The Michael C. Carlos Museum of Emory University presents Scripture for the Eyes: Bible Illustration in Netherlandish Prints of the Sixteenth Century, a collection of approximately 80 engravings and woodcuts by the foremost Dutch and Flemish masters of the sixteenth century, on view from October 17, 2009 to January 24, 2010.

The exhibition, featuring works by Lucas van Leyden, Maarten van Heemskerck, Dirck Volkertszoon Coornhert, and Hieronymus Wierix among others, explores the ways in which printed illustrations of Biblical and other religious themes supplemented and magnified the texts they accompanied during a period of dramatic religious and political upheaval. Atlanta is the only other destination for Scripture, currently on view at the Museum of Biblical Art (MOBIA) in New York. The exhibition has received an excellent review in the New York Times.

FREE DAYS during special exhibition 

Free Fridays:  November 6, December 4, and January 8 from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Wonderful Wednesday:  December 30 from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Popular function of Scripture

In the sixteenth-century Netherlands, the translation of biblical texts into biblical images went hand-in-hand with the translation of scripture into the common language.  Antwerp and Amsterdam became major centers where vernacular Bibles and their woodcut and engraved illustrations were published.  The exhibition demonstrates how, as co-curator Walter Melion, Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Art History at Emory, points out, “pictorial images. . . offered a clarifying lens through which the word of God was received, pondered, and interpreted” by a growing audience at  the time of  tumultuous struggles between Protestants and Roman Catholics.

Exhibition highlights

• Scripture for the Eyes is organized by MOBIA and curated by Walter S. Melion and James Clifton, director, Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation.

• Illustrations are on loan from 13 institutions including the British Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Antwerp’s Plantin Museum, and the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

• Also included are key items from Emory University Libraries, including five rare volumes of the Antwerp Polyglot Bible--side by side translations of biblical text in several languages including Latin and Hebrew.

• Educational events accompanying the exhibition will also examine how visual images affect religious worship and experience.

• The exhibition catalogue is available in both softcover ($49) and hardcover ($65) editions, with discounts available for Carlos Museum members. This is the first major scholarly publication to explore the relationship between northern European religious prints and confessional conflicts in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Contact the Carlos Museum Bookshop to order your copy. 

Scripture for the Eyes: Bible Illustration in Netherlandish Prints of the Sixteenth Century was organized by the Museum of Biblical Art, New York.  Support for the exhibition in Atlanta was made possible by Emory University, the Massey Charitable Trust, the Aquinas Center, the Netherlands-American Chamber of Commerce, Atlanta, and the Netherland-American Foundation.

Educational Programs in conjunction with the exhibition were made possible by grants from Ed and Dina Snow and Burr & Forman LLP, Emory College of Arts & Sciences Center for Creativity and the Arts, the David Goldwasser Series in Religion and the Arts, the Emory University Strategic Initiative in Religion and the Arts, the Hightower Lecture Fund, and the Lovis Corinth Lecture Fund.

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Hendrick Goltzius, Adoration of the Magi,
From the Life of the Virgin series (1593-94)              
The Baltimore Museum of Art:
Garrett Collection BMA
1946.112.12049