Sacred Visions: Nineteenth-Century Biblical Art from the Dahesh Museum Collection, a collaboration between the Dahesh Museum of Art and the Museum of Biblical Art (MOBIA), features approximately 30 religious paintings, drawings, and sculptures that survey the rich diversity of biblical subject matter produced by masters of the academic tradition. On view are works by well-known 19th-century artists including Bonnat, Cabanel, Doré, Delaroche, and Gérôme, as well as their lesser known, but equally gifted contemporaries.  Doré’s famous illustrated Bible from MOBIA’s Rare Bible Collection rounds out the exhibition.

Although the 19th century is today best known for secular art, the Bible remained an important source of subject matter, especially for artists trained in formal academies, such as the École des Beaux-Art in Paris.  Europe’s new social and political order following the French Revolution, the archeological “discovery” of the Holy Land, and nostalgia for the countryside in the face of rapid modernization and industrialization, inspired artists to cast familiar Biblical narratives in a new light.  Sacred Visions traces 100 years of continuity and change in representing crucial episodes, figures, and landscapes from the Old and New Testament for a diverse audience.

An introductory brochure accompanies the exhibition, along with Adult, Family and Community programs, and a scholarly Symposium.

The Museum of Biblical Art is open six days a week:  Tuesday - Sunday: 10am – 6pm, and offers evening programs on selected Thursdays.

Sacred Visions: Nineteenth-Century Biblical Art from the Dahesh Museum Collection

Oct. 18, 2013 – Feb. 16, 2014

At the Museum of Biblical Art (MOBIA)

1865 Broadway at 61 Street, New York City