Saints at Stanford

Should you find yourself in the vicinity of Palo Alto this summer, you might stop in at the Stanford art galleries to see two exhibitions of Christian art.  The first, entitled “Faith Embodied:  Saints from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment,” is a small exhibit of 16 prints (from wood cuts and etchings) exploring the different strategies artists from the 15th to the 18th centuries employed to represent Catholic saints.  Some focus on the body; others tell an engrossing story.  The exhibition opens June 12 and runs through November 17.

Later this summer, another show also offers a meditation on sainthood, this time in the form of works by the great French symbolist artist Odilon Redon (1840-1916), who often paired his art with literature to create an art of the imagination.  In “Inspired by Temptation:  Odilon Redon and Saint Anthony,” we see all three of Redon’s most famous lithographic albums (with 41 individual lithographs in all), inspired by Gustave Flaubert’s novel The Temptation of Saint Anthony (1874).  Based on the legend of a third-century monk who retreated to the desert to contemplate God, Flaubert’s story describes the fantastical events that transpire over the course of one night, during which Anthony is assaulted by visions and apparitions.  This exhibiton opens July 3 and runs through November 17 as well. 

Please visit the Stanford website for museum hours.  Closed Monday and Tuesday.  (Note:  This post quotes extensively from material located on Stanford’s website.)