A trip to the art museum can educate people about beauty and hope, the late Pope Francis wrote for the Jubilee of Artists earlier this year.
“Some might say: “But what is the use of art in our wounded world? Are there not more urgent, more practical, more pressing things to do?” And yet, art is not a luxury, but something that the spirit needs.”
— Pope Francis
“Educating about true beauty is educating about hope,” he wrote in a homily he prepared for a Feb. 16 Mass with artists and museum directors. “Some might say: ‘But what is the use of art in our wounded world? Are there not more urgent, more practical, more pressing things to do?’ And yet, art is not a luxury, but something that the spirit needs.”
His words were read during the opening Mass for the Jubilee of Artists and the World of Culture while Pope Francis was hospitalized with pneumonia.
After the Mass, in a message for the Angelus, the pope added that art is a “universal language that spreads beauty and unites peoples.”
Catholics in the Archdiocese of Louisville don’t have to travel far to seek this beauty during the Jubilee of Hope. A visit to Kentucky’s largest art museum, the Speed Art Museum, 2035 South Third Street, offers the opportunity to see dozens of religious art pieces depicting biblical scenes and the lives of the saints, as well as religious artifacts. Among the artifacts are a 16th-century Spanish chasuble, a 15th-century French reliquary and a 15th-century Book of Hours.
Father John Eifler, a retired archdiocesan priest, is an artist and supporter of the Speed.
“I do pen-and-ink art, oil paintings, watercolor paintings, design houses and buildings and renovate churches,” he noted in a recent interview. But he believes every person is an artist, he said.
Art is simply an individual’s expression of beauty, truth, goodness, love and unity — which are often known as “the transcendentals,” he said, adding that every human searches for them.
“We tend to go ahead and find something that pleases us, whether it’s a building, statue, book, song. We find in that, then, an element of truth or unity or beauty or love. That’s what art is — it is interpretations of beauty, truth, goodness or love,” he said.
Each person interprets the transcendentals differently, so it’s the individuality of each person’s interpretation of the transcendentals that gives value to art, he said.
“It’s just not mass-produced. It’s just not a copy from somebody else.” Art involves delving “into our own personal psyche, our lives, and bringing it out” to be appreciated, he noted. “We manifest these transcendentals in our own personal life — the way we decorate our house, the color we paint the walls, the clothes we wear, the place we live.”
For those interested in viewing religious art at the Speed, consider the following suggestions:
These panels of stained glass were originally part of a 41-piece set of glass windows at Parc Abbey, a Norbertine abbey in Belgium. They tell the story of the life of St. Norbert, who founded the Norbertines.
This 201-year-old painting is on loan from the Archdiocese of Louisville. The painting, produced in Lexington, Ky., by Jouett, a Kentucky native, went on display at the museum in 2019. To read more about its history and restoration, read this past article from The Record.
This Baroque painting has been on long-term loan from the Archdiocese of Louisville since 2008. The painting was brought to the United States more than 200 years ago by Father Charles Nerinckx, a frontier priest. The painting hung in the Basilica of St. Joseph Proto-Cathedral in Bardstown, Ky., before its transfer to the Cathedral of the Assumption, where it hung until the church’s 1972 renovation.
These paintings were originally presented on an altarpiece. St. Catherine is depicted with a spiked wheel and a palm branch, symbols of her eventual martyrdom. St. James is featured with a staff, a symbol of his travels, and a Gospel book, which represents his role as one of the 12 apostles.
The following pieces of religious art — and many others — can also be found at the museum:
- Oil on canvas, “Rest on the Flight into Egypt,” 1648, by Laurent de La Hyre.
- Oil on canvas, “The Adoration of the Shepherds,” about 1710-1715, by Paolo de’ Matteis.
- Ink, tempera, gold, silver on vellum; “Book of Hours,” about 1430-1440.
- Oil on canvas, “The Education of the Virgin,” about 1735-1737, by Charles-Antoine Coypel.
- Soft wood, glass eyes, polychrome and estofado gilding, “Mary Magdalene,” about 1695, by Luisa Ignacia Roldán.
- Enamel on copper, “The Tree of Jesse,” about 1560, by Pierre Courteys.
- Wool, silk, metal thread; “The Lamentation,” about 1500-1520.
- Silk, metal thread and cord; “Chausible,” about 1550-1600.
- Gilded copper reliquary, about 1450.
- Oil on canvas, “Saint Jerome,” 1651, by Hendrick van Somer.
The Speed Art Museum is open Wednesday through Sunday each week. Admission is free all day Sundays and on the first Thursdays of the month from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. For more information, visit speedmuseum.org.
