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Credit: Tuna Sare
Students enrolled in the "Bernini and
the Baroque" art history class on a
recent visit to the Fogg Art Museum at
Harvard University.
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The days of art history being taught in a darkened room with slides may be a thing of the past, at least for the students in Tod Marder’s classroom who have spent the semester visiting museums and galleries to view art first-hand.
“In the art history department, we try to make the teaching and learning experiences reflect the uniquely fortuitous geography that Rutgers enjoys on the East Coast, in the midst of the very most active centers of art history, museums, galleries and publishing,” said Marder, chair of the art history department in New Brunswick/Piscataway.
Last month, for example, 18 graduate and undergraduate members of his class on “Bernini and the Baroque” recently traveled to Harvard University’s Fogg Art Museum where they visited the famous collection of original clay models that Bernini did in preparation for his full-scale works. Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1639) was a sculptor, painter and architect and an outstanding exponent of the Italian Baroque.
The models at Harvard, according to Marder, constitute the largest collection of original Bernini models in the world, outside the Vatican City. “They were given to the Fogg early in the 20th century and have remained one of the great treasure troves of Bernini works anywhere in the world,” he added.
The models were recently studied by a team of expert art historians and conservators under the direction of head curator Ivan Gaskell, who gave a special presentation to the Rutgers students. Gaskell led them through the process of how the models were formed in clay and explained the role they played in helping Bernini to realize his finished works.
“Some of the models even bear Bernini’s finger prints, and a study of the finger prints with the help of FBI experts has in turn helped to identify authentic models and to reveal how the artist's hands modeled the clay,” said Marder, who said that the Boston trip was underwritten by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Dean’s Office and the Rutgers College Dean’s Office.
Earlier in October, the class was treated to a private viewing of a newly discovered portrait bust by Bernini at the Salander-O’Reilly Galleries in New York, presented by Andrew Butterfield, vice president of the gallery. The piece, notes Marder, is not on public view but is being offered for sale – for $10 million.
The New York trip also included a visit to the Metropolitan Museum to see several original works by Bernini and his sculptor father Pietro, presented by the curator of European sculpture at the Met, Ian Wardropper.
Students appreciated the chance to view works of the master up close and personal and to hear remarks by knowledgeable curators.
Ricki Sablove, a second-year graduate student interested in historic preservation, said she enjoyed the talk at the Fogg Museum which "not only told us about the making of the works themselves but also their acquisition and how they are displayed in an exhibit. It was a great opportunity to learn about the collaborative process in displaying works of art."
Eliana Moreira, a first-year graduate student, observed that there “isn’t very much you can learn about technique from slides or a book, but when you are there with the object you can see marks and fingerprints that help reveal technique.”
“One of the great things about going to school at Rutgers is that we’re right in the middle of the northeast corridor,” observed Sarah Beetham, a senior art history major, pointing to the rich art offerings in the museums and galleries in Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Washington.
Also this semester, to broaden the scope of art history instruction, Marder brought into class a traditional stone sculptor to demonstrate the techniques of monumental stone carving and the tools necessary to do it. “We carved a duck,” added Marder, “and although it was pretty messy, everyone loved it.”
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