Behind the Luminous Creation of a Meadows Museum Highlight

Taking a cue from the restaurant industry’s robust to-go services, PaperCity assisted our cultural friends by providing our online and social media platforms and launched our “Museums Delivered” series when the orders first came to shelter in place. Curators whipped out their smartphones and shared insights into paintings from recently opened exhibitions, as well as favorites from the permanent collection. We’re thankful that our friends at institutions in Dallas, Fort Worth, and Houston have allowed us inside — virtually — to enjoy some art when we need it most.

You may have caught some of the stories thus far. Curator Guillaume Kientz of the Kimbell Art Museum shared insights into some of the paintings from “Flesh and Blood: Italian Masterpieces from the Capodimonte Museum,” which opened shortly before the order came to shelter in place. Also, Andrea Karnes, senior curator at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, took a moment to tell us about one of her favorite works from the permanent collection: Kehinde Wiley‘s Colonel Platoff on His Charger.

Today we have Amanda Dotseth, curator at the Meadows Museum. Dotseth completed her PhD at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London in 2015 with the thesis “San Quirce de Burgos: Reframing Romanesque Architecture in Castile.” During most of her academic and professional career her research has been grounded in the Spanish Middle Ages but has addressed a wide range of topics, from architecture to panel painting.

Even though much of Texas has reopened for business, given the surge of virus cases, many museums have taken their time to create plans that would provide patrons the engaging and enlightening experiences they were used to having in their galleries pre-COVID 19. Our beloved Meadows, located on the Southern Methodist University campus, has set July 7 as its projected opening date. In the meantime, before their hallowed galleries are on view once again, take a moment with Dotseth as she shares one of the highlights from their permanent collection — Rodrigo de Sajonia’s Adoration of the Magi.

Rodrigo de Sajonia, called Master of Sigena (Active c. 1510–1520), Adoration of the Magi, circa 1519. Oil on panel. Meadows Museum, SMU, Dallas. Museum purchase with funds from The Meadows Foundation, with additional support provided by Susan Heldt Albritton, Gwen and Richard Irwin, and Catherine Blaffer Taylor. (Photo by Kevin Todora).