A Museum of True Art Collectors by James Finneral

            The Clark Museum is located in Williamstown, Massachusetts and is one of the most renowned museums in the area. The Clark consists of a collection from Sterling and Francis Clark. The museum does not only display art, but it also serves as a research center. The museum has a vast collection of paintings, sculptures and prints. The pieces in each gallery are arranged in an intentional order.

            In Room 9 of the museum there are paintings on each wall and a couple of small sculptures in the middle. The pieces in the room seem to circle along the topic of history, mainly the life of Jesus Christ. There are paintings of  Christ as a baby being nurtured by his mother, there is one of him being crucified and there are a few of him with his parents and disciples after he has been killed from crucifixion. Although there are paintings of other people, the main point of this room seems to be the celebration of Christ’s life.

            The paining that drew me in the most was The Lamentation by Jan Provoost. The painting shows the scene on a hill right after Christ has been taken off of the cross. Joseph is supporting the dead body of christ. John, an apostle of Christ, is supporting Mary who is hysterically crying. There is another girl on the right of Christ on her knees praying. Behind the scene there is a man inside a little opening of the hill who appears to be preparing a tomb. At the far right side of the painting there is a city which appears to be at the bottom of the hill. They brought Christ from the city up to the hill and crucified him.

            Provoost did a great job making the painting appear very life like. For example in the painting Christ is shirtless and his chest and his stomach both look very realistic. Another impressive detail about this paining is how Provoost shows the emotion of the characters in the painting. Everyone in the painting is crying, but Provoost does not show that by painting tears, but by making the outside of the character’s eyes red showing that they have been crying. I thought this was a very cool way of showing the character’s emotions and would be much more effective than painting in tears.

            As for the museum as a whole I think we can make the inference that Sterling and Francis appreciated all types of art work. From the beautiful landscape paintings, to the sculptures and to the paintings about historical events, it is obvious that the Clarks enjoyed a wide variety of work. The work in the Clark Museum is extremely impressive and if you are close by Western Massachusetts you should definitely stop by. If you are extremely religious I would certainly recommend going to Room 9 and taking a look at some of the pieces at the different times in Christ’s life.