The famed Spanish knight, Don Quixote, comes to life through intricate drawings at a new exhibit, which just opened Oct. 13 at BYU’s Museum of Art.

“Images of Don Quixote: Magic, Frames and Imagined Possibilities,” joins the campus wide celebration of the 400th anniversary of the first printing of the novel.

Don Quixote texts throughout the United States were collected for the exhibit, dating from the 17th to the 19th centuries.

Paul Anderson, a senior designer at the museum, said designers faced a unique challenge in displaying the small-scale illustrations.

“Books in most cases don’t have much of a visual impact,” Anderson said. “With these lithographs there is a fine attention to detail that’s difficult to appreciate.”

To help viewers observe the picture, Anderson selected images from the books and enlarged them on banners throughout the room. The banners were then arranged to make it seem like the viewer is walking through the pages of a giant book.

Students in a class, last fall, devoted to “Don Quixote” wrote the text panes that are on display in English and Spanish.

Professor of Spanish and Portuguese languages, Alvin Sherman, taught the class and said illustrations aid in storytelling.

“This effort represents a visual history of how artist have interpreted ‘Quixote’ and how they have attempted, through student studying Spanish and American literature has intensely researched and analyzed the novel.

“Next to the Bible, Don Quixote is the most influential text of world literature,” Wiseman said. “Its value is incalculable. There is not a novel written that does not owe something to Cervantes’ masterpiece. It is a treatise on humanity that extends far beyond the boundaries of race, language or culture. Don Quixote is inspired literature,”

Sherman said he thinks the exhibit will allow students to better understand literature and the world.

“For students, this will be an opportunity to learn about the act of reading and interpreting. It will provide them with an experience that will have an impact on the way they view other literature and the world around them.”

The exhibit is on display until Dec. 10 at the Museum of Art. For more information call 422-8287.



Copyright Brigham Young University 24 Oct 2005