Bartolomé Bermejo (Spanish, ca. 1436 - ca. 1498) and Martín Bernat (Spanish, ca. 1440 - 1497)
Virgin of Mercy, 1479-1480 (detail)
Oil on conifer panel
Gift of Friends and Family of Eugene Masselink, 1965.1.1
Mystical Visions in the Material World: Early Modern Art and Life from GRAM’s Collection
The Early Modern period — from the Renaissance (ca. late 14th century) through the Baroque (ca. late 17th century) — was one of the most fertile eras in the history of European art.
About the Exhibition
By and large, we tend to trust what we can observe directly: things we can touch, see, document, and repeat. This often forms the basis of what we consider “real,” or “true.” People in the Renaissance saw the world very differently. During the Early Modern era (about 1450 – 1750), unseen forces were believed to shape everyday life in powerful ways. The physical world and the unseen world were not separate. These realms — the physical and the unseen, the earthly and the celestial, the present moment and the distant past — were bound together through the imagination.
For people at the time, imagination was not just for daydreaming or fantasy. It was seen as an essential ability that everyone had linking the physical world to the spiritual, unseen one. To imagine heavenly beings or famous figures from ancient history was believed to be the “bond of bonds” that brought them to life. Artists imagined unseen worlds to connect the living with those beyond death. By thinking deeply about these hidden realms, both artists and viewers felt closer to God, the ancients, and the saintly figures that influenced their fates. This exhibition explores those visions of the imaginary, drawn primarily from the Grand Rapids Art Museum’s own collection.
Throughout the Renaissance, artistic innovation was driven by overlapping forces: the social disruptions that followed the Black Death, the recovery and reexamination of Greek and Roman antiquity, the religious upheavals of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation, and a renewed emphasis on the individual as a subject of both artistic and philosophical attention. Wealthy families, the Catholic Church, and state governments poured resources into artistic production on an unprecedented scale. European artists created paintings, prints, and sculptures intended not merely to illustrate scripture but to move the viewer: to provoke contemplation, inspire piety, and render the mystical experiences of faith visible.
This exhibition will be on view in GRAM’s Changing Exhibition 1 gallery, adjacent to the exhibition Lust, Love, and Loss in Renaissance Europe, curated by Dr. Nora S. Lambert and organized by International Arts & Artists, Washington, DC.
