New York museum organizes art expo on the prodigal son

Feb 7, 2008 / 13:48 pm

 

A new expo entitled “Images of the Prodigal Son. The Art of Forgiveness,” has been opened at the Biblical Art Museum of New York and will be open to the general public until February 17.

According to the L’Osservatore Romano, the purpose of the exhibit is to showcase artwork inspired by this parable which speaks of God’s forgiveness towards those who are truly repentant, from the Renaissance to today.

The first section is that of the arts. It contains “more than 70 works, stained-glass windows, sculptures, engravings and other forms of art that will be shown in a series of conferences that aim to show the influence of the gospel text on music, dance, literature, poetry and film,” the L’Osservatore Romano explained.

“The inspiration behind this artwork, one of the most original and successful exhibits on the New York scene is Jerry Evenrud, a musician and lawyer, who in recent years has gathered together a collection of more than 200 depictions representing the parable of the prodigal son, by artists such as Rembrandt, Pietro Testa, James Tissot and Thomas H. Benton.”

The exhibit opens with “a large canvas from a British museum, a splendid painting from the second half of the 1500s by Francesco Bassano portraying the characters of the parable as rich Venetians.”

The exhibit also features an important work by Govaert Flinck, a student of Rembrandt, “who in 1640, at the age of 25, created this splendid piece, which is also featured in the catalogue of the exhibit.”