The Metropolitan Museum has mounted
a small exhibition of jewel-like beauty and resonance.
Entitled" Piero della Francesca: Personal Encounters",
it comprises four private devotional paintings by the
Renaissance master, the artist's entire oeuvre of holy
images, often produced for patrons, meant to encourage
private prayer. My own recent experience with a devotional
object, as well as the beauty of this exhibition, spurs me
to write about it.
Recently at the flea market at West 25
th
Street in
Manhattan, I purchased for ten dollars a large cross—
wooden, French, from the 1940s, adorned with thorn-
like protrusions, and featuring fleur-de-lis-like terminals.
It is a crucifix, stripped of its Christ figure; I see still the
Saint Jerome
and a
Supplicant,
Venice
HYLAND
