By Iuliana Petre
Killeen Daily Herald

Although deceased for several hundred years, the Dutch painter and etcher Rembrandt van Rijn and German painter and printmaker Albrecht D?rer are alive and well in Bell County.

Forty pieces – 17 by Rembrandt and 23 by D?rer – will be on display at the Bell County Museum in Belton. "The Inspired Line: Selected Prints of Albrecht D?rer and Rembrandt van Rijn" is a free exhibition open to the public June 20 through Aug. 8.

This is the first exhibit of its kind in Bell County, said Stephanie Turnham, the Bell County museum director. She said the exhibit presents an "extraordinary opportunity for everyone in Central Texas to see the beautiful Renaissance art, learn something about it and explore the differences in religious themes by these two masters."

Although D?rer (1471-1528) and Rembrandt (1601-1669) created their artwork a century apart, the connections between their prints are significant and often remarkable, Turnham said.

The exhibition will provide an opportunity to view the prints side by side ins several categories: introductory pieces; portraying figures or scenes from the Old Testament; saints; the holy family; the childhood and life of Christ; the passion of Christ; and the death of the Virgin.

Arranging the prints in this manner helps draw contrasts and parallels between the art of the masters, show the transition of art over the period of a century, and "consider the historical contexts, religious backgrounds and aesthetic approaches of each," Turnham said.

"This exhibition illustrates how two different masters, one 16th century German and Roman Catholic, the other 17th century Dutch and Protestant, created the same biblical themes but with extraordinary differences. Both artists rendered multiple scenes of Jesus' life and other New Testament stories, and prints of these biblical themes are especially strong in this collection," Turnham said. "Viewed together, the works illustrate the differences in aesthetic movements and religious influences of their times, yet by sharing a subject matter, they are ideal counterpoint images."

"The Inspired Line" at the Bell County Museum is the last stop in the traveling exhibit received from Exhibits USA, a nonprofit arm of the Mid-American Arts Alliance, and was made possible by the Friends of the Museum organization, the Bell County Museum Association Inc., The Texas Commission on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Visitors to the museum on the exhibition's opening night can also view one of two films: "Rembrandt: Fathers and Sons," or "A step-by-step guide to printmaking," and thumb through five adult-level books or six children's books on the subjects of art.

Hershall Seals, the chair of the art department and a professor of art at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor will lead a class on printmaking.

For more information, call the museum at 933-5243.

The Bell County Museum is at 201 N. Main St. in Belton.

Contact Iuliana Petre at ipetre@kdhnews.com or (254) 501-7469.

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