Art Professor Shares Thoughts on ‘Great Minds’

Sacred Heart University Art Professor Nathan Lewis shared his thoughts on many great, influential philosophers, artists and religious figures at the Great Minds Collection lecture series with his talk “Bitten by the Quest of the Humanities: A Painter’s Journey Through the Liberal Arts.”

This was the second lecture the University sponsored around its Great Minds Collection, a series of stylized portraits of famous individuals who contributed to art, philosophy, religion, science, literature, music and political leadership in world history. The large-scale paintings were donated to the University by Dick and Jane Resnick last year. Lecture attendees were able to view the paintings before and after the talk.

Michael W. Higgins, distinguished professor of Catholic thought, introduced Lewis. He said the Great Minds Collection’s concept “is at its core an essential conversation” and Lewis, an artist and the University’s artist-in-residence, will deepen that conversation.

Lewis said it was difficult to choose just one “great mind” to speak about so he instead chose to highlight several such as Moses, William Shakespeare and Jesus through a picture presentation.

Through pictures, Lewis showed the audience that artists depict stories and people differently – they don’t always see the narrative the same way. He demonstrated this by showing Rembrandt’s painting of the Bible story of Abraham and Isaac and Caravaggio’s version of the same story. They differed. He noted the beauty in the depictions and that the depictions themselves tell their own story.