Allie Miller’s work on 17th-century arts then featured on 210 million passports
A scholar at Marian University assisted in the restoration of a Madonna and Child from the 17th century that the US Postal Service chose for its 2024 Christmas mark.
Allie Miller, a senior studying in science and theater art, stated via email to The College Fix that she hopes her project will help spread the holiday history.
The Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields series has 210 million stamps printed for global supply, according to The Criterion. The painting by Italian designer Giovanni Battista Salvi de Sassoferrato, which has been housed there since 1938, has been printed on 210 million of those stamps.
Miller claimed that in May, she began an apprenticeship at the Indianapolis Museum of Art in Newfields, which “was when the Madonna and Child’s care began.”
” I had shown interest in the project, and my supervisor at the exhibition, Greg Smith, had offered that I take the lead on the analysis part of the project”, Miller said.
Through analyzing the painting, she “learn]ed ] about so many different instruments and processes that ]she ] previously had little to no experience with”.
Miller added another line to The Fix:
I soon understood the significance of this part because I come from a Protestant Christian family. Although the mural itself brought attention to the Christmas story, I think the most important thing I learned from this task was how it affected those around me. I received so many emails from friends and family with images of them with the postcards and information about how thrilled they are to have a storage of my success once the passports were released.
When asked about the importance of this picture being chosen as a national mark, Miller responded that” an image of Mary and the infant Jesus is going to essentially get recognized across most, if not all, Christian disciplines.”
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” Because of this, and with the addition of the job being nationwide recognized, it has a great effects and helps to spread the Christmas account”, she said.
Miller and Alexandra Tamerius, the Marian Assistant Professor of Chemistry, both claimed that their “interests in both science and art seemed to have a healthy connection.”
I created a project involving Allie synthesizing a variety of previously significant cobalt-based color pigments to give her some first encounter, Tamerius told The Fix,” to leverage my expertise with chemical synthesis and get her some experience with Artist’s chemistry.
Miller received an internship from the Marian Chemistry and Physical Sciences Department, which gave her the chance to work on several other projects, including the restoration of the Madonna and Child painting, in the summer.
It was “wonderful to see it in the gallery and have it shared more broadly by the postal service as the chosen Christmas stamp,” Tamerius told The Fix.” Painting had been in storage, so it is wonderful to see it in the gallery and have it shared more broadly by the postal service as the chosen Christmas stamp.”
Miller had the opportunity to launch her career in art conservation while acquiring a number of valuable new skills as a result of the project. According to the professor, it is also a crucial opportunity to raise public awareness of the importance of art conservation.
This is a powerful example of what can be accomplished when people with different expertise and experience collaborate to restore something so beautiful, Tamerius said in The Fix in this season of giving and community.
In February 2023, the USPS requested a high-resolution digital image of the IMA’s Madonna and Child for consideration as one of its 2024 Christmas stamps, The Criterion reported.
Due to the confidentiality of the selection process for holiday stamps, IMA leaders were unaware that their painting had been chosen until the USPS made its public announcement in August.
The museum decided earlier this year to begin conservation work on the painting because it had” not been publicly displayed since 1987,” according to The Criterion, knowing that the postal service had expressed interest in it.
This is the first IMA piece of artwork to appear on a USPS Christmas stamp.
MORE: Federal agencies fund ‘ highly ideological’ university art projects: report
IMAGE: Allie Miller
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