Timeless masterpieces enchant at pageant

It’s unlikely that many art lovers have not heard of Christie’s, the renowned auction house where works of art sell for millions.

The opening act of this year’s production of the Pageant of the Masters – titled “The Greatest of All Times” or, affectionately, GOAT – delves into that territory and sets the tone for a lively reacquainting with artists and works who are familiar but always worthy of another look.

Works by Michelangelo, Picasso, Monet, Van Gogh, Velázquez, Rockwell, Kahlo, Rivera, Warhol and more come to life as tableaux vivants, or living pictures, re-created by volunteers in elaborate costumes posing motionless against backdrops of the artworks.

Pageant director Diane Challis Davy, scriptwriter Dan Duling and volunteers have put together a show that is engaging, with bits of nostalgia and humor in the mix, along with lesser known tidbits about the artists. (Did you know that Van Gogh sold only one painting during his lifetime?)

“Our goal was to create a show featuring artists whose names and works are familiar to most audience members, while also celebrating the incredible impact they’ve had on art history and culture,” Challis Davy says. “Narrowing the list down to roughly 20 artists was no easy task; it meant leaving out many deserving names. While I tried to approach the selection objectively, recognition, influence and enduring popularity ultimately played the biggest role.”

In the opening scene at Christie’s, the auction floor brims with buyers trying to outbid one another for Da Vinci’s “Salvator Mundi,” a somber Renaissance portrait.

Actors depicting a who’s who of artists, like Picasso and Warhol, cavort around the stage. A bearded and portly Da Vinci shuffles along, clutching a small wrapped painting and muttering about the fuss being made over a work he had discarded for not being up to snuff. The painting he is holding, the “Mona Lisa,” is a treasure that he is unwilling to sell. (In reality, the “Mundi” is the most expensive painting ever sold; it went for $450.3 million in 2017.)

Meanwhile, Warhol expresses his take on selling art. His motto? “Sell everything!” (Warhol’s “Shot Sage Blue Marilyn” sold at Christie’s for $195 million in 2022.)

The artists list kicks off with a master of marble – Michelangelo, whose “David” appears as a work in progress with the artist just beginning his masterpiece, and his “Pieta,” still holding a melancholy appeal. Later, we see Bernini’s Trevi Fountain in Rome.

One then revisits works by the incomparable Johannes Vermeer (learning that he had 11 children and a hard time making ends meet with his art) along with old standards like Renoir’s “Luncheon of the Boating Party,” Monet’s “Le Dejeuner sur l’herbe” and Velasquez’s lovely “Las Meninas.”

It’s hard to imagine that Van Gogh was a self-taught painter whose genius emerged through diligent practice. Here the audience sees “Morning: Peasant Couple Going to Work” along with “The Sower” and “Wood Gatherers in the Snow.” Part of the iconic “Starry Night” appears in a huge segment.

The audience also learns about Picasso, how he held a pencil from age 7. The action scrolls forward to his Blue Period, named because it was a time of artistic trial for him, to his tumultuous relationships with women. Among his paintings, “Les Demoiselles D’Avignon” stands out, as does “Guernica,” his dramatic tribute to the victims of the Spanish Civil War.

After an intermission, the second act of the pageant concentrates on the United States, as represented by a masterful replica of the “US Marine Corps War Memorial,” depicting the raising of the flag on Iwo Jima, by Felix de Weldon, and the magnificent Lincoln Memorial, created by Daniel Chester French.

“I am a storyteller,” is how America’s famously popular illustrator Norman Rockwell describes himself. A presentation of his iconic “Saturday Evening Post Covers,” the hilarious “Picasso vs. Sargent,” “Triple Self-Portrait” and the thought-provoking “Glen Canyon Dam” held the audience in thrall. The latter reflects Rockwell’s personal view, as he paints not only a cold concrete structure but adds a Navajo family in the foreground from his photographs and sketches.

Aficionados of Winslow Homer aren’t shortchanged. Three paintings in the series “Winslow Homer in the Wilderness” show the mastery of the acting volunteers and set designers.

Then comes the Western Hemisphere’s artsy power couple. Mexican painters Frida Kahlo and her dynamic husband, Diego Rivera, speak about their lives and relationship. Kahlo sums up her tragic accident and her creative struggles through pain and describes Rivera as “her life.” He immortalized himself through murals, including here, “Mural: Making of a Fresco.”

Finally, before the show’s traditional ending with Da Vinci’s majestic “Last Supper,” the pageant bade adieu to British painter David Hockney with “Portrait of an Artist.” He had spent portions of his creative life in the U.S. and died in London on June 11 of this year, at age 88.

Performances of the Pageant of the Masters run nightly through Sept. 4. For more information and to purchase tickets, go foapom.com.