To inspire and instruct : a history of medieval art in midwestern museums / edited by Christina Nielsen.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Nielsen, C. M. (Christina M.), editor.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Art museums--Middle West--Congresses.

Art museums.

Art, Medieval--Middle West--Congresses.

Art, Medieval.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (266 pages) : illustrations

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Newcastle, England : Cambridge Scholars Publishers, [2008]

Summary:

This collection of essays, which derive from a symposium held at the Art Institute of Chicago in 2005, tells the story of how medieval art was collected by both individuals and institutions in the American Midwest. This book will appeal to both medievalists and scholars of nineteenth- and twentieth century American history. In addition, it will also appeal to scholars who are interested in museum studies and the history of collecting. The essays in the first section, "Collecting and Displaying Medieval Art," consider the formation of medieval art collections at influential cultural institutions in three of the most important centers of industry and culture in the Midwest: Chicago, Detroit and Cleveland. The second section, "Medieval Art as Inspiration and Education," examines the motives of both private donors and museum professionals in forming collections and establishing period rooms and cloistered spaces at museums in Toledo, Kansas City, and St. Louis, among others. At the opposite end of the spectrum was a new trend in curatorial practice, beginning in the 1930s, that favored the dismantling of period rooms and espoused displaying historical works of art in more distinctly modern settings, a theme that pervades section three, "Medieval Art and Modernism." An essay on medieval art in Midwestern university art museums and another one that considers the impact of works from medieval collections in special exhibitions serve as a remarkable coda to the rest of the volume. Two appendices follow this, one that provides an overview of medieval art collections in Midwestern university museums and another which provides a biographical sketch of prominent dealers of medieval art from 1900-1950.

Contents:

Intro

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Part I: Collecting and Displaying Medieval Art

Gilding the Lily

"To Step into Another World"

The Greatest Epoch

Building Cleveland's Medieval Future

Part II: Medieval Art as Inspiration and Education

The Buckingham Head

In All "Its Chaste Beauty

A "Sympathetic Setting" for Medieval Art in St. Louis

Part III: Medieval Art and Modernism

Meyric Rogers, Oswald Goetz, and the Rehabilitation of the Lucy Maud Buckingham Memorial Gothic Room at the Art Institute of Chicago in the 1940s

The Art Collecting of Emily Crane Chadbourne and the Absence of Byzantine Art in Chicago

Medieval Art in Midwestern University Art Museums: A History

Afterword

Appendix A

Appendix B

Notes

Contributors

Index.

Notes:

Chiefly papers from a conference held in Chicago, November 2005.

Description based on print version record.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

1-5275-6557-2

OCLC:

1237870876