PRESIDING DIVINITIES: IDEAL SCULPTURE IN ... - Indiana University

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many replicas for their houses.” 11 Over the course of his career, Rogers made approximately $70,000 selling as many as one hundred copies of Nydia, which he produced in two sizes, a life-sized 55-inch version and less expensive 36-inch reduction. 12 In 1863, Moore’s reduced version of Nydia would have cost 140 British pounds. 13 Given skyrocketing war-time inflation, this amounted to roughly $1,000 (the equivalent of about $18,500 today) plus additional costs for the pedestal and for shipping the statue home. Clearly, ideal sculptures were luxury items. They were tangible evidence of wealth and also trophies of European travel; however, patrons were selective. American travelers following the established tourist route through Italy typically visited dozens of artists’ studios, purchasing only those artworks that they found personally 11 D. M. Armstrong, Day Before Yesterday: Reminiscences of a Varied Life, (New York: privately published, 1920), 194-95, quoted in Joyce K. Schiller, “Nydia: A Forgotten Icon of the Nineteenth Century,” Bulletin of the Detroit Institute of Art 67 no.4 (1993): 42. 12 See “Randolph Rogers, the Sculptor,” Harper’s Weekly, 6 Feb. 1892: 465. Like most sculptors of the period, Rogers first modeled his figures in clay. Once a statue was cast in plaster, he sold copies carved in marble by skilled Italian artisans. The number of copies Rogers produced is impossible to determine exactly. Accounts listed in Rogers’ journals include mention of fifty-two copies, but his journals do not cover the years before 1868. These works, together with five additional copies mentioned in letters or contemporary publications, are listed in Rogers, Randolph Rogers, 200-203. A number of other copies, including the one owned by Clara Jessup Moore, do not appear in any of Rogers’ records. These were either commissioned before 1868 or Rogers failed to note them in his journals. An 1869 publication refers to forty copies of the sculpture already existing in European and American collections. If this figure is accurate, it would bring the total number of copies close to one hundred, the number cited by Loredo Taft, in his History of American Sculpture, 159. See “Randolph Rogers,” The Michigan <strong>University</strong> Magazine (April 1869): 250. Rogers himself claimed to have produced 167 copies of Nydia. See The Nutshell, 13 (April/June 1927): 2, quoted in J. Falino’s and Erica E. Hirschler’s entry on Nydia in The Lure of Italy, 266. 13 Rogers, Randolp Rogers, 202. 218
affecting. 14 Emma Huidekoper, an American tourist who visited Rome in 1866, wrote in her diary of a day spent touring studios. At two we went to Mr. Strutt’s studio; I do not care as much for his pictures as for some others. They are cold and flat; they want the light and warmth and atmosphere of Knebel. Next we went to Gibson’s studio, to Miss Hosmer’s also and I admired her “Puck” the perfection of mischief, life, fun and spirit. Her “Zenobia” is of course grand; also the “Cenci”… We proceeded to Rogers’ where we saw the fine doors for the Capitol in Washington; a huge figure of a soldier for a monument in Cincinnati, and the lovely “Nydia,” the blind girl of Pompeii. The lines of her brow, the perfect sightlessness of her eyes, the intense effort to see in the face was dreadful yet perfect. Next we went to Mosier’s. [sic]” 15 That so many traveling Americans purchased copies of Nydia speaks to the great power this sculpture held for its audience. In order to understand the associations Moore’s version of the sculpture carried with it into the domestic sphere, it is worth exploring how Nydia was perceived in the public arenas of Rogers’ studio and the exhibition hall. Among the flock of white marble maidens produced by American sculptors in the middle decades of the nineteenth century, Nydia is striking. Rogers’ figure is neither still nor contemplative, but full of vigorous motion. The strain of intense concentration distorts her classical features. She is off-balance, caught in mid-step, and bent forward against a stiff wind that seems (judging by the chaotic swirl of her dress and hair) to blow in several directions at once. Her body, echoing the diagonal line of her firmly planted staff, thrusts forward with palpable urgency into the viewer’s space. Her robe’s entangling coils curl around her waist, her legs, and even her staff, signifying the wind that impedes her. Her robe is blown down below one breast, expressing her vulnerability 14 Gerdts, “Celebrities of the Grand Tour,” 66-93. 15 Diary entry for February 22, 1866 in Emma Cullum Cortazzo, 1842-1918 (Meadville, Pennsylvania: E. H. Shartle, 1919), 307. 219
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PRESIDING DIVINITIES: IDEAL SCULPTU
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© 2006 Lauren Keach Lessing ALL RI
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am fortunate to
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I received graduate assistantships
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sentimental domesticity. Using seve
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Fig. 9 - Bierstadt Brothers (Charle
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Fig. 27 - After Thomas Sully “Fan
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Fig. 45 - Randolph Rogers Ruth Glea
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Fig. 63 - Joseph Mozier Pocahontas,
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Fig. 80 - Joseph Dunlap Eagles Inte
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CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION On an April
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the wrists, she stands on the aucti
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were more closely associated with t
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divinities” over domestic life. I
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ought for domestic interiors until
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ut buyers kept them in business. Fu
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that Powers’ ideal busts, includi
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fiction, I have taken my view of id
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female, public as well as private i
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SECTION I DOMESTICATING THE IDEAL/
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heroic, nude Zeus. 5 Most people wh
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CHAPTER 2 RICHARD KIP AND SARAH ROG
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family altar, the Graces demonstrat
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only very conservative American par
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York in 1848, before their new mans
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mid-1840s and not in Lafayette Plac
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Richard K. Haight, an intelligent m
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European high art and culture and a
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Canova’s work, if not common, wer
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during the nineteenth century. 45 A
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sculpture she is describing here) a
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Petersburg). In Greek mythology, th
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The version of The Three Graces bel
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the Duke hired the architect Jeffer
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Adelicia Acklen self-consciously mo
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an American woman at the time, and
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century. 83 The bone of contention
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Three Graces also carried with it,
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form of a proffered laurel crown) t
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setting. As Deborah Ann Schafer has
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niche, presiding over the elaborate
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CHAPTER 3 HIRAM POWERS’ BUST PROS
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intended the first sculpture, which
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Jarves. While Jarves believed that
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copy of the bust. 15 One need only
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sculpture of a pagan goddess be inc
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…the walls were almost covered wi
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tastes were one of the few points o
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Art Museum), which the federal gove
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ust, which ostensibly represents a
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Proserpine, drawn from the first-ce
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so much, that jealous of Mentha, sh
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oad, smooth forehead flows down int
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it certainly tells a story of an ex
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The second factor that created the
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communicated gentleness and her del
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Fuller, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and
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at Europe, which was published the
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how to look at them and appreciate
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from the door, affording room only
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Some intrepid Americans displayed t
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medallions and a model of the tomb
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family members and friends. Among t
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on the subject of race, he believed
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chivalry and honor. Recently, Cassa
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with religious themes, Mary and Hor
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SECTION II CREATING AN IDEAL SELF I
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elaboration of their interiors, mid
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the genteel, spiritual and domestic
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CHAPTER 4 ADELICIA ACKLEN’S COLLE
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As a range of scholars have argued,
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Throughout her young adult life, Ac
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Graver still for Acklen was the rea
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the Confederate general in command
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Belmont In 1853, Adelicia and her s
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character. 28 Thus, Belmont’s sym
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Belmont’s aura of lavish domestic
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for the Nashville Union referred to
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Once installed in her home, they ma
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At the back of the entrance hall, d
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fever.” 55 Although Rogers was a
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… sweet Ruth among the meadows! S
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private mansions.” 69 A partial l
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domestic sphere and the activities
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In Rome, Acklen also purchased two
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When Acklen’s brother, Oliver Hay
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the sculpture may have alluded to A
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albums, wax flowers, figurines and
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studios, recalled that she visited
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1873 article claimed that The Peri
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Corcoran Gallery of Art). Crawford
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eveal light colored walls, tapestry
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woman” as an earth-bound angel—
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Page 215 and 216: This observer, and also Anne Bolin
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Page 221 and 222: Benson Lossing, in his 1851 history
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Page 241 and 242: Clearly, the toppled Corinthian cap
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Page 247 and 248: In contrast to, “the statues that
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Page 269 and 270: Not only could Clara Moore relate t
Page 271 and 272: CHAPTER 7 “SWEET ASSURANCE OF SYM
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Page 285 and 286: wrote of Rogers’ sculpture, “I
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drive led around the house, past th
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had actual, built-in stages, upon w
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The 1870s and 80s were marked by a
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was due, in part, to the doleful, c
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estlessness and dissatisfaction tha
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ecame a cheap substitute for touris
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eclaim the building in 1869, and th
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Eliot Norton—championed the latte
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W. Benjamin went on to praise Barye
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sphere (competition, aggression, co
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Eagles, Joseph Dunlap. Views of Ith
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Aylesworth, John R. “Specimens of
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Dick’s Parlor Exhibitions. New Yo
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Haight, Sarah Rogers. Jane Brush an
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“Life of Horace Greeley, J. Parto
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Rogers, Samuel. The Italian Journal
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American Arts at the Art Institute
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Brumbaugh, Thomas Brendle. “Horat
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Culkin, Katherine Louise. "`Slight
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Gale, Robert L. Thomas Crawford: Am
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Howard, June. “What is Sentimenta
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Lewis, James R. “Images of Captiv
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The Parian Phenomenon: A Survey of
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Schofield, Mary Anne. “Romance Su
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Tucker, Louis Leonard. “Hiram Pow
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Lauren Keach Lessing 6740 Granada L
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Co-chair, panel session, "The Probl
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