EUGENE, Ore. -- (September 13, 2017) – “The Barberini Tapestries: Woven Monuments of Baroque Rome,” an exhibition of rare 17th century Italian tapestries that once decorated St. Peter’s Basilica, will be on view beginning September 23, 2017 at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art on the University of Oregon campus. A series of programs from lectures to concerts to student presentations compliment the only West Coast showing of the exhibition. All events are free and open to the public. A full schedule can be found at, https://jsma.uoregon.edu/barberiniprograms.
On loan from the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City, “The Barberini Tapestries” will open with a free public reception on Friday, September 22, from 6 to 8 p.m.
This exhibition features one of the Barberini’s most renowned series, the “Life of Christ,” and on Sunday, October 1 at 2 p.m., visitors can experience a special gallery tour with curator James Harper, professor of art history at the University of Oregon and an internationally recognized scholar on seventeenth-century Rome and the Barberini tapestry manufactory.
On Wednesday, October 4, at 5:30 p.m. textile expert Nancy Arthur Hoskins will discuss the tapestries of Coptic Egypt (late 3rd to mid-7th century AD) and how they reveal the rich cultural construct of the time and place in which they were created.
Nathalie Hester, University of Oregon Associate Professor of Italian and French, provides a scintillating look at the literary production during the time of Cardinal Francesco Barberini on Wednesday, October 11, at 5:30 p.m. in her talk “Reading, Writing and Collecting in Baroque Rome.”
Two concerts showcase the music of the period. First, on Friday, October 13 from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m., University of Oregon graduate students Holly Roberts and Alison Kaufman present a wide range of 17th-century Italian instrumental and vocal music in a free, lunchtime concert. On Thursday, November 16, from 4:30 to 5 p.m., David Rogers explores the lute and theorbo repertoire of baroque composer Giovanni Girolamo Kapsberger, who served as house musician to the Barberini.
Internationally renowned experts on seventeenth century tapestry and the world of the Barberini gather in Eugene to present new research on Thursday and Friday, November 16-17 at a symposium on Baroque Tapestry and the Rome of the Barberini. Undergraduate and graduate students from Professor James Harper’s class "Inside the Museum Exhibition" will share their work on the Barberini and baroque tapestry on Wednesday, November 29 from 12 – 1:30 p.m.
January brings the final programs of the exhibition with two talks by University of Oregon faculty and staff. On Wednesday, January 10 at 5:30 p.m., Kenneth Kato, Director UO GIS and Mapping Program, leads a talk “Where Innovation and Technology Meet: The Nexus of Geographic Technologies and the Arts and Humanities at UO.” Kato spearheaded the software application developed for the “Life of Christ” tapestries where visitors enjoy an interactive online learning experience at http://barberini.uoregon.edu.
“The Baroque Science of Color,” a lecture by Vera Keller, Associate Professor in the Clark Honors College, explores experimental research into color and textile techniques from the period of the Barberini tapestries on Wednesday, January 17at 5:30 p.m.
“The Barberini Tapestries” is made possible with the generous support of the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, Alex & Amanda Haugland, Sharon Ungerleider, Excelsior Inn and Ristorante Italiano, Dentistry @ The Ten, and JSMA members.
About the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art
The University of Oregon's Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art is a premier Pacific Northwest museum for exhibitions and collections of historic and contemporary art. The mission of the museum is to enhance the University of Oregon’s academic mission and to further the appreciation and enjoyment of the visual arts for the general public. The JSMA features significant collections galleries devoted to art from China, Japan, Korea, Europe, and the Americas as well as changing special exhibition galleries. The JSMA is one of seven museums—and the only academic art museum-- in Oregon accredited by the American Alliance of Museums.
The Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art is located on the University of Oregon campus at 1430 Johnson Lane. Museum hours are 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesdays, and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursdays through Sundays. Admission is $5 for adults and $3 for senior citizens. Free admission is given to ages 18 and under, JSMA members, college students with ID, and University of Oregon faculty, staff and students. For information, contact the JSMA, 541-346-3027.
About the Textile Conservation Laboratory
The Textile Conservation Laboratory at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine was founded in 1981. At the heart of its mission is the ongoing care and conservation of the Cathedral's treasured Barberini and Mortlake tapestry sets. The Lab’s current Director, Marlene Eidelheit, has been at the helm since 1992. During her tenure, with a staff of five conservators and the assistance of dedicated interns, the range of Lab projects has grown, and it continues to develop and expand the field of tapestry conservation.
About the Cathedral
The Cathedral of St. John the Divine is the Cathedral of the Episcopal Diocese of New York. It is chartered as a house of prayer for all people and a unifying center of intellectual light and leadership. For more than a century, it has been deeply involved in education, social justice and active support of the arts and the environment. People from many faiths and communities worship together in services held more than 30 times a week; the soup kitchen serves roughly 25,000 meals annually; and social service outreach has an increasingly varied roster of programs. The distinguished Cathedral School prepares young students to be future leaders, while Adults and Children in Trust, the renowned preschool, afterschool and summer program, offers diverse educational and nurturing experiences. Over the past seven years, the Cathedral has hosted and curated a number of ambitious exhibitions, including The Value of Water; Jane Alexander: Surveys (from the Cape of Good Hope), presented in partnership with the Museum of African Art, which was listed in the New York Times as one of the ten best exhibitions of the year; Phoenix: Xu Bing at the Cathedral; The Value of Food: Sustaining a Green Planet; and most recently, The Christa Project: Manifesting Divine Bodies, among others.
Contact: Debbie Williamson Smith, 541-346-0942, debbiews@uoregon.edu
Links: Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, http://jsma.uoregon.edu
