Pennsylvania State Capitol sculpture groups

Last updated
Pennsylvania State Capitol sculpture groups
The Burden of Life-Pennsylvania State Capitol2.JPG
The Burden of Life: The Broken Law
Artist George Grey Barnard
Piccirilli Brothers (carvers)
Yearcommissioned 1902
dedicated October 4, 1911
MediumCarrara marble
Location Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
Owner Pennsylvania State Capitol

Pennsylvania State Capitol sculpture groups are a pair of larger-than-life, multi-figure groups by American sculptor George Grey Barnard, that flank the west entrance to the Pennsylvania State Capitol in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

Contents

Barnard was commissioned to create the sculptures in 1902, and modeled them in clay and plaster over several years in France. [1] Piccirilli Brothers carved them in white Carrara marble in New York City, and installed the finished sculptures at the Capitol in 1911. [1]

The south group is titled The Burden of Life: The Broken Law, and is overseen by a heroic size bas relief of Adam and Eve. It portrays life struggles and negative emotions widowhood, toil, grief, despair but with the possibility of consolation and hope. The north group is titled Love and Labor: The Unbroken Law, and is overseen by a heroic size bas relief of a prosperous farmer and his wife. It portrays life accomplishments and positive emotions familial love, education, parenthood, religion and the promise of the future generation.

History

Love and Labor: The Unbroken Law Love and Labor- Pennsylvania State Capitol.jpg
Love and Labor: The Unbroken Law

Joseph Miller Huston, the Capitol's architect, chose Barnard in 1902 to create exterior sculpture for the building. The initial sculpture program, conceived by Barnard and Huston, called for eight sculpture groups a pair flanking each of the building's four entrances as well as an "enormous bronze composition along the skyline of the main entrance façade." The latter was to represent the Apotheosis of Labor and be supported by four pairs of caryatids depicting different types of laborers. The groups flanking the main entrances on the east and west facades were to depict "primitive people." The groups flanking the entrances to the House and Senate wings (on the west façade) were to depict early settlers of Pennsylvania English, Quakers, Scotch-Irish, and Germans. [2] The estimated cost for this program, about $700,000, was enough to ensure that it was never executed. By the time Barnard signed a three-year contract in December 1902, the sculpture program had been reduced to the two large groups flanking the main entrance (west façade), and his fee had been reduced to $300,000. The sculptor and his family then moved to France, where they obtained a large barn that was converted into a studio in which the groups were created. [3]

In his studio at Moret-sur-Loing Barnard hired as many as fifteen assistants, including a plaster caster who transformed Barnard's clay figures into plaster. However, the contracted funds were slow in arriving and eventually stopped, and in 1906 a huge scandal erupted involving massive financial irregularities that eventually landed Huston and others in jail. Barnard's assistants continued to work for him in the hope that they would eventually be paid, and this was accomplished by Barnard's collecting old Gothic and Romanesque sculpture remnants from the French countryside and selling them. [4] There remained the problem of purchasing the marble that would be needed to carve the figures. Eventually, a group of New York luminaries advanced funds for that purpose, as well as paying the bond that Barnard had lost because he had not delivered the works on time. [2]

1908 Boston exhibition

Several plasters of the sculptures on display in Barnard's Paris studio, 1909. Barnard's Studio World's Work 1909 p.11266.jpg
Several plasters of the sculptures on display in Barnard's Paris studio, 1909.

Five heroic-size plaster sculptures for the Pennsylvania Capitol groups The Prodigal Son, Brothers, The Young Parents, Kneeling Youth, Forsaken Mother were part of an exhibition of Barnard's work at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston in October–November 1908. [5] Also exhibited were his plaster scale models of the complete sculpture groups. [6] In a review in The International Studio, critic J. Nilsen Laurvik compared Barnard to Auguste Rodin and the recently deceased Augustus Saint-Gaudens, concluding: "[H]e is the one man most needed in the art life of our country; his work is like an invigorating breath of fresh sea air that must surely have its influence in giving a more vital and higher meaning to both life and art. ... [H]e is a unique personality in the art life of our country and one of the few truly great sculptors of our time." [7] Critic William Howe Downes also enthusiastically praised his work:

Wherever Mr. Barnard touches humanity in his work, it is with the desire and the power to glorify it, to show its greatness, to bring out all that is heroic and tender and lovable in it. Nothing is more certain than that this is understood, that the appeal has met with an instant response.
The understanding thus established between the artist and his public is the more to be welcomed because, up to a quite recent period, it had been felt by many observers that the modern school of sculpture was a hollow sort of survival, without much reason for being. Saint-Gaudens did much to modify such an impression in this country by uniting in a serious and touching way the strands of national consciousness with aesthetic sensibility. It remained for Mr. Barnard to create a still more universal artistic language for still more universal ideas, and to place before us the nude human being transformed into new shapes of undying beauty and majesty. [5]

1910 Paris Salon

The groups were carved in marble by the Piccirilli Brothers in New York City in 1909 and 1910, [2] and shipped to France to make their public debut at the Paris Salon.

Barnard's sculpture groups were given the place of honor at the 1910 Salon de Champ de Mars at the Gran Palais in Paris.

Nudity controversy

Barnard's vision of twin sculpture groups of profuse nude figures was controversial from the start. [8] Each group was composed of 8 individual sculptures featuring 1 to 4 figures. [9] Of the 30 total figures, 27 were nude the angel was gowned, and both infants were swaddled in cloth.

Some Pennsylvania legislators and local religious leaders opposed the nudity of Barnard's sculptures. [8] He responded:

The Prodigal Son (modeled 1904), Speed Museum The Prodigal Son, by Barnard.jpeg
The Prodigal Son (modeled 1904), Speed Museum

There has been some criticism because these 30 figures I have executed are nude. Only in the nude could I have given adequate expression to these figures. Drapery would have spoiled the effect. Only through delineation of the nude human form can great emotions be shown. You cannot drape a symbolic figure in an overcoat and expect it to be anything but a marble dummy.
It is curious that this criticism should come from men, while women approve of the work as is. Women have better artistic sense than men. They are inspired by the human form, but men are not similarly inspired. They think the nude is suggestive. I understand that the Pennsylvania state authorities are going to drape them. I shall make no protest, but I am sorry. [10]

Initially, plaster of Paris short trousers were applied to the male figures, but the results proved unsatisfactory. [11] Two tents were erected on Friday, May 12, 1911, one around each sculpture group, to mask that day's removal of the plaster trousers. [11] On Sunday, the canvas walls of the tents were cut down by art lovers who wished to view the sculptures before plaster loincloths were applied on Monday "the great majority of the crowd being women," according to The Chicago Tribune. [11] Instead of short trousers or loincloths, the Piccirilli Brothers carved marble sheaths to cover the genitals of the male figures, for which they charged $118.50. [8]

1911 dedication

The sculptures were installed by Giulio Piccirilli. Their official unveiling was on October 4, 1911. [2]

The Prodigal Son

Barnard exhibited a marble version of The Prodigal Son at the Armory Show in 1913. [12] That sculpture is now in the collection of the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. [13] Another marble version is in the collection of the Speed Art Museum in Louisville, Kentucky. [14]

Keys

South group The Burden of Life: The Broken Law [15]

Barnard Right wing Inner side Clemen p.19.jpg
Key to South Sculpture Group PA State Capitol.jpg
Barnard Right wing Outer side Clemen p.22.jpg

North group Love and Labor: The Unbroken Law [16]

Barnard Left wing Outer side Clemen p.19.jpg
Key to North Sculpture Group PA State Capitol.jpg
North group inside.jpg

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Grey Barnard</span> American sculptor (1863–1938)

George Grey Barnard, often written George Gray Barnard, was an American sculptor who trained in Paris. He is especially noted for his heroic sized Struggle of the Two Natures in Man at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, his twin sculpture groups at the Pennsylvania State Capitol, and his Lincoln statue in Cincinnati, Ohio. His major works are largely symbolical in character. His personal collection of medieval architectural fragments became a core part of The Cloisters in New York City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux</span> French sculptor and painter (1827–1875)

Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux was a French sculptor and painter during the Second Empire under Napoleon III.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Karl Bitter</span> American sculptor (1867-1915)

Karl Theodore Francis Bitter was an Austrian-born American sculptor best known for his architectural sculpture, memorials and residential work.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alexander Stirling Calder</span> American artist (1870–1945)

Alexander Stirling Calder was an American sculptor and teacher. He was the son of sculptor Alexander Milne Calder and the father of sculptor Alexander (Sandy) Calder. His best-known works are George Washington as President on the Washington Square Arch in New York City, the Swann Memorial Fountain in Philadelphia, and the Leif Eriksson Memorial in Reykjavík, Iceland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Grafly</span> American sculptor

Charles Allan Grafly, Jr. was an American sculptor, and teacher. Instructor of Sculpture at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts for 37 years, his students included Paul Manship, Albin Polasek, and Walker Hancock.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Wayland Bartlett</span> American sculptor (1865–1925)

Paul Wayland Bartlett was an American sculptor working in the Beaux-Arts tradition of heroic realism.

The Piccirilli brothers were an Italian family of renowned marble carvers and sculptors who carved many of the most significant marble sculptures in the United States, including Daniel Chester French’s colossal Abraham Lincoln (1920) in the Lincoln Memorial, Washington, D.C.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Missouri State Capitol</span> State capitol building of the U.S. state of Missouri

The Missouri State Capitol is the home of the Missouri General Assembly and the executive branch of government of the U.S. state of Missouri. Located in Jefferson City at 201 West Capitol Avenue, it is the third capitol to be built in the city. The domed building, designed by the New York City architectural firm of Tracy and Swartwout, was completed in 1917.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Attilio Piccirilli</span> American sculptor (1866–1945)

Attilio Piccirilli was an American sculptor. Born in Massa, Italy, he was educated at the Accademia di San Luca of Rome.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walker Hancock</span> American sculptor (1901–1998)

Walker Kirtland Hancock was an American sculptor and teacher. He created notable monumental sculptures, including the Pennsylvania Railroad World War II Memorial (1950–52) at 30th Street Station in Philadelphia, and the World War I Soldiers' Memorial (1936–38) in St. Louis, Missouri. He made major additions to the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., including Christ in Majesty (1972), the bas relief over the High Altar. Works by him are presently housed at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, the Library of Congress, the U.S. Supreme Court, and the United States Capitol.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Allen George Newman</span> American sculptor

Allen George Newman III was an American sculptor, best known for his statue "The Hiker".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Francis Edwin Elwell</span> American sculptor

Francis Edwin Elwell was an American sculptor, teacher, and author.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joseph A. Bailly</span> American sculptor

Joseph Alexis Bailly was an American sculptor who spent most of his career in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He taught briefly at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, which has a collection of his sculpture. His most famous work is the statue of George Washington in front of Independence Hall.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brenda Putnam</span> American sculptor teacher and author (1890–1975)

Brenda Putnam was an American sculptor, teacher and author.

<i>Apotheosis of Democracy</i> Artwork by Paul Wayland Bartlett on the US Capitol

Apotheosis of Democracy is a public artwork by American sculptor Paul Wayland Bartlett, located on the United States Capitol House of Representatives portico's east front in Washington, D.C., United States. This sculpture was surveyed in 1993 as part of the Smithsonian's Save Outdoor Sculpture! program.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Furio Piccirilli</span> American artist

Furio Piccirilli was an Italian-born American sculptor and one of the Piccirilli Brothers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frances Grimes</span> American sculptor

Frances Taft Grimes was an American sculptor, best remembered for her bas-relief portraits and busts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Urn of Life</span> Sculptures by George Grey Barnard

The Urn of Life is an allegorical sculpture by George Grey Barnard in the collection of the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. Carved from white Carrara marble, it is 37.875 in (96.20 cm) in height, 32.25 in (81.9 cm) in diameter, and weighs approximately 1,650 lb (750 kg).

<i>The Prodigal Son</i> (Barnard) Public sculpture by George Grey Barnard

The Prodigal Son is a sculpture group by George Grey Barnard that depicts the loving reunion of the father and son from the New Testament "Parable of the Prodigal Son."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bruno Mankowski</span> American sculptor (1902–1990)

Bruno Mankowski, was a German-born American sculptor, carver, ceramicist and medalist.

References

  1. 1 2 Harold E. Dickson, "Barnard's Sculptures for the Pennsylvania Capitol," The Art Quarterly, vol. 22, no. 2 (April 1959), pp. 127-147.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Wayne Craven, Sculpture in America (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Co., 1968), pp. 446-448.
  3. Frederick C. Moffatt, Errant Bronzes: George Grey Barnard's Statues of Abraham Lincoln, University of Delaware Press, Newark, 1998.
  4. "Barnard's Mighty sculptures for the Pennsylvania Capitol," Current Literature, vol. 49, no. 2 (August 1910), pp. 207-09.
  5. 1 2 William Howe Downes, "Mr. Barnard's Exhibit in Boston, Which Appealed to the Connoisseur and the Crowd Alike," The World's Work, vol. 17, no. 4 (February 1909), pp. 11267-11269.
  6. Ernest Knaufft, "George Grey Barnard: A Virile American Sculptor," The American Review of Reviews, vol. 38, no. 6 (December 1908), pp. 689-92.
  7. J. Nilsen Laurvik, "George Grey Barnard," The International Studio, vol. 36, no. 142 (December 1908), pp. 39-48.
  8. 1 2 3 Robert Swift, "The Price of Prudity in 1911," Archived 2017-03-03 at the Wayback Machine The Political Express, September 25, 2011.
  9. George Grey Barnard, from Pennsylvania Capitol Preservation Committee.
  10. "Defends Nude in Statuary," The Alexandria Gazette, April 25, 1911, p. 1.
  11. 1 2 3 "Women in Fight to See Nude Art," The Chicago Tribune, May 15, 1911, p. 2.
  12. Brown, Milton W., The Story of the Armory Show, The Joseph H. Hirshhorn Foundation, 1963, p. 221.
  13. The Prodigal Son (Carnegie Art Museum), from SIRIS.
  14. The Prodigal Son (Speed Art Museum), from SIRIS.
  15. The Burden of Life: The Broken Law, from SIRIS.
  16. Love and Labor: The Unbroken Law, from SIRIS.

40°15′51″N76°53′03″W / 40.264182°N 76.884060°W / 40.264182; -76.884060