Father Rick Phipps and Ann Hardy, principal, thanked everyone for their help in preparing for the blessing.
Christopher Green (above) reads a display about Sister Bowman set up in the school.
Sherman Nunn Abdur-Razzaq of the Mississippi Afrocentrik Dance and Drum Ensemble performs during the ceremony.
Students spell out Sister Thea Bowman as Yolanda Henderson, sixth-grade teacher, holds up a photo of Sister Bowman during the blessing ceremony for the Sister Thea Bowman Catholic School at Jackson Christ the King Church on Sunday, Oct. 29.
Approach to exhibit can be varied, director says By Fabvienen Taylor
JACKSON — If angels have wings, why do Italian Renaissance artists paint them with ladders in their depictions of that scene from the Book of Genesis (28:11-19) of biblical patriarch Jacob envisioning his flight from his brother Esau?
That is one question, one way, Dr. James Bowley, chair of religious studies and associate professor or religious studies at Millsaps College, suggests museum-goers might approach the “Between God & Man: Angels in Italian Art” exhibition currently at the Mississippi Museum of Art in its new facility on Lamar Street.
Betsy Bradley, director of the museum, suggests another: “It’s an opportunity to learn more about other religions and cultures, but also about angels, which are icons in the Western canon of art history.”
Since its Saturday, June 9 opening, over 3,000 people have attended the exhibit.
“You can approach the exhibit from many other angles,” she said. “Religious is just one. You can approach it from the art history involved, you can approach it from what it tells you about the Italian Renaissance, or how some styles developed, and certainly about ancient Rome.
“So I think you can use whatever entry point is relevant to your life,” said Bradley.
The exhibition is about the evolution of an icon — the angel. “We knew we wanted something spectacular to open our new building. We had been approached by someone in the United States who works with the Vatican Museums about doing something from there,” said Bradley.
The ninth in the Annie Laurie Swaim Hearin Memorial Exhibition Series, “Between God and Man: Angels in Italian Art” was curated by the Director General of the Vatican Museums, Dr. Francesco Buranelli, for an exclusive showing at the museum.
The exhibit comprises more than 100 works of art. The exhibition features works in various mediums, but mainly paintings, from ancient times to modern.
The exhibit runs through the end of December. Admission for adults is $12 and there are special rates for seniors and students. For museum members admission is free.
The pieces in the exhibit are mostly from public museums but from 70 different collections, according to Bradley. “To see all these grouped together like this is virtually impossible anywhere else because you would have to go to so many different places,” she said.
All have been open to the public before, with the exception of Fra Filippo Lippi’s “Annunciation,” which Bradley described as “stunning.”
That work of art was kept in the private residence, until now, of the owners of the Doria Pamphilj Museum in Rome.
“We think the Lippi ‘Annunciation’ is something you will never forget,” said Bradley. “But it depends on who you ask. Some of the Italian scholars think the sculpture of ‘Eros Stringing His Bow’ is one of the important pieces in the exhibit because it is the first (discovered) three-dimensional image of a human in motion.” It is a first to early second century marble statue.
Prior to it, humans had been depicted stationary, she said. “So it is a very important, very old piece.”
It is the ancient world Bowley concentrates mostly on in his work. He can be heard on portions of the audio tape available for the exhibit.
“I work mostly in Judaic studies and with the Hebrew Bible, or the Old Testament. And I do a lot of Dead Sea Scrolls and ancient Israel work.”
“I think, mostly because I am a student of literature, a scholar of literature, the pieces I enjoyed the most were the ones depicting stories, from Genesis and other bible stories because I’m very interested in how things get depicted and comparing the artistry of the original writer with the artistry of the painter many centuries later.”
He likes to see how the artist envisioned things.
“For example, I’m interested in tracing the history of angels, so there’s one painting of Gabriel at the Annunciation with Mary.
“And in Islam, it is Gabriel who gives Mohammed the Koran. Well, Gabriel becomes the most important announcing angel. So the two most important announcements in the two religions both come from Gabriel. So Gabriel had these two jobs. Those sorts of things are really fascinating to me,” said Bowley.
The exhibit flows along thematic lines, said Bradley. “The researchers who put the exhibit together decided on the structure when they began searching for art that would fill themes like ‘The Archangels,’ ‘Angels in the Old Testament,’ ‘Angels in the New Testament,’ ‘Angels in the Lives of the Saints,’ ‘Angels of Our Times,’ and so forth. So the physical structure of the exhibit follows that thematic structure.”
Modern art pieces in the exhibit also appealed to Bowley. “I liked them because they are less romantic. I am not much into romantic depictions of angels. I like art to challenge, to delight, to make you think,” he said.
Bradley notices bumper stickers proclaiming “I believe in angels” all the time, she said. “But that doesn’t mean those people are deeply Christian. I think the icon of the angel has taken on a meaning in the secular world that is really pervasive out there.
“I think it’s about hope and about a connection to another world that transcends some of the boundaries we put up between ourselves,” Bradley said.
u can use whatever entry point is relevant to your life,” said Bradley.
