About the Exhibit

Most Highly Favored: The Life of the Virgin Mary reflects the varied understandings of the Virgin Mary, rendered by artists in the visual vocabulary of their times and places. The exhibition’s title, drawn from Gabriel’s greeting to Mary in Luke 1:28 and the Basque hymn, Most Highly Favored Lady, sets the tone of the exhibition. The show is broken into four sections: Mary as Madonna, Mary in the Bible, Mary in Tradition, and Mary around the World, each depicting in visual terms an important aspect of the life of Mary.

Most Highly Favored includes nearly 50 paintings, sculptures. and objects of devotion by artists from over 20 countries spanning five centuries. The art comes from such places as Greece, Sweden, Japan, Russia, Central and Eastern Europe, Africa, the Balkans, Central and South America, and the United States.

The art in Most Highly Favored covers a wide range of media: Italian Renaissance style paintings, medieval and modern woodcuts, delicate etchings, along with classically sculpted statues, Byzantine-inspired icons, Ethiopian leather paintings, and illuminated manuscripts from Europe and the Middle East.

This exhibition includes works by internationally known printmakers such as Albrecht Dürer, Anders Zorn, and Annibile Carracci, by contemporary artists of importance, as well as by totally unknown artisans, calligraphers, and craftpersons.

All of these come together to offer a visual feast that inspires and communicates how the life of Mary has influenced the church, but also how her life still lives on in cultures around the globe.