Relief with Ptolemy VIII and Cleopatra II or III Making Offerings (detail), Ptolemaic, 170–116 BC; from Thebes, Egypt; sandstone. Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Ägyptisches Museum und Papyrussammlung. Photo: bpk Bildagentur / Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Ägyptisches Museum und Papyrussamlung / Art Resource, NY

The J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Center in Los Angeles is hosting an exhibit, “Beyond the Nile: Egypt and the Classical World,” until September 9, 2018. To learn more, visit www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/egypt/index.html.

Also, the St. Louis Art Museum offers an exhibit on “Sunken Cities: Egypt’s Lost Worlds” with centuries of artifacts from ancient Egypt, including numerous objects found on the sea floor near the Egyptian harbors of Alexandria and Aboukir Bay. See the Museum’s website for details: www.slam.org/exhibitions/sunkencities.php. The exhibit is described, including the words above, as “Treasures Beneath the Waves” in Edward Rothstein’s recent article in the WSJ, which you can read here.

Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680) was born in Naples, but Rome benefited the most from his long and rich career with the presentation of masterpieces in many forms of Baroque art and architecture.

The exhibit at Fairfield University Art Museum in Connecticut focuses on the Gesù, one of Rome’s many magnificent churches. The University’s website presents several examples of the art associated with this church and a brief video by Philippe de Montebello, formerly Director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. To learn more and take a 360 virtual tour of the church of the Gesù, visit www.fairfield.edu/museum/gesu/.

The Frick Museum in New York City has an exhibit of life-size portraits of “Jacob and His Twelve Sons: Paintings from Auckland Castle,” which features the work of Spanish painter Francisco de Zurbarán (1598-1664). This exhibit will end next month on April 22, 2018. You can learn more by visiting the Frick website at www.frick.org/exhibitions/zurbaran.

You may also be interested in reading the art review Jacob and His Twelve Sons’: Zurbaran’s Biblical All-Stars by Jason Farago in The New York Times.

Iskandar Served Kay Khusraw’s Magical Goblet (Photo by Ardon Bar-Hama)

Edward Rothstein’s recent review, Make Alexander Great Again, tells of collaboration between the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World (15 East 84th St., New York, NY 10028) and the National Library of Israel to present “nearly 70 Persian, Arabic and Turkish manuscripts that outline the profound influence of Alexander and his culture on the Islamic world…”

Visit the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World’s website to learn more about the display of illuminated Islamic manuscripts.

Throughout the ages, the way people dress has been linked to their faith and its practice. An exhibit, “Veiled Meanings: Fashion of Jewish Dress,” at the Jewish Museum in New York until March 18, 2018 received attention in The Jewish Week of November 24, 2017.  See jewishweek.timesofisrael.com/fashion-as-revealing-and-concealing/.

Beginning on May 10, 2018 the Metropolitan Museum (in New York City) will consider Catholic influences on fashion under the title “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination.”  See The New York Times of November 9, 2017 (p D1)  at www.nytimes.com/2017/11/08/style/met-museum-costume-institute-catholicism.html.

We marvel at the sculptures and paintings of Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (1475-1564) and have heard about the sketches that preceded such works. In The Wall Street Journal of October 21-22, 2017, Brenda Cronin’s “Michelangelo’s indelible lines” presents a new exhibit of drawings from 50 museum and private collections at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. The Museum’s website provides a tantalizing presentation of the exhibit’s treasures.

The Morgan Library and Museum (225 Madison Ave. at 36 St., Manhattan) has an exhibit “Drawn to Greatness: Master Drawings from the Thaw Collection” of 150 works from Andrea Mantegna to Picasso. The New York Times of October 27, 2017 presented a brief note by Holland Cotter and a photograph of Mantegna’s “Three Standing Saints” (from approximately 1450).

A second exhibit at the Morgan is called “Magnificent Gems,” bejeweled bindings of manuscripts from the Middle Ages.

Three great exhibits in NYC. I hope you can visit at least one of them!

The Metropolitan Museum of Art offers an exhibit of the work of Cristobal de Villalpando, especially the giant altarpiece designated “Moses and the Brazen Serpent and the Transfiguration of Jesus” (1683) through October 15, 2017. You can view this beautiful altarpiece online on the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s exhibition page at www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2017/cristobal-de-villalpando.

Jason Farago’s article, “From Colonial Mexico, a Towering Vision of Grace,” in the New York Times presents a laudatory overview of Villalpando’s eleven works that are on display at this exhibit, with a large reproduction of the altarpiece.

The upper level of this painting presents the transfigured Jesus accompanied by Moses and Elijah. Luke notes that they spoke of his exodus, which he was to accomplish in Jerusalem (Luke 9:30-31). This explains why, at the bottom of the painting, the artist depicts the wilderness attack of serpents and God’s command for Moses to make a bronze serpent on a pole as a life-saver for those bitten (Numbers 21:4-9; Wisdom of Solomon 16:5-7).  A Latin inscription of John 3:14-15 shows the artist’s intention to link this episode to the exodus/passion of Jesus. Those who observe the Feast of the Transfiguration on August 6^th will find this painting to be very evocative!

“The Idda Collection,” an exceptional compilation of 16 manuscripts illuminating the transmission and use of the Bible from the Dark Ages into the 12th-century Renaissance, will be on display at the Les Enluminures gallery in New York City from April 9 – May 2.

This rare collection includes two early Gospel lectionaries from the Iberian Peninsula, two exceptional Psalters, biblical commentaries from some of the most important monasteries of 12th-century Europe, and four glossed books of the Bible.

Visit the Les Enluminures website today and learn more about the collection’s namesake, Saint Idda, and why “The Idda Collection” is not to be missed!

Travelers in Egypt and the Middle East know that enormous efforts were made in ancient times to honor the body of deceased persons with a dignified burial. In many cases hope for restoration to life is evident, expressing the natural yearning for the perdurance of the individual beyond the grave. The same expectation has been seen in the East.

In the early 1970s excavations in the ancient capital of Xian revealed the terracotta warriors defending the grave of a ruler. To learn more about theses warriors and why they are one of China’s most popular attractions, check out The Terracota Army on China Highlights’ website.

The video below by Rome Reports describes another excavation that uncovered an impressive collection of artifacts from tombs that date from the Han period, between the year 200 BCE and the year 220 CE. For the first time, more than 70 of these artifacts, including the sarcophagus of the Marchioness of Dai, are part of an exhibition at the National Museum of the Palazzo di Venezia in Rome. For more details about this exhibit, visit the Hunan Museum.

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