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Cleveland Museum of Art collection shows how humanity coped with pandemics from Black Death to AIDS – cleveland.com

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CLEVELAND, Ohio — It’s tempting to think of the novel coronavirus pandemic as something truly novel because it’s rooted in a viral strain not identified previously in humans.

But there’s nothing new about plagues and pandemics. Humanity has been here before. The cultural record is packed with déjà vu.

In his 1722 book, “A Journal of The Plague Year,’’ Daniel Defoe speaks of the 1665 outbreak of bubonic plague in London in terms that sound eerily like today’s headlines.

The city compiled statistical “Bills of Mortality’’ in ways that anticipate today’s coronavirus curves. The Lord Mayor ordered houses with infected inhabitants to be nailed or padlocked shut — a cruel form of social distancing.

A fifth of London’s population perished. That was a year before the great fire that consumed much of the city.

Works in Cleveland Museum of Art collection relevant to coronavirus pandemic.Cleveland Museum of Art

The 14th century Italian author Giovanni Boccaccio relates in his “Decameron’’ how 10 well-to-do young Florentines flee to a country villa during a bubonic plague outbreak known as the Black Death. They’re like the wealthy of today, leaving cities for second homes in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, or the Hamptons on Long Island.

Instead of binge-watching cable TV, Boccaccio’s protagonists entertain each other by telling 100 stories of love, shame and religious hypocrisy.

For art lovers curious about historical responses to plagues and pandemics, the Cleveland Museum of Art has plenty to offer online.

Works in Cleveland Museum of Art collection relevant to coronavirus pandemic.Cleveland Museum of Art

A search of the permanent collection produces dozens of images of death as the great leveler, of saints to whom the afflicted prayed for a cure, and of the plagues visited upon Egypt before the exodus of the Jews.

Heather Lemonedes Brown, the museum’s deputy director and chief curator, takes solace in the artistic testimony from the past because it offers proof that civilization endures and life goes on.

“Knowing that humanity persists is comforting on some level,’’ she said.

The museum, which is still considering how and when it will reopen, isn’t planning a pandemic exhibition, Brown said.

But last week she discussed several works in the collection that deal with themes related to coronavirus, which are included here, along with additional selections.

What follows is a thematic virtual tour of selected artworks which remind us that previous generations have experienced — and withstood — pandemics.

The Dance of Death

The artist Hans Holbein the Younger (1497-98 – 1543), known for stunning portraits in oils of subjects including England’s Henry VIII, designed a series of prints in the mid-1520s dealing with the classic medieval theme, “Dance of Death,’’ inspired by outbreaks of the plague.

Holbein designed 41 variations, of which the Cleveland museum has 38. One depicts Death as a raging peasant attacking a wealthy count who runs for his life, flinging useless armor and weapons to the ground.

https://clevelandart.org/art/1929.164 – “Der Groff,” or “The Count,” is part of the “Dance of Death” series by Hans Holbein the Younger, inspired by traditional medieval imagery depicting Death as the great leveler, a practice inspired by outbreaks of bubonic plague Cleveland Museum of ArtCleveland Museum of Art

The series “reminds us that no one from the top of the heap to a nameless child is safe from death,” Brown said. “Death becomes the great leveler, letting no one escape.’’

In 1850, the German artist Alfred Rethel (1816-1859), created his own variation on the theme in a woodcut depicting “Death as a Strangler,” fiddling in the midst of an 1832 Parisian costume ball during a cholera outbreak that eventually killed 20,000 across the city.

https://clevelandart.org/art/1939.620 – A ghoulish 1850 print by German artist Alfred Rethel depicts Death fiddling at an 1832 Parisian costume ball during a global cholera outbreak. Cleveland Museum of ArtCleveland Museum of Art

Death appears in the Rethel in the tattered robes of a monk, playing a fiddle made of human bones as partygoers collapse on the dance floor and musicians bolt for the exits.

Parenthetically, it’s easy to see how the Holbein and the Rethel are part of a visual tradition that includes Ingmar Bergman’s classic 1957 film, “The Seventh Seal,’’ relating the tale of a medieval knight who challenges Death to a game of chess during an outbreak of plague as he seeks redemption while still alive.

Variations on Saint Sebastian

The museum holds multiple depictions of Saint Sebastian, a 3rd century Roman soldier who converted to Christianity and was sentenced to death by Emperor Diocletian. When soldiers couldn’t kill Sebastian with arrows, they clubbed him to death.

Miracles associated with Sebastian include the conversion of a Roman prefect who was cured of a plague when he renounced the worship of idols at Sebastian’s insistence.

For that reason, cities and villages across Europe adopted Sebastian as a “plague saint,” to whom they prayed for help during outbreaks.

https://clevelandart.org/art/1958.411 – The Cleveland Museum of Art’s permanent collection includes a delicate and elegant 1493 drawing by the Italian artist Perugino of Saint Sebastian, considered an intercessor for victims of bubonic plague who prayed for a cure. Cleveland Museum of ArtCleveland Museum of Art

The museum’s images of Sebastian include a delicate and elegant 1493 drawing by the Italian artist Perugino, exhibited last year in the exhibition “Michelangelo: Mind of the Master.”

“It’s such a sensitive and beautiful little drawing,” Brown said.

https://clevelandart.org/art/1997.53 – The 17th-century Spanish artist Jusepe de Ribera used red chalk on paper in 1626-30 to delineate Saint Sebastian, traditionally associated with cures for bubonic plague, as he is painfully tied to a tree by one arm, flinching in anticipation of being shot with arrows by Roman soldiers. Cleveland Museum of ArtCleveland Museum of Art

In contrast to the Perugino, the 17th-century Spanish artist Jusepe de Ribera used red chalk on paper in 1626-30 to delineate the saint painfully tied by one arm to a tree as he flinches in anticipation of the first arrow he’s about to receive.

https://clevelandart.org/art/1931.65 – A 1484 German monstrance, a gilded silver and rock crystal reliquary in the permanent collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art is believed to contain a sliver of bone from the body of Saint Sebastian, to whom victims of bubonic plague traditionally prayed for a cure. Cleveland Museum of ArtCleveland Museum of Art

Another powerful work associated with Saint Sebastian is a 1484 German monstrance, a gilded silver and rock crystal reliquary believed to contain a sliver of bone from the saint’s body. It’s shaped like a slice of a Gothic cathedral with flying buttresses and a towering cupola holding a crystalline cylinder with its precious contents inside.

St. Catherine of Siena

In addition to Saint Sebastian, Renaissance Italians prayed to St. Catherine of Siena for relief from the plague. The daughter of a wealthy cloth dyer, she had a vision of Christ at age 6, and thereafter dedicated herself to chastity, penance and good works, according to the museum. She became known in Siena for caring for victims of the Black Death.

https://clevelandart.org/art/1966.2 – Italians in the Renaissance prayed to St. Catherine of Siena for relief from outbreaks of bubonic plague. The saint is shown here in a 1460 altarpiece panel by Sienese artist Giovanni di Paolo as she kneels to receive the habit of St. Dominic. Cleveland Museum of ArtCleveland Museum of Art

St. Catherine is the subject of a 1460 altarpiece panel by Sienese artist Giovanni di Paolo, who shows her kneeling as she receives the habit of St. Dominic.

Visons from India, Japan

In 12th century Japan, Buddhists seeking protection from disease addressed prayers to the “Medicine Master Buddha (Yakushi Nyorai).” Seated on a lotus blossom, the Buddha heals all maladies, including ignorance. He holds his right hand upward in a mudra, or gesture, that means “have no fear.”

https://clevelandart.org/art/1973.85 – Buddhists seeking protection from disease in 12th century Japan addressed prayers to the “Medicine Master Buddha, a healer of all maladies who holds his right hand upward in a mudra, or gesture, that means “have no fear.” Cleveland Museum of ArtCleveland Museum of Art

From 1830 to 1880, street artists gathered around Kalighat Temple in Kolkata, India, to purvey bright, colorful paintings on paper that functioned as political broadsides, gossip sheets or religious tracts. Examples at the museum, which held a memorable Kalighat exhibition in 2011, include a two-sided painting of Sheetala, the smallpox goddess, who has the power to cure or curse devotees.

https://clevelandart.org/art/2003.157 – A 19th-century Kalighat painting from Kolkata, India, depicts Sheetala, the smallpox goddess, who has the power to cure or curse devotees. Cleveland Museum of ArtCleveland Museum of Art

Out of Egypt

The museum holds numerous depictions of the plagues visited on Egypt prior to the exodus of the Jews to the Promised Land.

Among the most striking is an etching and mezzotint print by British artist J.M.W. Turner, modeled after his 1800 painting “The Fifth Plague of Egypt,’’ now owned by the Indianapolis Museum of Art.

https://clevelandart.org/art/1919.135 – British artist J.M.W. Turner, modeled his etching, “The Fifth Plague of Egypt,’’ after an 1800 painting he made with the same title. Both works are wrongly titled because they depicts the Seventh Plague, caused when Moses stretched his arms toward the heavens causing fire, thunder and hail to descend on the pharaoh and his minions. Cleveland Museum of ArtCleveland Museum of Art

Both the etching and the painting are mistitled. Turner’s image, which shows storm clouds and lightning shrouding Egyptian pyramids, actually depicts the Seventh Plague, caused when Moses stretched his arms toward the heavens causing fire, thunder and hail to descend on the pharaoh and his minions.

AIDS

Cleveland artist Scott Miller, who died in 2008 at age 52, was known for a flowing style inspired by cartoons and graffiti. “Untitled,’’ painted in 1986, depicts a male figure with his arms folded protectively across his chest as he hovers amid overflowing viscera. The museum says the painting refers to Miller’s “identity as a gay man living through the deadliest years of the AIDS pandemic.’’

– Scott Miller, a leading Cleveland artist who died in 2008 at age 52, painted this untitled work in 1986, which the Cleveland Museum of Art interprets as a statement of vulnerability during the AIDS crisis. Cleveland Museum of ArtCleveland Museum of Art

In 2019 the museum acquired a 1987 work created by contemporary American artist Jenny Holzer as a response to HIV/AIDS, which has killed 32 million since the early 1980s according to the World Health Organization.

Entitled “Laments: Death came and he looked like…” the work consists of a vertically oriented L.E.D. sign flashing with a word crawl, and a marble sarcophagus etched with the same text, written by the artist.

– Laments: Death came and he looked like…, 1987. Jenny Holzer, an L.E.D. sign, marble sarcophagus, is a work of contemporary art recently acquired by the Cleveland Museum of Art. The installation, which will be available for viewing when the museum reopens, has taken fresh meaning during the coronavirus pandemic of 2020. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchased with funds donated by Scott Mueller 2019.19 © Jenny Holzer, member Artists Rights Society (ARS), New YorkCleveland Museum of Art

For Brown, the Holzer refers to mass media and fine art, evoking both modern technology and ancient burial practices.

With contrasting vertical and horizontal elements that stand up lie down, the work also appears to evoke “the living and the dead, both at the same time, and the new and the old,” Brown said.

– Laments: Death came and he looked like…, 1987. Jenny Holzer, an L.E.D. sign, marble sarcophagus, is a work of contemporary art recently acquired by the Cleveland Museum of Art. The installation, which will be available for viewing when the museum reopens, has taken fresh meaning during the coronavirus pandemic of 2020. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchased with funds donated by Scott Mueller 2019.19 © Jenny Holzer, member Artists Rights Society (ARS), New YorkCleveland Museum of Art

Somber and bluntly assertive, the Holzer is a thoroughly contemporary response to plagues that have been part of human experience for millennia.

It’s also a reminder of how current events can endow great works of art throughout the museum’s collection with a sudden, sharp relevance.

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40 Random Bits of Trivia About Artists and the Artsy Art That They Articulate – Cracked.com

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John Little, whose paintings showed the raw side of Montreal, dies at 96 – CBC.ca

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A misspelled memorial to the Brontë sisters gets its dots back at last

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LONDON (AP) — With a few daubs of a paintbrush, the Brontë sisters have got their dots back.

More than eight decades after it was installed, a memorial to the three 19th-century sibling novelists in London’s Westminster Abbey was amended Thursday to restore the diaereses – the two dots over the e in their surname.

The dots — which indicate that the name is pronounced “brontay” rather than “bront” — were omitted when the stone tablet commemorating Charlotte, Emily and Anne was erected in the abbey’s Poets’ Corner in October 1939, just after the outbreak of World War II.

They were restored after Brontë historian Sharon Wright, editor of the Brontë Society Gazette, raised the issue with Dean of Westminster David Hoyle. The abbey asked its stonemason to tap in the dots and its conservator to paint them.

“There’s no paper record for anyone complaining about this or mentioning this, so I just wanted to put it right, really,” Wright said. “These three Yorkshire women deserve their place here, but they also deserve to have their name spelled correctly.”

It’s believed the writers’ Irish father Patrick changed the spelling of his surname from Brunty or Prunty when he went to university in England.

Raised on the wild Yorkshire moors, all three sisters died before they were 40, leaving enduring novels including Charlotte’s “Jane Eyre,” Emily’s “Wuthering Heights” and Anne’s “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.”

Rebecca Yorke, director of the Brontë Society, welcomed the restoration.

“As the Brontës and their work are loved and respected all over the world, it’s entirely appropriate that their name is spelled correctly on their memorial,” she said.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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