Research: Luce Center for American Art

For centuries, artists have been enlisted to create images to be used for devotional and ritual purposes in the practice of religion. In Western culture, the Old and New Testaments of the Bible have provided the major sources for religious narratives in painting and sculpture. Spanish colonies in South and North America were centers for the production of Catholic images that were usually made by native craftspeople and often included visual elements of indigenous belief systems. North America, settled by colonists of Protestant faiths, does not share such a rich heritage of religious art. Nevertheless, many nineteenth- and twentieth-century American artists have treated devotional themes, and the Museum’s collection has an abundance of such works. Figures of veneration—madonnas, angels, and saints—have been treated in both traditional and innovative ways. Modern artists have also explored non-Western belief systems in a search for universal values and spirituality.

	00.158	William Ordway Partridge A Madonna, ca. 1890 View object details...
	04.300	Margaret Foley Head of Prophet Zephaniah, 1868 View object details...
	05.241	Hiram S. Powers Eve, 1859-1860 View object details...
	13.1062	Bessie Potter Vonnoh Modern Madonna, 1904 View object details...
	19.93	George de Forest Brush Mother and Child: A Modern Madonna, 1919 View object details...
	19.147	Thomas Ball Head of Saint John, 1872 View object details...
	30.1109	Bertram Hartman Trinity Church and Wall Street, 1929 View object details...
	32.2089	Shelton & Feltman Dish or Paten, ca. 1847 View object details...
	40.212	American Bread Plate (Continental Hall), 1876 View object details...
	40.213	American Bread Plate (Centennial), 1876 View object details...
	40.237	American Plate (Leonardo DaVinci's Last Supper), late 19th century View object details...
	41.1251	Unknown Wedding of Mary and Joseph, late 17th century View object details...
	41.1275.185	Cuzco School The Nativity, mid 18th century View object details...
	42.384	Hispano-Philippine Virgin of the Immaculate Conception, probably 18th century View object details...
	45.10.81	Joseph Danforth Plate (Used as Paten), 1780-1788 View object details...
	45.10.130	Timothy Brigden Chalice, 1815-1819 View object details...
	45.10.131	Peter Young Chalice, 1785-1795 View object details...
	45.10.139	Timothy Brigden Chalice, 1774-1819 View object details...
	48.76	Benjamin West The Women at the Sepulchre (The Angel at the Tomb of Christ), 1805 View object details...
	48.206.85	Unknown The Flight Into Egypt, mid 18th century View object details...
	50.37	Alfeo Faggi Christ in the Garden, 1949 View object details...
	68.158.2	Abbott H. Thayer My Children, ca. 1896-1910 View object details...
	71.53	William Zorach Cast of Original Model for "Wisdom of Solomon", ca. 1960; Cast in bronze 1963-1964 View object details...
	80.191a-b	Emma Stebbins Samuel, 1868 View object details...
	87.28	William Edmondson Angel, n.d. View object details...
	1992.165.1	Beatrice Wood Chalice, ca.1975 View object details...