Willard-Newell Gallery

One of the jewels of the museum's collection, Hendrick ter Brugghen's Saint Sebastian Tended by Irene of 1625, reigns over this gallery. Painted by the Dutch artist after he visited Rome, it epitomizes a northerner's distillation of the dramatic lighting, monumental figures, pathos, and emotionality of the Italian religious tradition. The museum's collection of Dutch and Flemish 17th-century works is particularly strong, including landscapes, such as the Hobbema that was owned by the museum's founder, Mrs. Elisabeth (Allen) Prentiss, and figural works, including Michiel Sweerts's majestic self-portrait.

Italian, French, British, and American paintings and sculptures attest to the AMAM's broad collection of both secular and religious works spanning the 17th and 18th centuries. Jacopo Ligozzi's portable altar incorporating two small paintings, with its carrying case still preserved, is made of precious materials imported from as far away as Afghanistan. Meant to be used in (and moved between) domestic settings, it is a reminder of the importance of trade, private devotion, princely gift exchanges, and the exquisite craftsmanship of the age. Joseph Wright of Derby's atmospheric Dovedale by Moonlight and Pierre-Nolasque Bergeret's Honors Rendered to Raphael on his Deathbed, both painted about 200 years later, reflect a more modern age, one of the incipient Industrial Revolution, a new historicism, and Napoleon's conquests. The richness and variety of the museum's 17th- and 18th- century artworks account for their frequent use in courses across the curriculum.