St. Agnes' Convent

I didn’t think I would enjoy our time at St. Agnes’ Convent. I was not a huge fan of the medieval art we saw in Italy, and thought I had seen enough for a lifetime. When I learned that all of this medieval art was Bohemian, however, I started to feel a bit more optimistic. Upon entering the convent, I was immediately struck with how simple and modern it felt. I liked it. And we hadn’t even gotten to the art…

The gallery inside St. Agnes’ Convent was wonderful. I enjoyed it so much more than I thought I would, and could have spent another half hour walking through the exhibits. My favorite pieces of art were located in the first four rooms. These were the oldest pieces on display, and most were created in the mid 14th century. They felt markedly different from the medieval religious art we viewed in Italy. It all seemed so much simpler to me, more elemental and “raw,” as Dr. Redick put it. I loved the wooden sculptures of Mary and baby Jesus. I really liked that they were just wood, and not so ornate. Also, I loved the expression on Mary’s face, and the position of baby Jesus. In most of them, Mary was smiling and looked happy and amused. Baby Jesus was usually reaching his hand to almost tickle her chin, and it was a very sweet pose. I liked the paintings a lot as well. The colors seemed bolder to me, and there was less gold used. I thought they looked more realistic as well… more like real humans. They were simpler in layout too, and weren’t so cluttered with little objects floating around.

As the exhibit continued, I felt a definite change to a style more like what we saw in Italy. They even noted the style change in the descriptive panels, and called it “international” which makes sense. In these later pieces of art, there was much more gold used in the paintings, and they were overall more ornate and busy. Another big change was the addition of lots of symbolic objects. There was more symbolism going on in these later paintings, with random little objects dotting the paintings to signify different things. I also saw many more sculptures of the pieta, with sorrowful Marys instead of happy ones. The emotion displayed in the later section was much more of the suffering undergone by Christ and his followers (especially his mother Mary) while the emotion in the beginning rooms focused on joy and happiness.

I’m not really sure how to compare this art to the secular art we saw in Italy and Greece. The only secular art I can remember that would apply are the multitudes of white stone statues that adorned the temples and monuments, some of gods and many of people. I don’t remember any “secular” paintings. I guess all I can think of is that the countenance of the Virgin’s in the beginning rooms seemed closer to the countenance of some of the statues I saw in Italy of mothers with their children.

I’m really glad we went to this exhibit. It was great to see authentic Bohemian artwork, and be able to compare it to Italian. I also really liked the style of the museum, and thought the interior was really well designed. It was modern yet very tasteful; it added to and didn’t detract from the art on display. Good choice, Dr. Redick ☺.

eks