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
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Truly a worship
Christian

experience?
museums

art in secular

CLIFTON JAMES

In the flood of critical and self-critical literature since the advent of the so-called "new museology" thirty-five years ago, scant attention has been given to the role of or the exhibition of religious religion inmuseums (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 usual metaphorical the visitor use, describing museums as art in ritual, but not in direct experience

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 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 aesthetic. North American and museum are the heritage of Enlightenment exhibitions secularism, and a canonical aestheticism, nineteenth-century history of art. Most museums with substantial collections and divide those collections arrange each group*?especially so that art?chronologically, matter, including religious, 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 pretensions to culture and according European and American works of different subject next might be exhibited encyclopedic museums

its

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' display in the production
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 much our attention is engaged by the art alone.

This essay meeting and organizer Francesco comments. annual

is based

on a paper Igave at the College Art Association I am grateful to Jeffrey Abt and Ivan Gaskell, as well as to of the session, respondent, respectively, in 2006; 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 All ego-

Pellizzi

Partners: Art and Religion in Dialogue, 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 3, no. 4 "The Universal Survey Museum," the notion was elaborated (1980):448-469; by Rituals: Inside Public Art Museums (London and Civilizing 1995). and A. Wallach,

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 America's 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 in "The Divided

York: Routledge,

108

RES 52 AUTUMN

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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 rather than subject. of Christian art in secular Thematic exhibitions museums in the United States are rare, reflecting, I a on certain would the part of suggest, squeamishness a exhibition about discourse organizers entering public that is religious devotion and practice, a discourse arts in the likewise avoided elsewhere and media (such as the major television networks).5 In secular European museums such exhibitions have been more frequent, the about result of a fundamentally different attitude toward, and and the history of, both public religious expression of and exhibition art.6 collecting An analysis of one such exhibition in an American museum?an I curated?and the viewer exhibition 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 to it suggest

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 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 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, be occluded of may critique by the re-presentation as museums and must Weil second, if, asserts, objects; make "a positive difference in the quality of individual and communal lives," we must guard against an 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 what are potentially are diverse. as richly varied as museums' audiences authoritarian inwhich calls

"The Body of Christ in the Art of Europe and New

Spain, 1150-1800" 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 in diverse Blaffer Foundation, Houston) Campbell media: paintings, textiles, sculpture, prints, drawings, a and feather mosaic illuminations, manuscript (fig. 1). in four sections, The objects were arranged in a loose narrative of Christ's life and afterlife. The first two

isolation Museum's

of art from

its cultural

Ruins (Cambridge, (note 2), pp. 16-19. 1993); see also Duncan 5. "Divine Mirrors: The Virgin Mary in the Visual Museum and Cultural Center of Wellesley

see D. Crimp, On context, and London: The MIT Mass., Arts"

the Press, at the is a

Davis notable

College

in 2001

exception. not be possible, 6. It would 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 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, 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 vision de France, Rome, 2000); and "Baroque, j?suite: du Tintoret ? "Gebed 1500"; Rubens" (Mus?e des Beaux-Arts de Caen, 2003). in

7. There of curatorial 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

of the objects, theses, significance exhibition?organizing principles, a first-person and so on?in narrative, thereby explicitly subjectivizing in question in the exhibition This was not done here the presentation. of this essay. but seems useful for the purposes 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.

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.

"TheWord Made Flesh" and "Suffering and Triumph" recounted Christ's life from the Annunciation to the Resurrection and the post-Resurrection to the appearance Apostles (fig. 2). Although theological issues were raised in the didactic matter of the first two sections, 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 the miraculous of saints 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) significance they were was to an "to that the introduce purpose produced, seen not in the American often Christian public subjects United States and to recontextualize Christian 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 the cultural and historical attempted heighten resonance of the objects rather than the visual wonder at their aesthetic uniqueness.10

9. J.Clifton, The Body of Christ in the Art of Europe and New exhibition Museum of Fine Arts, 1150-1800, Spain, catalogue, Houston (Munich 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, S. Lavine (Washington, pp. 42-56; exclusive. Press, 1991), not mutually Institution and London: Smithsonian D.C, as Greenblatt points out (p. 56), the two are

110

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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, 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 I would 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, "historical

Figure 2.Workshop of the Master of the Berlin Triptych, Virgin and Child in Glory, second quarter of the fourteenth century.
Ivory, Favrot 14 x 8.3 cm, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 71.7.

Museum

purchase with funds provided by the Laurence H.

Bequest.

This approach is far more common inmuseum art. of non-Western in the ways The difference displays are Western and non-Western in treated objects museums?even in the same museum?is of considerable but the subject lies outside significance, the scope of this paper. I would 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 to is "whether it is possible 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, how do you mount at root, is 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. Technical present for their scrutiny?" Ibid., p. 4. Ibid., pp. 2-4. Shaw, "Theatrical Lighting in an Architectural Context: Considerations,"

15. Kevan

http://www.kevan-shaw.com/articles/tech/ of Intention: On London: the Historical Yale University

theatre/Lightfair.html. 16. M. Baxandall,

Patterns

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 11), p. 9.

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 It may

The artists represented in "The Body of Christ" were not well known to the public, and the exhibition had a 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, 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,

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 exhibition teach viewers to look without feeling too much"23 as having the exhibition was described notwithstanding, a religious effect on the visitors: It was called "moving," "inspirational," "humbling," "powerful," "inspiring," "soul stirring," "uplifting," and was said to have renewed was "[I]ife changing, a and restored faith inChrist. It 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 exhibit. life. God It is very moving bless those who

20. between 21.

Baxandall

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"

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

22.

The comments

are preserved

in the archives

of the Museum

of

Fine Arts, Houston. 23. J. Elkins, Pictures in Front of Paintings

(New York and

& Tears: A History of People Who Have Cried London: Routledge, 2001), p. 207.

112

RES 52 AUTUMN

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worked

wonderful

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

and bring peace on blessing: "May God bless everyone I would 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 transforms their status and radically alters their communicative in a producer-object-viewer significance tends to isolate them from any that with context. Goethe worried contemporary of and removal Italian churches of pillaging Napoleon's of the to Louvre "the treasures the their very capacity 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 chain, but it also cultural of those add, the foreclosure of a continued experience an to have continue such But may meanings. objects 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 the objects conjunction original owner, evoke devotional function but also a continuing to the installation, but Next potential. as a is a text, written by that whole, addressing gallery curator American De the of Art, Timothy Young's reads in part: Burgard, which not only its original These objects have deep roots in history, and they reflect personal visions and collective concerns, as well as the
time, place, and 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 place new De cultural ideas as well aspires of origin, Young time and the artwork's transcend . . . [T]he its stylistic vocabulary. common a cultural to provide as can

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 relevance of the collections.27

Where

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, museum object.

severalfold: which could be multiplied 24. A few further examples, in I am brought again to tears." "I felt God exhibit. "An inspirational was one with him." "The Christ I and eternal. Beautiful my presence, of these 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." I thank God If just one to God, for His life gets the angels

Implicating InDouble

the expository

agent

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 Los and Heritage Culture: Destination Tourism, Museums, (Berkeley, Angeles, and London: University of California Press, 1998), pp. 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 to Profane the Millennium, 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.

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; that is separate images has in itself meaning exposing in exhibiting even intention the inimical and to, from,

27.

Unidentified Dr. to Timothy Bal

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.

oil on canvas, grateful label. 28.

artist, Virgin and Child, early eighteenth 54209. Ernest Forbes Memorial Collection, Burgard for providing me with

century, I am

the text of the wall

(see note

8), p. 195.

Clifton: Truly a worship experience?

113

work

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

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. with

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 advanced images have the "power to overrule other speech acts, and to neutralize intent."30 In that case, the intent was "a critical analysis of ideologically fraught practices of representation."31 in Our 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 whether the belief system inwhich you played a role or not, because 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 colonial photographs because continuous you

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 "suggests] presents," as Bal said 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 remarked?rather snidely, I'm sure?"What I of wonderful 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) historical but seemed to be import of the exhibition museum a the of accusing particular "eagerness to 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 a

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 in embedded Western culture on an epistemological level in that belief in the Incarnation?the body of were?validated of the Christ, as it 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 following aspects 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 interest in the subject matter, like the heightened Metropolitan "Annual Christmas Tree and in "The Body of Second, Baroque Neapolitan were not only Christ" exhibition sections marked space, titles but also of by by epigraphs consisting exclusively Cr?che." Museum's

32. The same epigraphs were used at the beginning of sections of 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 I will 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, inMe, and I in him. As the living abideth Father hath same heaven. eateth also 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 shall

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 we suffer, we shall also reign with Him. we deny Him, If with Him. If He will also deny us" (IITimothy 2:11-12). 33. On 34. 35. 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),

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. Ibid., p. 199. p.

36. On

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to the aesthetic is organized according it derives,"38 of the cultures from which although they probably did not have inmind Western Christian culture(s), and by specifying aesthetic categories they precluded other potentially interesting options. or reawakening in the perpetuation Some complicity the artwork categories 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 other, 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

Figure 4. The Body of Christ in the Art of Europe and New

1150-1800, Spain, Bernardino Luini, Houston, reproduced The exhibition Lamentation, H. Kress of Cover catalogue. The Museum of Collection, of 61.68. ?mage: Fine Arts, Cover Houston.

Samuel by courtesy

the Museum

Fine Arts,

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 and economic, dimensions?physical, psychological, potentially be served by the museum's social?might list may not have Weil's very particular competencies."41

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

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. (art) museums, History, Theory 197-209. 41. Weil museum see I.Gaskell, Vermeers Wager: Speculations and Art Museums (London: Reaktion Books, 8), p. 253; he continues "|W]hat can Can it be a successful advocate for Inwhat social on Art 2000), the pp.

(see note

contribute?

environmentally the community 37. Bal (see note 8), p. 221. might it energize

sound public policies? or maintain to achieve and release the

imaginative

it help ways might Inwhat ways stability? power of its individual

Clifton: Truly a worship experience?

115

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

Christ": not to address

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.

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. It was very that a great many people were interested in the in "The Body of Christ" and were material presented was presented. to Iam not it the way responsive 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 the suggest. place, public is often surprising in its interests; in the second it is precisely a role of a museum to share the 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

Citizens? personal education

Can

it serve

ties? Can

it trigger

as a site for strengthening family and/or other the desire of individuals for further inspire them toward proficiency in the creative

or training, arts or the sciences?"