Media coverage and word of mouth extends DAAP art exhibit to April 30

Open to the public, display includes a rare painting on loan from anonymous Cincinnati resident

Popularity surrounding the art exhibit "Rediscovering Catharina van Hemessen’s 'Scourging of Christ': Women Artists, Patrons and Rulers in Renaissance Europe" at UC’s College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning (DAAP) Library has extended the exhibit to April 30.

oil painting with Christ on the cross being whipped

Catharina van Hemessen’s "Scourging of Christ." Photo provided by Platts.

The exhibit, which delves into the triumphs and struggles of women artists, art collectors and rulers during the Renaissance era, garnered media attention on WVXU’s Cincinnati Edition and Cincinnati.com.

The exhibit opened in March, during Women's History Month, and was originally set to end April 8.

“I have heard from a number of people that they wish to see the exhibit now,” says Christopher Platts, the exhibit's co-curator and assistant professor of art history at DAAP. He estimates that more than 500 people have viewed the exhibit to date.

While the exhibition focuses on Hemessen’s signed painting of Christ's Passion from 1556 and her patron, Mary Hungary, regent of the Netherlands, it also features paintings, prints, rare books and illuminated manuscripts, shedding light on the significant roles women played in the European Renaissance between 1400 and 1600.

Hemessen was the most famous woman artist of the Northern Renaissance, says Platts, adding that it is on loan from an anonymous local collector. To Platts' knowledge, the painting has only been on public display three times, including the UC exhibit, over the last 50 to 75 years, he says. 

After April 30 the painting goes back to its home somewhere in Cincinnati.  

More information is available on the DAAP Library page.

Featured image at top of DAAP Library exhibit "Rediscovering Catharina van Hemessen’s 'Scourging of Christ': Women Artists, Patrons and Rulers in Renaissance Europe." Photo credit/Christopher Platts. 

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