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

of irony and reversal, Rogers flipped Ovid’s story on its head. Rather than depicting
Merope hiding and thus lost to view, he portrayed her as simply lost. It is her view that is
frustrated as she peers into the surrounding clouds. Her intent gaze, her searching gesture
and her vigorous forward motion all indicate the intensity of her longing for her family.
Rather than flying away from her home, she seeks only to return. She embodies a desire
that is both sentimental and domestic.
written that,
Of sentimentalism in nineteenth-century American literature, Joanne Dobson has
The principal theme of the sentimental text is the desire for bonding, and it is
affiliation on the plane of emotion, sympathy, nurturance or similar moral or
spiritual inclination for which sentimental writers and readers yearn. Violation,
actual or threatened, of the affectional bond generates the primary tension in the
sentimental text and leads to bleak, dispirited, anguished, sometimes outraged,
representations of human loss, as well as idealized portrayals of human
connection or divine consolation. 7
The same idea holds true for ideal sculptures, which, like the novels Dobson discussed,
were products of nineteenth-century sentimental culture. In these works, a heroine’s loss
of home or loved ones served to highlight the central importance of both—to women in
particular. In order to more powerfully express the themes of loss and longing in his
sculpture, Rogers made Merope’s story mirror that of her husband, Sisyphus. In Rogers’
sculpture, Merope is, like Sisyphus, condemned to endless, fruitless labor; however, true
to nineteenth-century gender roles, he defined her labor as primarily emotional. While
Sisyphus’ doom is to forever push and strain, Merope’s is to forever look and long.
In 1875, when Rogers modeled his version of Merope, he was nearing the end of
his career. Although ideal sculptures remained popular in the United States, tastes were
7
Dobson, “Reclaiming Sentimental Literature,” 266-67.
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