Holy Bodies
September 3 2023 – April 1 2024
The exhibition brings together 50 religious paintings and sculptures from the Collection Rau for UNICEF, depicting Christian worlds of faith from the Middle Ages to the beginnings of modernity.
At the center of Christianity is a God made man. In mass and worship, his "holy body" comes alive, his voluntary sacrifice for the salvation of us all becomes physically tangible in bread and wine. The connection between spirituality and corporeality has been a motif in many religions since ancient times.
Works of art illustrate the Christ’s life and passion, showing martyrs and saints who, like him, demonstrated inner strength and rose above themselves as passive peaceful heroes. To this day, their holy bodies form the center of many pilgrimage churches, and the touch of their sculptural representatives is able to heal physical as well as spiritual wounds. Meanwhile, the celestial sphere is reserved for the spiritual bodies, the angels and the ascending prophets of the great world religions.
Partner
