John Spike has been appointed to the Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem. More than just a mouthful, it’s a high honor that comes with royal acclaim and from years of hard work.
The Order of St John – as it’s commonly known – maintains the highly regarded Eye Hospital in Jerusalem and provides ambulance service in many countries. Spike, who is the chief curator at William & Mary’s Muscarelle Museum of Art, was appointed by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Prior A. Marshall Acuff Jr. presented Spike with the official insignia during the investiture of new members on Nov. 2 at St. Thomas Church in New York City.
Spike described The Order of St John as an “ancient Christian service,” one that has provided humanitarian aid dating back to the 11th century. It has over 25,000 members worldwide.
He said it was a curious fact that he is an expert on two artists who, though completely different, are linked as knights in The Order of St John. The artists are Caravaggio (1571-1610) and Mattia Preti (1613-1699), and it was in researching them that Spike became an expert on the history of the order.
There are no self-nominations for The Order of St John; Spike called his appointment a “very pleasant surprise.”
A member of The Priory in the United States of America, one of eight international Priories representing the order, was living in Williamsburg and noticed Spike’s knowledge on Preti. Spike curated an exhibition commemorating Preti’s 400th birthday earlier this year at the Muscarelle, the first ever to showcase just Preti’s work.
Spike said that The Order of St John thought it would be very useful for one of its own to have such an intimate understanding of the history of the order.
Membership in the order is more than glory, though: It comes with responsibilities to the community.
“Some of my service will be sharing my knowledge through lectures and so forth,” said Spike. He explained that The Order of St John in the U.S. also provides services to disabled veterans, and he plans to take a turn reading to veterans in the hospital.
Spike came to the Muscarelle in 2011 as a Distinguished Scholar in Residence. Intrigued by the energy of museum director Aaron De Groft, Spike was also looking to interact with the William & Mary community.
“I was more interested to have contacts with students, rather than sitting in an office in some museum somewhere,” he said. He became the chief curator and assistant director of the museum the next year, and has also taught an undergraduate seminar on museums.
His Preti exhibition ran alongside the hugely successful “Michelangelo: Sacred and Profane,” which featured paintings from some of the top museums in the world. The Michelangelo show went on to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston—Spike said that it’s rare for such a museum to accept an exhibition from a small college.
In Williamsburg, “Michelangelo: Sacred and Profane” had a line of people running out the door of the museum.
“I like to bring that enthusiasm and urgency to the study of art,” Spike explained. Art, he said, teaches humans above and beyond what they would not learn from their actual life experiences.
For more about The Order of St John in the United States, visit their website.
