff, "Hit and Run? of which remain unclear, consequences Museums and Cultural Difference," Art Journal 61, no. 3 (2002): 63-73. apparently "inspirational," "humbling," "powerful," "inspiring," "soul stirring," "uplifting," and was said to have renewed a and restored faith inChrist. Itwas "[I]ife changing, and "truly a worship experience." mystical experience," It functioned as witness: "A remarkable testament to Christ the man and the mysteries of Christianity"; "[a] brilliant testimony to the God who lives and reigns Forever/' Blessings rained down upon us: "Thank you, thank you for bringing this beautiful and will be a highlight of my 22. The comments are preserved Fine Arts, Houston. 23. J. Elkins, Pictures in Front of Paintings exhibit. life. God It is very moving bless those who in the archives of the Museum of & Tears: A History of People Who Have Cried London: Routledge, 2001), p. 207. (New York and 112 RES 52 AUTUMN 2007 on this project." "Bless this museum and the people who brought this exhibit together?it One visitor was honors Jesus and Catholicism." in calling for and expansive particularly generous worked wonderful and bring peace on blessing: "May God bless everyone Iwould call, this entire earth!" And there were what a from Emily Bront?, pious phrase borrowing "Jesus ismy savior"; "Glory to God"; ejaculations: "Praise God He's risen!" "Viva Christo Rey!" "Jesus How Great Thou Art!" Indeed, the visitors' book was to the museum staff sometimes used not for comments or reader: for another exclamations but to record prayers "We adore you o Christ and we praise you"; "Lord I know you are the Christ of all people"; "Thank you God for your son, Christ, blood of the Lamb."24 Removing religious objects from their original not only contexts and placing them in a museum their status and radically alters their communicative in a producer-object-viewer significance to from isolate them it also tends but any chain, that with cultural context. Goethe worried contemporary transforms pillaging of Italian churches and removal of Napoleon's to the Louvre "the very capacity of the treasures their museum to frame objects as art and claim them for a new kind of ritual attention could entail the negation or and, we might obscuring of other, older meanings,"25 of those add, the foreclosure of a continued experience an to have continue such But may objects meanings. effect that one might not be able to anticipate.26 in San At the recently reopened De Young Museum Francisco there is a remarkable and provocative Mexican installation. An eighteenth-century painting of the Virgin and Child is exhibited with votive candles, holy cards, and tin ex-voto body parts, all of which are modern and readily available. The painting was purposes, and although originally created for devotional as it would it is not displayed have been by its precisely ismeant to of objects original owner, the conjunction evoke not only its original function but also a continuing devotional potential. Next to the installation, but is a text, written by that gallery as a whole, addressing curator American De of the Art, Timothy Young's Burgard, which lives within my heart and paintings "A true blessing. and salvation." forgiveness touched through this, just one soul gets won rejoice. May God bless you." of these I thank God If just one to God, for His life gets the angels time, and London: University of California Press, 1998), pp. and place, culture of their creation. However, changing perceptions of the same objects by new generations of viewers make it possible to view the De Young's permanent collection of art as a collection of ideas that are continually reinterpreted. The juxtaposition of the old with the new is intended to foster a dialogue between the past and the present, and to remind viewers that truly resonant cultural ideas as well of origin, place new De aspires Young time and the artwork's transcend . . . [T]he its stylistic vocabulary. common a cultural to provide can as ground?a fertile gathering place for art, people, and ideas that have their roots in history, flourish in the present, and will continue to grow in the future, thus sustaining the resonance and of relevance the collections.27 he says "cultural," we might also read "religious" ideas can and be reminded that truly resonant religious its transcend the artwork's time and place of origin, a into and its tranformation stylistic vocabulary, Where object. the expository Implicating agent Exposures, Mieke Bal analyzes what she the "complicity of critique," "the impossibility of in the very gesture showing and saying 'no' to the object that shows it."28 She argues that the expository agent's intention is not coincident with the agency of that is, that the act of exhibiting or otherwise exposition; InDouble calls will 25. Quoted (see note 2), p. 16. For the transformation by Duncan see B. Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, in their removal to museums, of objects and Heritage Culture: Destination Tourism, Museums, (Berkeley, Los Angeles, in part: These objects have deep roots in history, and they reflect personal visions and collective concerns, as well as the museum severalfold: which could be multiplied 24. A few further examples, in I am brought again to tears." "I felt God exhibit. "An inspirational Iwas one with him." "The Christ and eternal. Beautiful my presence, reads 17-78 ("Objects of Ethnography"). the potential 26. Arthur (see note 11), p. 4, addresses "cacophony or shifting For the ambiguous to museum of response" objects. see I.Gaskell, "Sacred in secular museums, of sacred objects meaning at Studies in Art and Its Publics: Museum and Back Again," ed. A. McClellan Blackwell, 2003), (Maiden, Mass.: of active role in the construction For the museum-goers' 149-162. that is separate images has in itself meaning exposing in exhibiting intention even the inimical and to, from, to Profane the Millennium, pp. Intention: Some Preconditions see M. Baxandall, "Exhibiting meaning, in Karp and of Culturally fo the Visual Display Purposeful Objects," Lavine (see note 10), pp. 36-39. 27. Unidentified oil on canvas, grateful label. 28. Dr. to Timothy Bal artist, Virgin and Child, early eighteenth 54209. Ernest Forbes Memorial Collection, Burgard (see note for providing 8), p. 195. me with century, I am the text of the wall Clifton: Truly a worship experience? is the the images. One of the objects of her metacritique of Raymond Corbey on colonial postcards of she imagines as an seminaked African women, which was it She not.29 argues that exhibition, although work of the postcards undermined re-presentation Corbey's his denunciation of their exploitative nature, that his ostensive critique of colonialist ideology paradoxically that ideology, because images have the to other overrule "power speech acts, and to neutralize intent."30 In that case, the intent was "a critical analysis of ideologically fraught practices of representation."31 advanced in position with regard to the material exhibited as in "The Body of Christ" was not condemnatory Corbey's approach to the colonial postcards but was intended to be neutral. Rather than "saying 'no' to the say "maybe," or "it doesn't matter object," we would Our the belief system inwhich you played a role or not, because you is still vital is acceptable and which are a historical object that we are interested in But Christian imagery is, no doubt, explaining." "ideologically fraught," perhaps even more so than whether it has a longer history of Western with culture in general intertwining and has become naturalized, creating greater obstacles for d?mystification. It is even more profoundly inWestern embedded culture on an epistemological colonial photographs because continuous level in that belief in the Incarnation?the body of of the Christ, as itwere?validated representations divine and therewith had an incalculable effect on Western theories of representation. to our Bal's critique is easily applicable Nonetheless, because one could argue that the works exhibition, neutralized our putatively neutral intent, that the in fact, supported the ideology of the exhibition, material presented. Such an argument might adduce the of the exhibition: First, the exhibition aspects following venue extended to from a few days before Christmas Easter. The timing was obviously meant to resonate with the subject matter and with the visitors' seasonally in the subject matter, like the Museum's "Annual Tree and Christmas Metropolitan in Cr?che." "The Second, Baroque Neapolitan Body of were not only Christ" exhibition sections marked space, heightened interest by titles but also by epigraphs consisting exclusively of on the walls.32 Third, biblical quotations silkscreened there were no didactic materials that could have been construed as a critique of Christian doctrine, although more inmy view? than one visitor?misguided, use to term in connection of "cult" the my objected the display of the Eucharist in the late Middle Ages. Ibid., p. 199. with the Fourth, the narrative structure of the exhibition, form taken the expository agent's (that "syntactical" by is, our) "speech act," was based on Christ's life rather than on the life of the objects or the history of art to which they belong.33 Fifth, the definite article in the title of the exhibition, typically shortened to "The Body of Christ" orthographically and in conversation (fig. 4), it existence of what the presents," as Bal said "suggests] of a photographic essay by Malek Alloula called The Colonial Harem.34 Sixth, the museum in is implicated broad terms, inwhat Bal calls an "eagerness to show."35 One visitor snidely, I'm sure?"What I of piece history. hope other cults get as in exhibition."36 This visitor came close much attention to the museum's position with regard to the (art) remarked?rather a wonderful historical but seemed to be import of the exhibition a the museum of particular "eagerness to accusing show" the Christian material. Regardless of the expository agent's intent, the subtext identifiable from to this point of these elements would be, according authoritative validation, and view, the secular museum's 32. The same epigraphs were of sections of used at the beginning was the the catalogue "The Word Made Flesh": "In the beginning . . .And and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Word, the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, . . . full of grace and truth" (John 1:1, 14); "Suffering and Triumph": "He humbled Himself, unto death, even to the death of the cross. For obedient becoming cause God also hath exalted Him, and hath given Him a name which which is above all names" "The Eucharistie 2:8-9); (Philippians Body": amen I say unto you: Except you eat Jesus said to them: Amen, the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink His blood, you shall not have life in you. He that eateth My flesh, and drinketh My blood, hath "Then life: and Iwill raise him up in the last day. For My flesh is everlasting meat is drink indeed. He that eateth My flesh, indeed: and My blood and drinketh My blood, abideth inMe, and I in him. As the living sent Me, and I live by the father; so he that eateth Me, the live by Me. This is the bread that came down from Not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead. He that Father hath same heaven. also shall eateth this bread, shall live for ever" (John 6:54-59); "The Visionary and Devotional Body": "For ifwe be dead with Him, we shall live also Ifwe suffer, we shall also reign with Him. with Him. Ifwe deny Him, He will also deny us" (IITimothy 2:11-12). en beschaving. 29. See R. Corbey, Wildheid De Europese van Afrika (Baarn: Ambo, 1989); ibid., "Alterity: The verbeelding Colonial of Anthropology 8, no. 3 (1988):75-92. Nude," Critique 30. Bal (see note 8), p. 198. 31. 113 33. On 34. 35. 36. On p. 11. exhibitions as speech acts, see Bal (see note 8), passim. Ibid., p. 200. Ibid., p. 205. the issue of parity among religions, see Arthur (note 11), 114 RES 52 AUTUMN 2007 to the aesthetic is organized according it derives,"38 of the cultures from which they probably did not have inmind Western culture(s), and by specifying aesthetic the artwork categories although Christian interesting categories they precluded other potentially options. or reawakening in the perpetuation Some complicity of an ideology through the re-presentation of objects seems inevitable. How might we judge the acceptability of that complicity, especially with regard to religion? Drawing on an evaluative model of the United Way of should use America, Stephen Weil argued that museums their authoritative position to make "a positive difference in the quality of individual and communal lives."39 The statement seems uncontroversial. Few, if any, people to make a negative difference, would want museums if they did not make any difference one way or the there would be no point of having them at all, at except to keep a relatively few people employed But who is to determine what relatively low wages.40 constitutes a positive difference and how that difference and other, Figure 4. The Body of Christ in the Art of Europe and New Spain, exhibition 1150-1800, Bernardino Luini, The Houston, reproduced Cover catalogue. The Museum of Lamentation, Samuel by courtesy H. Kress of 61.68. Collection, the Museum of ?mage: Fine Arts, Cover Fine Arts, Houston. is to be brought about? One visitor to "The Body of at Christ" seemed to be in full agreement with Weil, least in principle, writing: "Bravo! Christ rules and reigns to represent forever! Thank you for having the boldness such an exhibit! Our city needs it." It is unlikely that this In calling for museums to iswhat Weil had inmind. make a positive difference, he wrote: "At the level of institutional leadership, the most important new skill of all will be the ability to envision how the community's ongoing and/or emerging needs in all their of the Christian narrative, of thereby endorsement, Christian doctrine, and of the objects as cult objects. in the religious, is thus complicitous And the museum non-art-historical reception of the works implied by the visitors' comments. Bal's proposal for "an alternative treatment of Eurosexist aestherotic imagery"37 may be in this context, and the means of egress less applicable if even desired, are from this conceptual conundrum, not readily evident. Several writers have called for various kinds of experimental but important exhibitions, are often of exhibitions practical considerations and "The Body of Christ" was in some mild neglected, its iconographie with rather way already experimental, In that sense, itmight than chronological organization. almost have been a response to Steven Lavine's and Ivan Karp's call in 1991 for "experiments inwhich and economic, dimensions?physical, psychological, potentially be served by the museum's social?might list may not have Weil's very particular competencies."41 38. S. Lavine and I. Karp, "Introduction: Museums and in Karp and Lavine (see note 10), p. 7. Multiculturalisme 39. Weil Lavine and Karp (see note 38), (see note 8), pp. 241-242. that "people are attracted by the authority of pp. 7-8, recognize is called and audiences could lose interest if that authority museums, see W. Boyd, into question." For a critique of museum authority, as Centers of Controversy," "Museums in Americas Museums, special issue of Daedalus, 128, no. 3 (1999):200. 40. Recognized (see note 8), p. 242, citing Harold by Weil For a more nuanced view of the "good use" of objects in Skramstad. see I.Gaskell, Vermeers Wager: Speculations and Art Museums (London: Reaktion Books, (art) museums, History, Theory 197-209. 41. Weil museum environmentally the community 37. Bal (see note 8), p. 221. might 8), p. 253; he continues "|W]hat can Can it be a successful advocate for (see note contribute? it energize sound public policies? or maintain to achieve and release the Inwhat social imaginative on Art 2000), the it help ways might Inwhat ways stability? power of its individual pp. Clifton: Truly a worship experience? intended to be exhaustive, but in this account, needs do not include a religious "all" the community's Is it that individuals and communities dimension. do not have religious needs? Can a positive value not be assigned to the addressing of a religious need? Or can been museums for one not accept the religious as part of their charge reason or another? Is it that a religious need is different from a physical, psychological, ontologically or social one? Are there legal, financial, or economic, reasons for museums to address some needs political but not others? "Needs" may not be the best term to use in this in any case. We might instead think of vistors' in the double interests addressing as of term: what the both meaning they are (potentially) context, museums in and what serves their interests. Itwas very that a great many people were interested in the in "The Body of Christ" and were material presented Iam not itwas presented. responsive to the way interested clear that museums be subject to the tyranny of or to what they perceive to be popular popular opinion museum exhibition be about Monet lest every opinion, or mummies or both. Ido not lightly accept the idea because the public would rejection of an exhibition suggesting not be interested or would not "get it," as museum staff and trustees sometimes In the first place, the suggest. public is often surprising in its interests; in the second to share the it is precisely a role of a museum place, interests its of curatorial pondered staff, professionally interest rather than merely generating responding to it. To what extent "The Body of Christ" may have served the visitors' interests?and the possibly overlapping but also possibly mutually exclusive interests of the broader much less clear. The authority that community?remains museums them the power but does not enjoy may grant to them the differentiate grant among the ability interests of various groups in their potentially competing not which is often audience, simply local, but national are charged? and international as well. Museums and perhaps simply self-charged?with conserving the public about objects of interest and value educating (whether historical, aesthetic, monetary, or some other kind of value), and there is a primary obligation in that I remain convinced of charge to the objects themselves. the validity of the generating idea behind "The Body of it serve Citizens? Can personal education ties? Can as a site for strengthening family and/or other the desire of individuals for further it trigger or training, arts or the sciences?" inspire them toward proficiency in the creative Christ": not to address 115 in religious the religious element and where need be, also art?fully unabashedly, though, a to offer mutilated view of self-critically?is intrinsically interesting objects and of the history of image-making.