This talk ‘Old Master Drawings in the NGI collection’ by Niamh MacNally, National Gallery of Ireland is associated with the exhibition ‘Passion and Persuasion: Images of Baroque Saints’ taking place from 11 February – 31 May 2015 at the National Gallery of Ireland. Admission Free. This series of public talks is part of the celebrations to mark the Jesuit Restoration (1814-2014).
‘Passion and Persuasion: Images of Baroque Saints’ Exhibition
In the early 1520s, St Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Jesuit order, wrote the ‘Spiritual Exercises’ to instruct followers in using their senses to imagine events and to experience for themselves the passion of Christ and the suffering and ecstasy of the saints. This philosophy appealed to artists who sought to move away from the overly mannerist style of the time as it allowed for a greater emphasis on naturalism.
This exhibition of saints in Baroque art has come about as part of the bi-centenary celebrations of the restoration of the Jesuit order in 1814. It brings together a select number of paintings from the Gallery’s collection which depicts popular Counter-Reformation saints such as Mary Magdalene and John the Baptist. Included in the display is a copy of the ‘Spiritual Exercises’ by Ignatius Loyola (on loan from the Jesuit Library, Dublin), and two volumes of the ‘Acts of the Saints’ (on loan from Marsh’s Library). The exhibition is on view in the Beit Wing, until 31 May 2015. Admission is free.