FAIRFIELD—Fairfield University Art Museum is pleased to present Out of the Kress Vaults: Women in Sacred Renaissance Painting, on view September 16 through December 17, 2022.
Curated by Assistant Professor of Art History & Visual Culture Michelle DiMarzo, PhD, Out of the Kress Vaults: Women in Sacred Renaissance Painting explores representations of femininity and virtue in Italian Renaissance paintings of the Virgin Mary, female saints, and nuns. Ranging from small, devotional images intended for the highly gendered spaces of the Renaissance home, to large altarpieces originally on display in churches, these artworks intertwine depictions of idealized beauty with messages of virtue and piety, presenting these women as models of virtue and devotion for emulation—and admiration—by their Renaissance viewers.
Out of the Kress Vaults: Women in Sacred Renaissance Painting is the first exhibition to have been co-curated with undergraduate students. With the generous support of the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, DiMarzo led an undergraduate seminar in Spring 2021 with the goal of developing an exhibition inspired by the museum’s own Samuel H. Kress Collection, a group of 10 mostly Italian Renaissance and Baroque paintings. The presence of two Italian paintings of the Madonna and Child inspired the exhibition’s theme; students then worked with DiMarzo and museum staff to develop an exhibition proposal and draft loan requests for paintings in Kress Collections at other museums and academic institutions. They focused on bringing works that are typically held in storage at their home institutions—the “Kress Vaults” of the title—into the galleries at Fairfield University.
Lenders to the exhibition include the National Gallery of Art, the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, the Harvard Art Museums, the Austin Art Center at Trinity College, the Mead Art Museum at Amherst College, and the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami.
Fairfield University Art Museum Executive Director Carey Weber noted, “We are very excited to be presenting our first exhibition co-curated with Fairfield students. It was such a unique opportunity for them to get a hands-on understanding of what goes into planning an exhibition, especially one featuring Old Master paintings!”
Generous support for the exhibition comes from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation and the Humanities Institute of Fairfield University.
The exhibition will open with a lecture by Michelle DiMarzo, PhD, on Thursday, September 15, 2022 in the Diffley Board Room of Bellarmine Hall.
The exhibition will be on view in the museum’s Bellarmine Hall Galleries, and will also be accessible through the museum’s website as a video tour, Matterport virtual tour, and audio guide. The written materials for the exhibition will be available bilingually in Spanish and English, with translations provided by Laura Gasca Jiménez (assistant professor, Spanish and translation studies).
In conjunction with the exhibition, the Fairfield University Art Museum has organized a full roster of public programs that will be presented in person and, where indicated, streaming online via thequicklive.com.
Exhibition Programming:
Thursday, September 15, 5 pm
Opening Night Lecture: Out of the Kress Vaults
Curator and Assistant Professor of Art History & Visual Culture Michelle DiMarzo, PhD
Bellarmine Hall, Diffley Board Room and streaming on thequicklive.com
Thursday, September 15, 6-8 pm
Exhibition Opening Night Reception
Bellarmine Hall Galleries and Great Hall
Monday, September 19, 5 pm
Musical Performance: Renaissance A cappella
Bellarmine Hall Great Hall
Thursday, September 22, 11 am (in person) and 12 noon (streaming)
Art in Focus: El Greco, The Holy Family, ca. 1595-1600
Bellarmine Hall Galleries and streaming on thequicklive.com
Thursday, October 13, 5 pm
Lecture: The Paintings Conservation Program of the Samuel H. Kress Foundation
Dianne Dwyer Modestini, clinical professor for the Kress Program in Paintings Conservation at the Conservation Center of the Institute of Fine Arts, NYU
Bellarmine Hall, Diffley Board Room
Part of the Edwin L. Weisl, Jr. Lectureships in Art History, funded by the Robert Lehman Foundation
Saturday, October 15, 12 Noon
Exhibition Tour: Out of the Kress Vaults: Women in Sacred Renaissance Painting
Bellarmine Hall Galleries
Tuesday, October 18, 5 pm
Lecture: The Tondo Tradition in Renaissance Painting
Associate Professor of Arts Kim Butler Wingfield, PhD, American University
Bellarmine Hall, Diffley Board Room and streaming on thequicklive.com
Part of the Edwin L. Weisl, Jr. Lectureships in Art History, funded by the Robert Lehman Foundation
Tuesday, November 8, 5 pm
Lecture: Domestic Devotion and Renaissance Art
Jacqueline Marie Musacchio, Professor of Art History, Wellesley College
Bellarmine Hall, Diffley Board Room and streaming on thequicklive.com
Part of the Edwin L. Weisl, Jr. Lectureships in Art History, funded by the Robert Lehman Foundation
Saturday, November 12, 12 noon
Exhibition Tour: Out of the Kress Vaults: Women in Sacred Renaissance Painting
Bellarmine Hall Galleries
Thursday, November 17, 11 am (in person) and 12 noon (streaming)
Art in Focus: Battista and Dosso Dossi, The Flight into Egypt, ca. 1520-30
Bellarmine Hall Galleries and streaming on thequicklive.com
Saturday, December 10, 12 noon
Exhibition Tour: Out of the Kress Vaults: Women in Sacred Renaissance Painting
Bellarmine Hall Galleries
Saturday, December 10
Family Day: Mothers and Children in Renaissance Art
The exhibition will feature Italian Renaissance paintings. On view September 16 – December 17, 2022
Photo: El Greco, The Holy Family with Saint Anne and the Infant John the Baptist,ca. 1595-1600, oil on canvas. National Gallery of Art, Washington, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1959.9.4
