On the evening of October 10, Dr. Jeffery Hamburger, first lecturer of the 2006/07 Bermuda National Gallery?s Partner Re Art Lecture Series spoke on ?The Medieval Work of Art: Wherein the Work? Wherein the Art??

It would be fair to say that the lecture was challenging for many. It was not that Dr. Hamburger?s talk was all that esoteric. Rather the subject itself is culturally some distance from us and consequently somewhat foreign.

Nevertheless, he did present us with a number of new and important concepts, that generated several questions that were asked at the close of the lecture.

When we hear the term ?work of art?, we think we have a good idea about what is meant, but, as Dr. Hamburger pointed out, when it comes to the Medieval period, historians are hesitant to be so certain.

It is necessary to have an understanding of what was meant by this term, back almost a 1,000 years ago, in the 12th century.

In dealing with this concept, the lecturer referred to a quote by the Abbot Suger, who was largely responsible for the first Gothic edifice, the choir of the Abbey church of St. Denis near Paris.

The quote in translation is ?Admire the gold and the laboriousness of the work, but not the expense?. Hamburger then suggested that Suger?s sense of ?labour? was more an imitation of Christ.

In that sense, the advice to overlook the cost of gold and gems, or whatever else went into the work, was more a suggestion to overlook the cost and instead admire the work (labour) of salvation.

The work of art or, if you like, the task of art was more than just to make present, as when we confront the physical presence of a painting or a sculpture. Art?s work is to mediate between the visible and the invisible, the present and absent aspects of an image.

As far as artistic imagery found in Medieval illuminated manuscripts is concerned, art?s task was similarly to mediate between image and text.

Dr. Hamburger was hesitant to draw any kind of parallel between the way symbols were employed in Medieval art and that of other cultures, for example, from African art.

Nevertheless, some of us remember the first international exhibition hosted by the Bermuda National Gallery.

It was, ?Secrecy: African Art that Reveals and Conceals?. Although there were major differences in belief systems between African and the European Medieval period, both appear to have used symbolism in similar ways.

There is more to an image than what meets the eye. There is the invisible meaning, as well as the physical presence.

In answering a question asked of Dr. Hamburger regarding the names of two artists he spoke about in the lecture, he suggested that Jean Pucelle and Le Noir were secular artists and that this was possibly the beginning of the importance of the individual and thus the beginning of the modern period.

The next Bermuda National Gallery, Partner Re Art Lecture Series will take place the evening of November 9. Dr. Arthur Wheelock from the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. will speak on ?Rembrandt and the Human Experience.?