Moving from Vatican Bling to Malchus’s Ear: Taking the “Catholic Imagination” Seriously When Thinking About Catholic Devotions in Centuries Past

Abstract

Moving from Vatican Bling to Malchus’s EarTaking the “Catholic Imagination” Seriously When Thinking About Catholic Devotions in Centuries Past Michael P. Carroll (bio) Every year the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City stages a gala to raise money for its Costume Institute and that gala is always associated with a themed exhibition that is open to the public once the gala itself is over (the Met Gala for 2020, of course, was canceled because of Covid-19). In 2018, the exhibition theme was “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination.” Most press coverage of the gala itself focused on the female celebrities who attended (including, among others, Rihanna, Madonna, Miley Cyrus, Serena Williams, and Lady Gaga) and the costumes they wore in order to reflect the exhibition’s theme. But what would make the 2018 exhibition especially distinctive was that it would become the most visited exhibition in the recorded history of the Met, beating out the King Tut exhibition in the 1970s.1 On the face of things, then, it would seem there is much public interest in the “Catholic Imagination.” What did people see at this particular exhibition? As commentators were quick to note, the exhibition had a tripartite organization. [End Page 124] One section was devoted to what one churlish commentator called “Vatican bling.”2 On view there were nearly four dozen papal vestments on loan from the Sistine Chapel sacristy, many of which had never been outside Rome, and which included tiaras (including a tiara set with 19,000 gems, mostly diamonds); papal chasubles, and pectoral crosses. By agreement with Church authorities, these objects were kept separate from the more secular fashions displayed in the rest of the exhibition. A second section of the exhibition displayed secular clothing by leading fashion designers that had been inspired by religious dress and religious art. Finally, a third section was on display at the Cloisters, the Met’s extension in northern Manhattan, and this also involved secular designs that had been inspired by sacred art. At one level then, the exhibition was concerned with exactly what its title suggests, namely, the influence of Catholic art and clerical dress on secular fashion—though as one commentator noted, this was only true if “fashion” consistently meant “women’s fashion.”3 On the other hand, reading through the scholarly essays published in the exhibition catalogue, it seems clear that the organizers had an aspirational goal that reached for a bit more, namely, they wanted to explore the nature and importance of the “Catholic Imagination” in the Catholic tradition generally. This is especially clear in the introductory essay in the exhibition’s catalogue, which was written by Andrew Bolton, curator of the Costume Institute and the organizer of the exhibition. Bolton starts by noting that the term “Catholic Imagination” was popularized by the priest/sociologist Andrew Greeley (1928–2013) in his book of that title, and Bolton summarizes Greeley by saying that “metaphor is the essential characteristic of a distinctively Catholic sensibility, or consciousness, which he [Greeley] defines as the Catholic Imagination.”4 Bolton goes on to quote an extended passage from Greeley’s book. Since that particular passage also appeared on a wall of the exhibition (which, incidentally, I did visit at the time), it is worth repeating here: [End Page 125] Catholics live in an enchanted world, a world of statues and holy water, stained glass and votive candles, saints and religious medals, rosary beads and holy pictures. But these Catholic paraphernalia are mere hints of a deeper and more pervasive religious sensibility to see the Holy lurking in Creation. . . . The Catholic Imagination in all its many manifestations . . . tends to emphasize the metaphorical nature of creation. . . . Everything in creation, from the exploding cosmos to the whirling, dancing, and utterly mysterious quantum particles discloses something about God and, in so doing, brings God among us. Greeley’s argument, Bolton notes, was derived from an earlier argument developed by the theologian David Tracy,5 and indeed Tracy contributed his own essay to the exhibition catalogue.6 Despite the fact that this very explicit acknowledgement of Andrew Greeley’s work was (literally) built into the exhibition, the exhibition and...