Matters spiritual

Magazine Antiques, Jan, 2001 by Miriam Kramer

Two exhibitions, one in Rome and one in London, explore aspects of Christianity and its representation of God. The Hidden God is on view at the French Institute in the Villa Medici in Rome until January 28. The curators are Neil MacGregor of the National Gallery in London and Olivier Bonfait of the French Academy in Rome. Some sixty paintings by French artists of the seventeenth century are on view, depicting the lives of Jesus, the Holy Family, and the saints, and demonstrating the French approach to subjects normally associated with Italian painting. Among the artists represented are Nicolas Poussin, Philippe de Champaigne, Eustache Le Sueur, and Simon Vouet. Catalogues in French and Italian accompany the show and may be ordered by telephoning 39-06-6761258.

On view until February 4 at the Courtauld Gallery in London is an exhibition of twenty icons, about half from the Monastery of Saint Catherine at Mount Sinai and the balance from the State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, where a larger version of the exhibition, entitied Sinai, Byzantium, Russia has already been seen. One aim of the show is to reflect the nature of Orthodox monastic art in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, after the east-west split in the Christian world but before the Renaissance. The exhibition is sponsored by the EFG Bank Group and is accompanied by a leaflet written by Robin Cormack of the Courtauld Institute of Art. The telephone number of the institute is 44-20-7848-2526.