Free with museum admission, advance registration is required.
John Bidwell
J. Pierpont Morgan collected Bibles that spoke to his historical sensibility, high aesthetic standards, and intellectual curiosity. Highly selective in his acquisitions, he looked for qualities he learned to recognize in his art collections, with a preference for precious settings, sumptuous decoration, and notable provenance. Morgan appreciated magnificence in all forms of artistic expression. In this lecture, John Bidwell, Curator Emeritus, shows how he explored interrelated Biblical themes in archaeological artifacts, illuminated manuscripts, decorative arts, master drawings, and early printed books.
The exhibition Morgan's Bibles: Splendor in Scripture will be open at 5 PM for program attendees.
Master of the Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian, The Fall of Man, Probably Austria, Vienna, before 1650, ivory, Wadsworth Atheneum, gift of J. Pierpont Morgan; 1917.303