Mediterranean Heirlooms in America: The Mabee Gerrer Museum of Art

Detail of a c. 14th Century Altarpiece, one of several at the Mabee Gerrer Museum of Art.
Typical of the Florentine style. Tempera and Gold on Panel, attributed to Spinello Arentino.

Esteban Murillo's 17th Century Madonna in Oil on Canvas.

Raphael's Connestable Madonna. 

Extremely small tempera and oil on wooden panel, the original of which lies in the Hermitage.

(Like Gregory Gerrer, Raphael was commissioned to create art for the Pope of his time.)

While one might not presume that they could find interesting, original works of art from all around the world - including prestigious Renaissance paintings and ancient Egyptian finds - in a small town just outside of Oklahoma City, that is exactly what lies at the Mabee Gerrer Museum of Art at St. Gregory's University, in none other than Shawnee, Oklahoma.

Perhaps it has something to do with the wealth of the Catholic Church - it does - nonetheless it has much more to do with the fact that Gregory Gerrer was a promising young artist who, having immigrated to America from France, eventually found himself at the Benedictine monastery that would later become St. Gregory's. 

Highly-intriguing Canopic Jars from Egypt's Middle Kingdom. Oft depicted the Four Sons of Horus and used to guard organs removed from mummies.

To make a long story short, Gerrer ended up meeting an abbot who was so taken by the young monk's talent that he sent him back to Europe, to Rome exactly, so that he could study painting and travel for a temporary period of time... (Now, myself being a native Oklahoman who has lived in Rome for six years, I cannot deny that I found this little fact terribly exciting when it was revealed to me just after I paid for my museum ticket last November.)

As with many a museum collection, this one began with the personal collection of its founder, who gathered pieces from one journey to another while traveling abroad. Having brought them back with him to the great State of Oklahoma after each trip, Father Gerrer founded the museum - more recently housed in this bordeaux-walled little gem of a museum - in 1919, and it has been accumulating treasures ever since.

Greek terra-cotta deity figurines from 400 B.C. Found in the Boeotia Region, in the famous cemetery of Tanagra.

While I know that the museum, as lovely and fascinating as it may be, will not in itself inspire most travelers to put Oklahoma on their destination list anytime in the near future, be aware that National Geographic Traveler has placed the capital city on its own list for 2015. However, if you do happen to be just one state away, passing through on the old Route 66 or even in town on business, seeing a Thunder game or a regatta on the Oklahoma River, Shawnee is a quick, 45-minute drive from Oklahoma City.

Winged Lion, symbol of St. Mark, Patron Saint of Venice. Shield accompanying a suit of armor constructed by Vincenzo Zenon in 1446. Suit bears as part of its inscription Venezin, which most would assume is Veneto (regional) dialect for Venetian. (Also attests that Zenon built the armor in San Silvestro, which most likely means the Parish of San Silvestro.)

Of course, if you are an art scholar, Mabee-Gerrer most likely is already on your radar, and it is for good reason that you should make the effort to see it in your lifetime. The wealth of this collection is astounding, having surprised me with several Byzantine-style altarpieces, canvases by Guido Reni and Veronese, a Raphael and an Esteban Murillo, among plenty of others.

And if you are a native Oklahoman still in-state, you have no reason not to go. Outside of Mother Nature herself, it is a reflective escape from the quotidian and mundane. The Mabee-Gerrer Museum is quiet's abode; duck in for just a bit to revel in this oasis of stillness, ideally now, when the cold and wind all but come sweeping down the plain.

Complete view of the Arentino Altarpiece. The majority of the works in the Mabee-Gerrer collection are essentially votive creations - standing watch over and protecting those they served (Egyptians, Greeks and Italians alike). Together and individually, they evoke the visitor's awe and reverence for the centuries and millennia of culture, history and memories they keep.

Further Links

The Mabee-Gerrer Museum of Art

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