A visitor to the Meadows Museum has her palm read during Wednesday night’s activites. Program Council hosted the party, which celebrated the opening of two new exhibits at the Museum. (Stuart Palley)
SMU students have the opportunity to experience 500-year-old Spanish culture and equate themselves with the Christian ideals of medieval Spain with the arrival of “Fernando Gallego and His Workshop: The Altarpiece from Ciudad Rodrigo, Paintings from the Collection of the University of Arizona Museum of Art.”
Fernando Gallego was a master painter from medieval Spain who focused primarily on Christian themes with works ranging from Genesis to the life of Christ and the final judgment. The Altarpiece comes to SMU from The University of Arizona Museum of Art.
The Meadows Museum contains one of the largest collections of Spanish art outside of Spain, and according to Amanda Dotseth, the assistant curator for the Meadows museum, the Gallego exhibit now resides in a very appropriate context.
“Before, it was hung with a few other great pieces, but it hasn’t moved in over 50 years from its place in Arizona, and now it can hang with our permanent collection of Spanish art,” Dotseth said.
In addition to being able to view the works of Gallego, visitors can see into the workings of the artist, literally. Students can view X-ray reflected images that reveal the inner workings of the art.
“In this project, we’ve combined both art and technology in the service of scholarly research to help unravel a 500-year-old mystery,” Dr. Mark Roglán, director of the Meadows Museum said. “For the first time in the history of these paintings, we are able to reveal their underdrawings and glimpse how the artists worked and their creative process.”
To commemorate the arrival of the Gallego works and another exhibit, “Apocalypse: Images of the Book of Revelation,” the museum, with the help of Program Council, threw an opening celebration for students on Wednesday night. The party offered museum tours, a live DJ and psychic readings.
The Museum hopes that even though students aren’t fully knowledgeable on the art, they take away a feeling of the historical significance the exhibit brings.
“I hope that students can take away the historical perspective; it’s not just our concerns and preoccupations that scare us about the end of the world, but the people of the 15th century as well,” Dotseth said. “You don’t have to love medieval art to appreciate that.”
