Yale University Art Gallery Paper

Hello All,

Below is my paper for my Yale University Art Gallery visit. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did with the visit. Professor, I will be sending you a file copy in case you would like to review in Word for length, etc. I had to recreate all the photos and their positioning in Blogger because it does not allow for transition without uploading photos.

Yale University Art Gallery Visit

Sean Rallis

                I had chosen to deviate from my anticipated schedule and pre-empt my first museum visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art with a trip to the Yale University Art Gallery. This proved highly beneficial, as I was able to offset each week’s visit with posting for the previous week’s visit. At the request of my wife, I took her and our children with me on my visit (they will be my traveling companions for every week except for the visit to the Met, to which my sister took the train from Long Island to come visit). We made our way over to downtown New Haven on November 3^rd in the early afternoon.

Yale University Art Gallery Exierior

For a weekend day, I didn’t find the museum as crowded as I had anticipated. There were more people traveling the streets outside of the museum than were found inside; mostly college-aged. Both times I have visited the museum (once on a weekend and once in the middle of the week) I have found this to be the case.

Yale University Art Gallery is the oldest university art gallery in the Western hemisphere. It was originally built in 1853 after John Trumbull (most noted for his Revolutionary War paintings) had donated a collection to the college. This building was on the old campus grounds and was demolished. The interesting thing that I saw while I was there (and I regret not getting a photo) was that John Trumbull and his wife are buried on the grounds below the first-floor antiquity gallery. The newer building was constructed in two phases: the first phase was completed in 1928 by architect Edgerton Swartwout. The second portion was completed in 1953 by Louis I. Khan. Visitors will notice two distinct styles when wandering the interior as a result of this. According to Yale’s website, Edgerton designed his portion as an, “older “Tuscan Romanesque” section of the gallery…distinguished by the neo-Gothic arched windows and Art Deco bridge over High Street.” (buildings.yale.edu). The archways and stairwells reminded me of Yale Peabody Museum.

                I find the museum quite easy to navigate. The elevators inside each have a map of the building. There are three "towers" inside, each connected by a walkway across the multiple floors. My first time that I visited the art gallery I was there to focus on the European Art, specifically the Renaissance and early church art. I was able to see more of the museum this time around, but not much more, because there is only so much attention that toddlers can give to wandering a museum before they hit a wall. We were able to revisit the European Art section, which I was fully able to wander this time around, and we took a trip over to the American paintings and sculptures section.

                I enjoy the way that the European Art section has this sort of division to the presentation. The portion of the gallery that contains much of the Byzantine, Renaissance and early medieval art has a much more reverent atmosphere. There is no natural lighting because this is a more interior-portioned gallery. As a result, I think it enhances the viewing; it gives me the impression as I walk among the portraits, icons and statues that I am not in an art gallery but wandering the hallways of some old, historic church. Once you make your way into the remainder of the European gallery, it becomes an art gallery in the more traditional sense. There is more natural light filtering in as you make your way past works by artists such as Monet, van Gogh and Peter Paul Rubens.

                I found American paintings and sculptures section to be a vastly different and less intimate experience than the European gallery. Many of the works in this hall are on a much larger scale, portraits that scale floor to ceiling, grand landscapes that encompass entire walls, and the like. Just for frame of reference, the below painting is almost 9 feet long by 4.5 feet tall, massive! The hall itself sports very cavernous ceilings. I enjoyed the actual rooms as well. The choice of colors, flooring, and wood trim and molding, along with the paintings gave me a similar impression to that of the previous gallery in that while viewing these paintings I felt like I was walking the halls of a historic home.



Richard, Duke of Gloucester, and the Lady Anne. Edwin Austin Abbey. 1896.Oil on canvas

                Rather than focus on one specific piece that caught my attention, I wanted to discuss a specific subject that I found among three of the pieces. On my first visit to the art gallery earlier this year, I was intrigued by a pair of paintings from the early Italian Renaissance works that told a story from the life of Saint Anthony the Great. I am not a religious person, and I am quite unfamiliar with much of the legends and myths surrounding the lived of Catholic saints, but I’ve always been fascinated with religious art. I love that so many people over the course of history have taken to so many different interpretations of the same stories in different styles. The first image shown is called The Temptation of Saint Anthony Abbot. This work was painted by an individual known as Master of the Osservanza. The artist is relatively anonymous, though it is speculated he was really Sano di Pietro, another Sienese artist, whose contribution to the gallery I will discuss briefly later. According to information taken from the J. Paul Getty Museum website, “Scholars named him for a triptych in a church just outside of Siena. The Church of the Osservanza, which is Italian for observance…”(getty.edu) Siena was also a very well-known region for the arts during the Renaissance. 



The Temptation of Saint Anthony Abbot.

Master of the Osservanza. 1435-1440. Tempera on panel

As a brief overview of the subject, Saint Anthony the Great was one of the first monastic priests in the Church. He was born in 251 AD in Egypt. After the death of his parents, he sold his inheritance and began living a life of asceticism. According to the Orthodox Church of America, “In this period of his life Saint Anthony endured terrible temptations from the devil. The Enemy of the race of man troubled the young ascetic with thoughts of his former life, doubts about his chosen path, concern for his sister, and he tempted Anthony with lewd thoughts and carnal feelings. But the saint extinguished that fire by meditating on Christ and by thinking of eternal punishment, thereby overcoming the devil.” (oca.org) It is in this painting that we see this temptation on display.


Close up of the tempting devil

Close up of Saint Anthony

One of the more interesting things I noticed about this painting was the strange composition of the landscape. There really isn’t a level frame of reference in the painting, but what I found strange was the curvature of the sky and the distant landscape as opposed to the foreground where the subjects stand. It comes off as a strange combination, almost as if I am viewing the painting partially through an apartment door peep hole. My focus was also drawn to the peculiar proportions of Saint Anthony. I can’t help but notice how far down his knees appear to be in his frame, hand outstretched in resistance.

The tempting devil in this painting takes on a form of a woman to turn Saint Anthony aside from his resolute life of religious, monastic solitude and return him to his former life. I am unsure if I interpret her folded arms as a sign that she is not phased by his resistance or if this her hands folded inward, a sign of her false innocence behind her motives?

Further into the European gallery, amongst the Dutch painters sits two paintings that pertain to the same story. Each is unique in representation of the temptation. The first painting is by Jan Brueghel the Elder, painted in 1594. This, too, is entitled The Temptation of Saint Anthony.



The Temptation of Saint Anthony. Jan Brueghel the Elder. 1594. Oil on copper.

                Jan Brueghel the Elder was born in 1568 in Brussels, Belgium. He was part of the Flemish Renaissance movement. The Flemish Renaissance was brought about in response to the Italian Renaissance and as we are told via Wikipedia, “Dutch and Flemish painters were also instrumental in establishing new subjects such as landscape painting and genre painting.” (Dutch and Flemish Renaissance painting, Wikipedia.org). Brueghel was also well-known for his floral, landscape, and gallery paintings, but he had also done a few allegorical and religious pieces, such as this. What I noticed about this painting in contrast to the previous centuries’ work was the expansion on this idea of temptation in the work. Brueghel includes this almost allegorical representation of not just a carnal temptation, such as Osservanza had represented. We can see many different creatures and characters surrounding the Saint. I believe each one is something in the world that claws at him for attention.



Close up of Brueghel's work.

                There are three things I’d like to point out with this up-close photo that I took. It is the only other photo that I took of the painting that came out adequate. First, in the background we see a church with what appears to be light coming from it. I’m not sure how I interpret this inclusion. On one hand, the overall theme of the painting is temptation of the Saint, so I pondered whether this was maybe the church was on fire, or in some other distress (are those birds or more demons flying around the front spire?) that would try and pull the Saint back into the world. It could also be a beacon of hope for the Saint amidst his suffering. The second thing is that Saint Anthony’s attire is almost identical to the previous painting. I am unsure if this would have been traditional attire for monks in the early church, but that is a possibility. The third thing that I noticed in the painting it just above the Saint we see this flying demon with a scroll. This isn’t something what we noticed in the representation of the devil in the previous painting, but I did see a near identical representation in another work next to the Osservanza.

Saint Anthony Abbot Tormented by Demons.

Sano di Pietro.1435-1440. Tempera on panel.

I have included this work for comparison, so I don’t plan on getting into as much detail with it. This is Saint Anthony Abbot Tormented by Demons by Sano di Pietro, 1435-1440. You’ll notice that though there are two separate artists, the style is identical, so you can understand why there is speculation that Osservanza and di Pietro are the same artists. So as a fly-by description of what we are seeing, at some point in his life, Saint Anthony retreats from cave dwelling to living in a cemetery (because, why not?). It is here that he is beaten and tormented by demons while waiting for his friend to bring him food.



Close up of di Pietro demon.

The reason I chose to bring this painting into discussion also is I wanted to point out the representation of the demons. Notice here, the bearded and horned demon is incredibly similar in style to that of the one that Brueghel incorporated into his painting. I’m not sure if there was any inspiration drawn from the previous work by Brueghel in the creation of his painting or not, but it was an interesting feature that stood out to me. I think what I enjoyed about Brugehel's painting that in Osservana’s piece, we get the firm resolve in Saint Anthony’s confrontation of the tempting devil head-on, but what I see in Brugehel’s is a resolved focus to his devotion to his faith amidst the distractions surrounding him.

The last Saint Anthony painting that I saw was possibly my favorite. Just to the right of Brueghel’s we have a work by David Teniers the Younger, another Flemish painter. The one on display in Yale is one of five different pieces Teniers did with the theme. This one was painted in 1650.



The Temptation of Saint Anthony. David Teniers the Younger. 1650. Oil on copper.

Close up of Tenier's Saint Anthony

Teniers continues in this piece on display at Yale with the cave motif, though he explored other settings, such as a ruined castle. In all the pieces, the central focus of Saint Anthony with the two women have been the constant theme. I think this is what I like about this painting out of all three. We saw resistance in Osservanza, we saw resolve in Brueghel, but I think in Teniers, we see human. I feel like Saint Anthony is struggling in this piece, distraction in front of him (notice that though it is a woman, her clawed feet and demon tail give away her true nature) and temptation behind him, with the horned old woman, most likely a representation of the devil himself. In this piece, Saint Anthony is literally and figuratively up against the wall.

Overall, I wish we had been able to have a fuller visit to the gallery, but it becomes difficult with children in tow. Still I believe we spent a good two hours in there between the two-three sections we chose to focus on. It was nice to revisit the early Renaissance art and see much of the Colonial and early American pieces that were on display. It was exciting to stumble across the two Flemish pieces this time as I didn’t see them last time because the time period was not a focus for me. There were other pieces that we viewed that I chose not to include, Van Gogh’s Night Café, for example. Hopefully my kids will remember visiting many of these places and when they are older and can appreciate it more, they will want to go back.

Cited Works:

Jan Brueghel the Elder. (2018, September 25). Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Brueghel_the_Elder

Master of the Osservanza (Italian, active 2nd quarter of the 15th century) (Getty Museum). (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.getty.edu/art/collection/artists/2923/master-of-the-osservanza-italian-active-2nd-quarter-of-the-15th-century/

Venerable and God-bearing Father Anthony the Great. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://oca.org/saints/lives/2015/01/17/100216-venerable-and-god-bearing-father-anthony-the-great

Yale University. (n.d.). Property Overview - Yale University Art Gallery. Retrieved from https://web.archive.org/web/20130830040549/http://www.buildings.yale.edu/property.aspx?id=26