Picturing Histories: European Works on Paper from the BMA’s Collection

Artists have always played an active role in depicting, commenting on, and reinterpreting historical narratives. This installation of works on paper from the Museum’s permanent collection asks a seemingly simple question with no simple answer: in what ways did artists picture history? Some artists were intensely interested in how events or stories from the distant past could help explain or sometimes criticize current events. Others invented creative ways, such as through self-portraiture, to insert themselves into art historical discourses.

This installation includes thirteenth works from the BMA’s permanent collection that date from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries, and can be found on view throughout the European galleries.

Image Credits

Header: Sebald Beham (1500–1550), Lichas Brings Nessus’s Robe to Hercules, from the series “The Labours of Hercules,” 1542–1548, engraving on paper, sheet: 2 1/16 × 3 1/16 in. (5.2 × 7.8 cm); Museum purchase in loving memory of Jeannine O’Grody with funds provided by her family and friends, 2019.9

Thumbnail: Salvator Rosa (1615–1673), The Genius of Salvator Rosa, about 1661, etching with drypoint on paper, sheet: 19 7/16 × 14 1/16 in. (49.4 × 35.7 cm); Museum purchase in honor of the 1983 Museum Dinner and Ball Chairmen: Mrs. John Durr Elmore, Mrs. Henry C. Goodrich, Mrs. Frank E. Lankford, Mrs. Charles W. Daniel, and Mrs. Hartwell G. Davis, Jr., 1983.30