HEROES AND HEROINES

What Can We Learn from the Past to Help Us in the Present?

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In fall 2013, John Walsh, Director Emeritus of the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, presented “Let This Be a Lesson,” a 12-lecture series that took a close look at important paintings at Yale representing scenes from history, myth, scripture, and literature. They depict situations in which moral issues are at stake, usually acts of heroism. Watch and ask yourself, “Do these works pose moral questions still worth considering today?”

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Clockwise from top left:
1. John Trumbull, The Battle of Bunker’s Hill, June 17, 1775, 1786
2. Benvenuto Tisi, called il Garofalo, The Conversion of Saint Paul, ca. 1525

3. Benjamin West, Agrippina Landing at Brundisium with the Ashes of Germanicus, 1768
4. Anselm Kiefer, Die Ungeborenen (The Unborn), 2001

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JUST FOR FUN

Go to Pieces While in Quarantine

Complete one or all of our seven free online puzzles featuring objects from the Gallery’s collection. Each puzzle includes a timer so that you can track how quickly you solve it. Too easy? You can adjust the level of difficulty. We’re confident you’ll find the “click” of pieces fitting together surprisingly satisfying!

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STORIES THAT ART TELLS

From Battlefield to Gallery:
The Naseby Cup

Listen to Benjamin Dieter R. Hellings, the Jackson-Tomasko Associate Curator of Numismatics, discuss the wealthy female commissioner of the Naseby Cup (1839), Mary Frances Fitzgerald, and how this object is linked to the English Civil War.This coin (below), embedded into the cup’s lower left hip, is one of the first ever struck in America. It’s a New England shilling dating to 1652.

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Read more about the cup’s history and this rare shilling in Ben Hellings’ article “(Re-) Discovery: Yale’s Second and Third Noe II-A New England Shillings.”

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IN OTHER WORDS

‘Meditative and Emotional’

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“The first object that I researched as a Gallery Guide was View of the Distant Sea II (ca. 1985) by Fukami Sueharu, and to this day, it’s still my favorite object to teach from. It’s smooth but asymmetric, organic but impeccably precise. I find it

special, meditative, and emotional. I love seeing visitors fall in love with it.”—Odette Wang, Gallery Guide, B.A. 2020, Sociology and Education Studies

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@YALEARTGALLERY

Watch our Instagram feed this week for more student voices, including reflections on works by El Anatsui and Edward Hopper.

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IN THE MEDIA

Yale University Art Gallery in the News

Yale Global Online, May 21, 2020
“Pearls and the Moon: The First Porcelain”

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MAKE A DIFFERENCE

Support the Gallery’s Annual Fund

Gifts to the Annual Fund strengthen the Gallery’s ability to respond to uncertain times. To everyone who has a made a recent gift, we say thank you. The ability to gather our online resources and offer them to a broad audience is made possible by our generous donors.

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The Yale University Art Gallery is currently closed until further notice. The Gallery is working in close collaboration with Yale University leadership to safeguard against the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and to ensure the safety of our visitors and staff. Please continue to check our website in the coming days and weeks for additional information or changes to the Gallery’s public services. Learn more.