The Martyrdom of Saint Ursula” is Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio’s last known commission. It was completed in 1610 – the year that marked the mysterious disappearance and death of the great Italian Baroque artist. He was only 39. The piece embodies Caravaggio’s dramatic use of light and dark (later dubbed “chiaroscuro”). It depicts Saint Ursula, ghostly pale, as if she were turning to stone, looking thoughtfully at an arrow protruding from her chest. She has just rejected the affections of Hun invaders, choosing martyrdom instead. Caravaggio inserted himself into the work behind Ursula, looking upward toward something imperceptible to the viewer.
The piece is impressive – fairly large, immediately striking with its theatrical lighting. Yet the work has neither the sheen nor the texture of its oil paint medium. It isn’t presented in the expected decadent frame but rather as part of a black box extending from the wall. It is lit from behind like a very large, very high-quality slide.
The inaugural exhibit of the Loyola University Museum of Art, 820 N. Michigan Ave., “Caravaggio: Una Mostra Impossibile!” consists of 69 true to size, high-resolution projections. The museum, which opened Oct. 8, features a contemporary gallery space for special exhibitions and will eventually house Loyola’s impressive collection of Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque art, which dates from 1150 to 1750.
The museum hopes to address a niche in the art world by creating a space for the study and exhibition of spiritual artwork from a variety of cultures and societies. The Caravaggio exhibit was created by RAI (Radiotelevisione Italiana) and originally opened in Naples in 2003. Its next stop in Rome at the Castel Sant’Angelo National Museum attracted more than 140,000 visitors. “Una Mostra Impossibile” (translated as “an impossible feat”), is a fitting inaugural exhibition for the museum, given Caravaggio’s many religious subject matters and the exhibit’s Italian roots.
“One of the things that make ‘Caravaggio’ perfect for Loyola is that it’s an educational exhibit,” says Lisa Torgerson, the museum’s director of development. “The technology of having digital reproductions of all of Caravaggio’s original works makes this impossible exhibition possible. It’s quite a teaching tool, and it’s very nifty for a university to be able to offer that to the public.”
Caravaggio’s skilled representational technique is immediately noticeable when perusing the illuminated works. He visually rejects the notion of an idealized human form, unafraid to paint the old, the young, the beautiful and the ugly as they appear in real life. While his subjects are almost always religious, he doesn’t glorify saints and heroes like his Renaissance predecessors. At times his figures seem so pedestrian that they are only recognizable as divinities by the thin, discrete halos above their heads.
While the exhibit is a comprehensive look at the life and works of Caravaggio, it broaches some interesting questions regarding the presentation and reproduction of original artwork. This exhibit is carefully categorized as an educational endeavor: It is not meant to replace the experience of seeing original work first-hand, but rather to create a forum in which the breadth of Caravaggio’s works can be studied and discussed.
“We don’t want to pretend we’re something we’re not,” Torgerson says. “We don’t want to pretend that they are original works of art. Yet the fact that we can show all of his work in one exhibition, true to size, is an incredible feat. Hopefully it will inspire people to go see the originals.”
As the first exhibition of its kind, “Una Mostra Impossibile” addresses the growing reluctance of private collectors and museums to lend out works for traveling exhibitions. While this sort of technology increases the accessibility of works that might not otherwise be seen without a ticket to Europe, the museum setting may suggest that these reproductions should take on artistic value themselves.
“The idea of the light box is a strange one because it largely reproduces what has become an antiquated media technology, the projected slide,” says Lyle Massey, who teaches Italian Renaissance art history at Northwestern. “My sense is that no matter how high the quality, what you are essentially getting here is a glorified undergraduate lecture with slides.”
Massey says Web- and computer-based technology, such as high-resolution digitization, presents a form of visual access very different from the light box. It exists outside of the gallery setting and includes zoom features that allow for a detail-oriented examination of works. Still, there’s no substitute for the actual masterpieces.
“I do not think that this will ever become a standard form of exhibition, if only because we are still very much a society that prizes a certain notion of authenticity over replication,” Massey says. “I do think that museums will increasingly exploit these technologies to make the presentation of historical works more interesting and compelling to museum visitors. But they will always be seen as supplements to the presentation of the actual works.”
“Caravaggio: Una Mostra Impossibile!” runs through Feb. 11. The museum is open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday and from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday. Admission is free for students. For more information, visit www.luc.edu/luma.4
Medill senior Rachel Wolff is a PLAY writer. She can be reached at [email protected].
