Critics Pick: An Art of Faith, Facts and Miracles in Manhattan

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Holland Cotter

Metal votives in various shapes, from Italy, 1930-50. Rudolf Kriss collection, Asbach Monastery, Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Munich.CreditCreditBayerisches Nationalmuseum, Munich; Walter Haberland

Walk into the big art-packed churches of Rome and Mexico City and you can spot the most valuable image instantly. It’s not the great painting or sculpture described in the Blue Guide. As often as not, it’s the smallish Madonna over there in the corner with a bank of candles burning in front of her and the handwritten notes, photographs and silver medals attached to her cloak. These add-on items are by no means peripheral to her image. They constitute an art genre of their own — an art of please-and-thank-you — and one that is the subject of a marvelous show called “Agents of Faith: Votive Objects in Time and Place” at the Bard Graduate Center Gallery in Manhattan. Votive objects — also called ex-votos, from the Latin word for vow — are common to every culture and have a long history. [More]