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About 1,600 packed into the Brookfield Conference Center on a cold Thursday night to hear a lecture on Catholic art history. The February 15 event was hosted by the Archdiocese of Milwaukee and its leadership, including Archbishop Jerome Listecki and Rev. John LoCoco, the archdiocese's Director of Vocations.
After a brief prayer service, Fr. LoCoco introduced a former professor of his, Dr. Elizabeth Lev, as the evening's speaker. Dr. Lev, with graduate degrees from the Universities of Chicago and Bolonga, has taught art history at several prominent centers for higher education, including, most recently, at Duquesne University's Italian campus and the Potifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas. She has also worked as a tour guide for multiple sites in the Eternal City.
Dr. Lev's lecture, "How Catholic Art Saved the Faith -- The Triumph of Beauty and Truth," covered three primary topics in Catholic art; the Sacraments, Intercessions, and the need for cooperation in salvarion. As Dr. Lev pointed out, those are the three primary foci of art in the church's history. By discussing several artists of the late 1500s and early 1600s and their paintings, notably during the church's Counterreformation period in response to rise of Lutheranism and other Reforming movements during the preceeding 100 years, Dr. Lev illustrated the various nuances of both Catholic and Prodestant churchs.
Notably, as 2024 has been labelled the year of Euchristic Revival, Dr. Lev brings history to the present day by highlighting the fact that, in response to the various Reformations sweeping across Europe at the time, there was a similar call to focus on Christ and the sacrifice He made. Works like Caravaggio's "The Entombment of Christ" and Michaelangelo's "The Last Judgement" were heavily analyzed, particuarly their "breaking" of contemporary rules, subject matter, and historic placement.
According to the Archdiocese's website, the Pallium Lecture is designed to "foster conversation and engage the broader culture through the Catholic intellectual tradition." The annual event is sponsored by the Archdiocese of Milwaukee and supported by the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, which is based in Milwaukee. Previous lectures have included topics like individualism, the United States Supreme Court, religious liberty, and vocation, and lectures have been held throughout the archdiocese. Next year's Pallium Lecture will be held on September 4, 2025, and the guest speaker will be Most Reverend Danial Flores, the Bishop of Brownsville, Texas.
Event organizers seemed surprised at the massive turnout, bringing the Brookfield Conference Center to capacity. As Rev. LoCoco said about art, however, "Beauty opens the door to God."
Al Dickenson is a Milwaukee, WI-based writer, editor, photographer, historian, and archivist. He has extensive experience as a writer and journalist, working both as a freelancer and as a magazine and newspaper editor. A graduate from Wisconsin Lutheran College, Al seeks to put his three Bachelor's degrees in communication, English, and his true passion, history, to good use by telling stories of meaning to a broad range of audiences. As a historian and writer, he believes it is vital that we as a society, and as individuals, understand our origins to better prepare ourselves for the future.
