A Journey Through the Art Institute of Chicago
Art Institute of Chicago
Content Warning: Brief reference to sexual assault
Upon entering the Art Institute of Chicago, one feels a sense of great smallness. However, moving through the museum, this mood gives way to a star awareness of one’s autonomy as a being moving through the acquired work of others. The art and its descriptions are at times enlightening and at times misleading, and looking at them in the semantic level can reveal information about the curator as well as the artist and their work. Funnily enough, walking up the “Woman’s Board Grand Staircase” one finds themself at a crossroads between early European art and impressionism. Further investigation into the European galleries reveals many interesting depictions of women in art.
Eustache Le Sueur’s “Meekness” from his series of the personified Beatitudes stands out both visually and symbolically. Le Seur painted her on an elaborate altarpiece he constructed from panels of his art for his patron’s Paris home. Meekness stands out from a golden background as a pale, slim, and caring woman, nurturing a lamb. The simple background causes the foreground to stand out as the sole focal point of the piece, and although she has been taken from her fellow Beatitudes in order to be put on display in an American city, her face looks content. However, why did Le Sueur depict Meekness specifically as such a woman? The paradox of the lamb she is caring for adds to the scene as well. Lambs typically represent gentleness and purity, but on the flip side also stand as sacrifice and suffering. Her role of caring for the lamb seems to present a gentleness of her own, but also a melancholy tone, given the art’s religious context. She either knows the lamb will be sacrificed, or is living in blissful ignorance to its likely fate. However, not all women are depicted in art as equally expressive and complex. The overall inquiry left at this angle includes a further look into who is allowed and presented with complexity and even personified as a high commandment, versus who is left out altogether. Perhaps a look into another of Le Sur’s paintings can shed some light on his choices for Meekness.
Eustache Le Seuer is widely known for his 1640 biblical work, "The Rape of Tamar." Finished ten years before Meekness, there is a striking biblical background that is left largely unexplained in the painting’s description. As recorded in the second book of Samuel, describing the third king of Israel, King David’s firstborn assaults his half-sister, David’s younger daughter. The history and vulgar depictions of this painting are widely discussed and debated in the art criticism and religious spheres, however, why is the painting known more than Meekness, or the many muses he produced throughout his career? Although it has been displayed since the 17th century, Tamar’s popularity might have something to say about the gaze that has guided social conventionalities since before Le Seur’s time. The possible influence of the male gaze drifts in and out when continuing through the classical galleries. Where Meekness seems unaware of anyone’s gaze, she is depicted in pink, pale skin, and a nurturing nature. Although this may seem one fitting description of the beatitude itself, one might inquire why the beatitudes are not personified to reflect the image of one who originated from Jerusalem, rather than a high class European woman. Again, while some women are empowered through art, others still are left out, or possibly found with descriptions half the size of others, due to the lack of records from the archive.
Gaining an understanding that curators and museum foundations are not immune to social motives and bias is important when understanding the significance of art in a museum. However, does this render all pieces uncredible? Moving into the next galleries, a beautiful piece of woodwork is an eye-catching sight in its small gallery. Upon closer inspection, Augusta Savage’s 1939 Mucisian and Dancer come into view. The accompanying plaque describes it as an appreciation and celebration of the music she heard around her Harlem home in New York. The sculptures, meant to be viewed as a set, seem to be in sync with each other, one playing music and the other dancing along, Presenting a strong sense of community and the social power of music to views. This piece and others like it shows that although the museum can be a space of separation and display of colonial pillaging, when curated justly, it can also be a display of credit and honor in a space dedicated to appreciating human creativity.
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