MUSE AND MERCY

A NEW PUBLICATION CELEBRATING THE VISUAL ARTS AND ITS HISTORY AT SALVE REGINA • BY TERYN

O’BRIEN

Salve Regina University’s campus is punctuated with rich, beautiful works of art that span antiquity, the Gilded Age, and the modern world. Previously, however, the works had gone uncatalogued in a cohesive way that made them available for enjoyment or study.

To celebrate Salve Regina’s 75th anniversary, Ernest Jolicoeur and Dr. Anthony F. Mangieri, associate professors in the Department of Art and Art History, took on the task of rectifying that fact by publishing “Muse and Mercy: Exploring Fine and Decorative Art at Salve Regina University,” which o ers great new insight and scholarship on the treasures that are displayed both publicly and privately across campus.

“Muse and Mercy” is a beautiful 250-page publication designed as an art catalogue and co ee table book. It features 75 works of art, each accompanied by photograph(s) and an interpretive essay highlighting its historical and cultural signi cance.

Within its pages, “Muse and Mercy” examines both ne and decorative arts that adorn Salve’s campus. Fine arts are works appreciated for their aesthetic, imaginative and intellectual value—such as paintings, photographs, drawings, and sculptures. Decorative arts are highly designed pieces that serve a utilitarian function—like stained-glass windows, furniture, metalwork, and textiles. e book is organized thematically into seven chapters, which highlight themes that include Gilded Age opulence, Christian imagery, portraiture and commemoration, Greek and Roman mythology, Newport’s heritage, imaginative creatures, and nature and geometry.

Jolicoeur and Mangieri, who wrote the book to ful ll a longtime need for an authoritative introduction to the visual arts on campus, presented the creative process behind its publication at a faculty lecture held in McKillop Library during the fall 2022 semester.

“Whether you are a visitor to campus encountering works for the rst time or if you have been a longtime member of our community, this book will o er insights into the artworks on campus,” noted Mangieri during the lecture.

Working with collaborators across campus who contributed a number of entries, the two edited the volume and shepherded it through publication.

“We designed this project to be interdisciplinary and collaborative,” said Jolicoeur. “In total, we worked with 28 collaborators. ese include undergraduate and graduate students from a range of disciplines, library sta , and administrators—as well as faculty from a diverse array of departments like history, modern languages, mathematics, philosophy, and biology, just to name a few … We could not have done this without our colleagues.”

Jolicoeur, who also serves as the director of the Dorrance H. Hamilton Gallery in the Antone Academic Center, and Mangieri worked with a team of students in an upper-level art history class to co-curate a “Muse and Mercy” art exhibition for the fall 2022 semester. e exhibit highlighted many of the objects that appear in the book, some of them displayed for the rst time ever. e exhibition also included a series of videos that students created in a communityengaged art history class that the associate professors co-taught during the fall. rough the students’ videos, the exhibition was able to highlight many of the immovable works on campus.

“Muse and Mercy” highlights some of Salve Regina’s most well-known pieces, including the ceiling painting over the Great Hall of Ochre Court and John La Farge’s stained-glass windows in Our Lady of Mercy Chapel. It also o ers new art historical interpretations of some works; for example, Mangieri believes that the Ochre Court ceiling painting depicts the wedding of Peleus and etis, which brought about the start of the Trojan War in Greek mythology.

“Many Gilded Age works of art on campus re ect the in uence of ancient Greek and Roman art, mythology and ideals,” explained Mangieri.

Four large Late Medieval stained-glass panels in Ochre Court, which were relocated from a 15th-century Carmelite church in Germany, are also notable.

“ ese are stunning examples of Late Medieval stained glass,” said Mangieri. “ e Cloisters Museum in New York City has windows from this same church.” e book introduces readers to many hidden gems across campus, including a series of stained-glass windows located in Gerety Hall. e windows were designed by Charles Eamer Kempe, considered to be the most important ecclesiastical stained-glass designer of the 19th century. e University’s Special Collections also includes two dresses designed by Oscar de la Renta and worn by Noreen Stonor Drexel, as well as a group of John Howard Benson drawings. e publication was made possible in part with the generous support of the following: Sharon Grills Jackson, Sister M. erese Antone Endowed Fund for Academic Excellence and the Department of Art and Art History.

“ e book has been a labor of love for us, and we are so happy to share its publication with the University community,” said Joliceour and Mangieri. “We are most proud of the original scholarship and new photography in the book, and how these will o er readers a new way of experiencing art on our campus.”