Reportage about the Caritas exhibition, by Timothée, intern at Musée de Picardie.
Hello,
I am going to tell you about the exhibition Caritas at Musée de Picardie. First, “Caritas” is a latin word, which mean charity or sharing, and it has been chosen as title because the exhibition’s theme is the sharing, as seen by the artists all along time. Since Antiquity with the painting picturing the emperor Marcus Aurelius, to nowadays with contemporary installations.
To begin with the exhibition, we can enter the blue room, where we can see a pray-chair in front of a mirror, to look at oneself when one’s pray. On the wall, the is a painting by Joseph-Marie Vien, made in 1765 where we can see Marcus Aurelius distributing food and medicine to the people of Rome. And then an oil on canvas representing the allegory of liberality (or largesse, or generosity) who is gesturing toward the onlooker by throwing coins. And also a painting with Saint Martin sharing his cloak with a beggar, it has been painted circa 1756-57. And also other paintings and vases and a mirror which reflects a sentence.
In the other room in red, which is symmetrical to the blue room, there are coat hangers, a table with a game: “Dreams of Empire”, where you’ll be able, as its name points that out, to build your own empire with wooden cubes. There is also a splendid and very realistic painting by Aimé Morot, where we can see a good Samaritan holding a man who had been robbed and bitten to death by bandits. This painting is hanged exactly at the same place than the painting of Vien in the other room, so that they can echo to each other.
And after there is a room where giant balls were put on the floor with video projectors projecting images of eyes, and in these eyes, we can see any type of screen, so you have to tell what you think that theses eyes are looking at.
I found this exhibition very well done and very interesting. The makers of the exhibition have been able – in my opinion – to show well the sharing throw art and time.
The curators of the exhibition are Peter Seddon, Barry Barker, Sabine Cazenave, Sophie Fauvel.
Timothée, Year 10, at collège d’Ailly sur Noye.
