Missing Caravaggio

Michelangelo Merisi "John the Baptist," 1604

Last September, during a brief stay in Kansas City, I had a chance to visit The Nelson-Atkins Museum. My intention was primarily to see their fine Caravaggio, "St. John the Baptist," which is the only work by the renowned Italian near where I live. I've seen the painting several times, but like all of the master's work it repays further study. Caravaggio's real name was Michelangelo Merisi, but he was from the town of Caravaggio, and so he was Michelangelo da Caravaggio to differentiate him from the Michelangelo, who was from Florence anyway.

So I walked the few blocks from my hotel through the beautiful wooded neighborhood around the museum. I spent some time reminding myself about the enormous badminton shuttlecocks that parade up the grand green vista before the main building. Those are by Claes Oldenburg and are supposed to be representative of a match, with three on one side and the fourth on the other side--the building being the badminton net. In any event, I went in with great anticipation, only to find that the painting is actually part of an exhibition in Milan. This particular full figure of the saint is an enormous work (life-size) showing a dark, brooding young man in a dark wilderness. It was painted in 1604 as a commission from an Italian noble, whose family owned it for generations afterward. In preparation for the exhibition the painting underwent investigation with careful restoration as part of the process. The Milan exhibition includes a number of other favorites of mine by Caravaggio, including his "Rest on the Flight Into Egypt," from the Doria Pamphilj Palace in Rome. In any event, the painting was in Milan for the exhibition, and I only had an hour or two.

So I spent the short time going from one remembered favorite to another. The Nelson-Atkins Museum is a treasure of a museum if only because of the Caravaggio. But there is more to enjoy there than one might think. For one thing, the collection is quite varied, comprising African, Asian and European concentrations and ranging from Ancient Art to Contemporary. The museum is quite strong in European Art and holds work by El Greco, Rubens, Rembrandt and Titian to name only some of the most familiar. And the museum is also exceptionally strong in American Art.

Thomas Hart Benton, "Persephone," 1939

Particularly important American works are the large group by Thomas Hart Benton, who was a Kansas City resident at one time, but it also contains works by John Singleton Copley, Thomas Eakins, John Sargent, and Winslow Homer. Always included as one of the painters in the 1930s movement called Regionalism, Benton was a Missouri native but lived a good portion of his life elsewhere. After studying at the Art Institute of Chicago he also studied at the Academie Julien in Paris, lived and worked in New York for two decades, and eventually settled into Kansas City, where he taught at the Kansas City Art Institute, which is near the Nelson-Atkins. I've always liked his "Persephone," which he painted while there. Even for those days (1939) it was considered scandalous in Kansas City and cost Benton his job. It has been called a great piece of soft pornography but I think it's much more than that. Benton's sinuous lines and curvilinear perspective are much in evidence, but in particular his skin tones are wonderful and his distortions make eminent sense in these days of fish-eye camera lenses. It's  big painting and the figures are almost life-size. The Greek tale of Persephone tells how the goddess of the harvest was abducted by Hades, the god of the underworld, and must remain with him for half of each year, making the earth infertile (and accounting for the seasons). In the picture Hades is in the guise of an old Missouri farmer with a wagon waiting to abduct a nubile Persephone (who resembles Hedy Lamar, the famous movie actress, to me), even as the harvest is being finished. The painting is a great retelling of the myth, and Thomas Benton is one of my favorite realist painters. I always visit her when there.

Another work I often visit, and spent a bit of time with this time was Claude Monet's "Boulevard des Capuchins," from about 1874 is certainly one of the most famous (and initially derided) works of Impressionism. Monet painted the street scene from a second-floor window in Paris, capturing the passing parade on the grand boulevard, the diffuse light, and the mist-like bare branches. At the time, work of this sort was considered unfinished--the figures were particularly criticized as little more than "black lickings," but today's experts claim that Monet was interested in showing the kind of blurring a camera with a slow shutter speed might record. Perhaps so. Or perhaps he was simply trying to evoke motion without thinking of cameras. The colors are muted and blued because the scene is winter. Although this work is somewhat like the darker works of the Barbizon School, a predecessor of Impresionism, the palette is quite different. Many in our present culture may find this particular work of Monet less attractive since the brighter palette of Impessionism is missing. Regardless, I enjoy this work almost as much as Benton's.

As always there is never enough time to savor everything that the museum has to offer. On the other hand it is close to home and no doubt I will be in Kansas City another day.