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M&G Collections Online

As we continue to make more works available online, survey some of the paintings and objects in M&G’s collection.

 

Antiphonary
Object of the Month: December
Object of the Month: November 2023
Picture Books of the Past: Jacopo Robusti, called Il Tintoretto
Object of the Month: October 2023
Picture Books of the Past: Marietta Robusti
Carved Walnut Relief
Object of the Month: September 2023
Picture Books of the Past: Unknown Dutch
Jacopo de Carolis
Object of the Month: August 2023
Picture Books of the Past: Jusepe de Ribera, called Lo Spagnoletto
Rafael Govertsz. Camphuysen
Object of the Month: July 2023
Domenico Fiasella
Picture Books of the Past: Lorenzo di Bicci
Object of the Month: June 2023
Picture Books of the Past: Mattia Preti
St. Michael the Archangel Overcoming Satan
Object of the Month: May 2023
Picture Books of the Past: Bartolommeo Neroni
Holy Kinship
Picture Books of the Past: Gustave Doré
The Entry into Jerusalem
Object of the Month: April 2023
Object of the Month: March 2023
Christ before Pilate: Master of St. Severin
Giuseppe Bessi
Object of the Month: February 2023
Psuedo Pier Francesco Fiorentino
Picture Books of the Past: Master of Staffolo
Object of the Month: January 2023
Picture Books of the Past: Edwin Long
Object of the Month: December 2022
Picture Books of the Past: Pieter Fransz. de Grebber
Juan Sanchez, the Younger
Object of the Month: November 2022
Picture Books of the Past: Lorenzo di Niccolo di Martino
Denys Calvaert, called Dionisio Fiammingo
Object of the Month: October 2022
Picture Books of the Past: Unknown Follower of Paolo Caliari, called Paolo Veronese
Mario Balassi
Object of the Month: September 2022
Hebrew Demi Omer
Picture Books of the Past: Antonio del Castillo y Saavedra
Object of the Month: August 2022
Picture Books of the Past: Carlo Dolci
Cornelis Cornelisz. van Haarlem
Allegory on the Fall and Redemption of Man: Lucas Cranach, the Younger
Object of the Month: July 2022
Object of the Month: June 2022
Sébastien Bourdon
Madonna and Child with Saints: Niccolò di Pietro Gerini
Object of the Month: May 2022
Giovanni Coli and Filippo Gherardi
Object of the Month: April 2022
Whatsoever Things Are… Worthy of Praise: God the Father
Whatsoever Things Are… Worthy of Praise: King David Playing the Harp
Whatsoever Things Are… Excellent: Isaiah’s Lips Anointed with Fire
Whatsoever Things Are… Excellent: Mary Magdalene Turning from the World to Christ
Whatsoever Things Are… Commendable: The Tribulation of Job
Whatsoever Things Are… Commendable: Christ and the Roman Centurion
Whatsoever Things Are… Lovely: Christ Healing the Blind Man
Whatsoever Things Are… Lovely: The Heavenly Shepherd
Whatsoever Things Are… Pure: Christ Blessing
Whatsoever Things Are… Pure: The Risen Christ
Whatsoever Things Are… Just: Painted Crucifix
Whatsoever Things Are… Just: The Man of Sorrows
Whatsoever Things Are… Just: The Last Supper
Whatsoever Things Are… Just: Triumphal Entry
Whatsoever Things Are… Just: St. Michael the Archangel and St. Agnes
Whatsoever Things Are… Honorable: The Good Samaritan
Whatsoever Things Are… Honorable: Ananias Restores Sight to Saul
Whatsoever Things Are… True: Christ and the Samaritan Woman
Whatsoever Things Are… True: St. Paul
Antonio Checchi (called Guidaccio da Imola): The Coronation of the Virgin
Procession to Calvary
Object of the Month: March 2022
Jacopo Robusti (called Il Tintoretto): The Visit of the Queen of Sheba to Solomon
Torah Scroll
Object of the Month: February 2022
Rembrandt van Rijn (school of): Head of Christ
Gerrit van Honthorst
David de Haen: The Mocking of Christ
Object of the Month: January 2022
Scenes from the Life of Christ
Object of the Month: December 2021
Jan Boeckhorst: Adoration of the Magi
St. Nicholas, the Wonderworker
Object of the Month: November 2021
Jan Victors: Esther Accusing Haman
Eyre Crowe: Wittenberg, October 31, 1517
Object of the Month: October 2021
Reliquary Head of a Monk
Francesco Fracanzano: The Tribulation of Job
Object of the Month: September 2021
Object of the Month: August 2021
Giovanni Antonio Bazzi: Procession to Calvary
Object of the Month: July 2021
Ginevra Cantofoli
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The Collection

The Old Master Painting Collection

The Museum & Gallery’s Old Master painting collection provides a rare viewer experience outside European cities and metropolitan areas with beautiful masterworks by recognized artists and their students—all of which are aesthetically exhibited with period furniture, sculpture, and tapestries to lend a period ambiance to the galleries and give patrons a panoramic view of ages past.  Of special note, M&G’s baroque paintings represent some of the most important artists and their works in the country.

The Collection is one of the largest and most interesting collections of European Old Master paintings in America. These works of art from the 14th through the 19th centuries beautifully trace the religious, artistic, and cultural history of Western Europe. Included are important works of many major artists such as Vannuccio, Botticelli, Cranach, Gerard David, Rubens, van Dyck, Reni, Domenichino, Guercino, Murillo, Ribera, Honthorst, and Doré. For a glimpse, view this virtual tour.

Patrons can also enjoy M&G’s Bowen Collection of Antiquities with artifacts that span 37 centuries and represent every day life from ancient Egyptian, Roman, and Hebrew cultures; and the Benjamin West Collection, a series of paintings housed in the War Memorial Chapel.

M&G’s Russian Icon Collection, which dates from the 14th through 20th centuries and includes several icons once owned by members of the Romanov family, the last tsars of Russia.

While not all of the collections are available online, we continue to add more monthly. You can see some of the individual works and objects through articles, short video clips, and audio stops. OR view the variety of Collection objects currently available online here.

Explore the Collection

Old Master paintings can be overwhelming sometimes with their detailed beauty, serious palette, and historical roots. But they don’t have to be, which is why M&G created the EXPLORE pages—a diversion on our website to unfold some of the mystery and meaning in the art of the past. Watch, listen, read, and color your way through the world of Old Masters!

Use these M&G resources to investigate for yourself:

 

The Collection
Scavenger Hunts
Collection on View
ArtBreak: Past Series
M&G Objects on Loan
Watch This!
A Closer Look
History in Pictures
Object of the Month: December 2023
M&G Coloring Pages
Think on These Things
From the Director
M&G Kids

Collection on View

View Works from the Museum & Gallery Collection

While the Museum & Gallery is closed to the public and unable to offer public viewing hours, we continue removing the collection in preparation for moving to a new building and new location. Meanwhile, you can still see selected paintings and objects on display in these campus locations:

 

Gustafson Fine Arts Center: Atrium

Public Hours: Monday-Friday, 8 AM-5 PM or by tour request

Luther’s Journey: Experience the History is a focus exhibition featuring paintings from M&G’s internationally respected Old Master collection.  Take a closer look at the man, Martin Luther, by understanding more about his life’s circumstances during the Renaissance (1500s)—a plague circling Europe, the scarcity and inaccessibility of books, the normalcy of illiteracy, and the exacting authority of church and state. Luther’s life journey reminds us that ordinary people can be used by God to inspire extraordinary and enduring change.

 

War Memorial Chapel

Open only by appointment or tour request

The Benjamin West Collection
The seven, monumental paintings that hang in the War Memorial Chapel constitute the largest assemblage today of works by Benjamin West, the father of American painting.

 

Mack Library

Public Hours: Monday-Saturday, 10 AM-5 PM

View several Medieval and Renaissance objects from M&G’s collection, including a 16th-century Antiphonary, a 15th-century keepsake box made of bone, and more!

Object of the Month: December 2023

Madonna and Child with St. John the Baptist

Polychrome terracotta

Italian, 17th century

The vast collection at the Museum & Gallery contains many hidden treasures that are sometimes overlooked. In my years working for the museum, I don’t remember coming across this piece. Or if I had, I did not give it too much thought as it was one of many pictorial examples of a common theme—the Madonna and Child with the infant St. John the Baptist. While this sculpture may not be one of the biggest or most recognizable, it is a reminder of humility.

The terracotta sculpture was made towards the beginning of the Italian Baroque. The dramatic movement, and attention to anatomical detail is very typical of Baroque art. Mary is portrayed as a graceful, ideal beauty; and the two infants, Jesus and St. John the Baptist, look like active children. Their leaning bodies and outstretched arms lead the viewer through the piece. In fact, this similar pose can be found in another work in the museum’s collection from the Italian Renaissance, Granacci’s Rest on the Flight into Egypt.

It also relates back to another famous visual interpretation of these three individuals—Leonardo da Vinci’s Virgin of the Rocks. There are obvious similarities, such as Mary’s arm wrapped around an adoring St. John the Baptist and Jesus blessing his infant cousin. What may not be as noticeable at first glance is the setting. Of course, one is a painting, and one is a sculpture, but they both feature figures sitting on rocks. This iconography is referred to as the Madonna of Humility. In earlier art history and even during the Renaissance, Mary is sometimes shown as the Queen of Heaven, enthroned in gold beside Jesus. However, in contrast, da Vinci and this Italian sculptor position Mary seated on the ground, which is a possible reference to her resting during their flight to Egypt. By sitting on the ground or on rocks, Mary demonstrates her humility before her Savior.

The Bible records an example of Mary’s meekness before the Lord in Luke 1:46-55. It was after she had received the news that she would give birth to Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Called her Magnificat, she begins by saying, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for God has looked with favor on the humble estate of His servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for He who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is His name…”

While not large or ostentatious, this 19-inch terracotta sculpture is as humble as its subject matter. During the holiday season, we celebrate Christ’s birth that was only made possible through the humility of a young woman and the ultimate humbling for the Savior of the world to become flesh and dwell among us.

 

KC Christmas Beach, M&G summer educator

 

Published 2023

Visiting Museums

The Value of Visiting a Museum

Below the image, click play to listen.

 

Museum & Gallery at Bob Jones University

Currently, M&G is not offering public viewing hours while we pursue a new building and location.

Located on the campus of Bob Jones University, M&G has been open and accessible to the public since 1951 and a separate, independent 501(c)3 non-profit entity governed by its own board of directors since 1996. While the Collection’s primary focus is European Old Master paintings, it also displays nearly 200 pieces of Gothic to nineteenth-century furniture, approximately 100 works of sculpture, some 60 textiles, nearly 50 Russian and Greek icons, over 1,000 ancient artifacts, and approximately 130 architectural elements that range from stained glass windows to fireplace mantels.

Prior to 2017, there was also a satellite location, M&G at Heritage Green. If you would like to learn more about the building and the current Heritage Green campus, visit here.

Please consider supporting our collection and work  by making a gift here.

If you’re interested in joining our mailing list, contact us here.