Aert De Gelder, Judah and Thamar, 1681 oil on canvas. Gift of Drs Alfred and Isabel Bader, 2001 (44-009)
Exhibitions
Wrought Emotions: European Paintings from the Permanent Collection
The Bader Gallery
28 August 2005 - 26 January 2007
The power of emotions has engaged artists through time and across cultures. Emphasized by writers on art from the classical period onwards, emotionalism took on a special priority in the wake of the Reformation in the Christian Church. Art could both render human emotions, as well as elicit an emotional response in the viewer, and many Renaissance and Baroque artists took up one or both of these challenges.
This exhibition brought together a range of works from the permanent collection in which emotions play a central role. Masterpieces by Rembrandt, Jan Lievens, Dosso Dossi, El Greco and Michiel Sweerts joined works by artists such as Ciro Ferri and Govert Flinck. These artistic explorations of the human psyche reach across several centuries to move, inspire and cause us to reflect on our experiences of art and feeling.David de Witt