Antique Blog

Joan of Arc Exhibition

The French medieval heroine Joan of Arc is the subject of a new exhibition at the Knights of Columbus Museum in New Haven.

Presented originally at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., from November 2006 to January 2007, the exhibit focuses not only on the historical figure but also on the manner in which Joan of Arc has been characterized or portrayed through time: a bold warrior, a pious maiden, a fashionable courtier, a loyal subject, a condemned prisoner.

Famed American writer and Connecticut resident Mark Twain had great admiration for Joan of Arc and conducted 12 years of research before writing Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc.

“I like Joan of Arc best of all my books; and it is the best; I know it perfectly well,” Twain recounted. “And besides, it furnished me seven times the pleasure afforded me by any of the others.”

As an illiterate peasant, Joan followed an unlikely path to fame. Late in France’s Hundred Years’ War (1337-1453), she had a vision in which God instructed her to reclaim her homeland from the increasing domination of England. With some effort, she persuaded Charles VII, the uncrowned heir to the French throne, that she should lead his troops in battle.

Joan’s incredible successes eventually included escorting Charles to Reims for his coronation, which ended a dispute over succession to the throne. Within a year however, the king’s enemies captured Joan, put her on trial, and burned her at the stake in a public execution May 30, 1431. Only 19 at the time of her death, Joan was exonerated in a second, posthumous trial 25 years later. Pope Benedict XV declared her a saint in 1920.

Titled Joan of Arc: Medieval Maiden to Modern Saint, the exhibition runs from May 1 through September 3, 2007, and features more than 200 works, including paintings, sculpture, prints, illustrated books, posters, and popular art on loan from more than 20 public and private collections in the United States and France. Its two guest curators, Laura Coyle and Nora Heimann, also presented the Corcoran exhibit. Both have a personal fascination as well as a professional expertise in Joan of Arc.

“Joan of Arc was without a doubt one of the most intriguing women who ever lived, and her image is as varied as it is powerful,” said Laura Coyle. “Not long after her death, literary and visual representations of her began to circulate widely and set important precedents for how she would be portrayed in the centuries to come. Several types of images of Joan became popular, but exactly what she stood for varies depending on the time and the place.”


Knights of Columbus Museum
1 State Street
New Haven, CT 06511
203-865-0400

Co-curator Nora Heimann, who has been researching and writing about Joan of Arc for 17 years, said, “Our exhibition seeks to tell her remarkable story. It also endeavors to demonstrate how history, in turn, has changed Joan of Arc, as her image has been made and remade throughout the ages to suit the mutable fashions and desires of others.”

The Knights of Columbus Museum hosts some of the country’s most impressive exhibits of religious art and history. It was ranked by USA Today as one of the “10 great places to explore religion in artistic detail.” During the exhibit, the museum is open Mondays-Saturdays 10-5 (Wednesdays until 7) and Sundays 11-5; admission and parking are free.


Haskell Coffin poster: Joan of Arc Saved France. Women of America, Save Your Country, 1918; poster (Library of Congress)."


Henry Van Dyke. "The Broken Soldier and the Maid of France". Harper's Magazine, Dec. 1918, v. 138, n. 823, p. 1-13.
Gift of Adelaide Brooks Baylis

---