MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS BOSTON Decorations of the Dome of the Rotunda By John Singer Sargent A GENERAL DESCRIFFION AND THE DECORATIONS IN DETAIL At the request oj the Museum Mr. Thomas A. Fox, arckiteet, who assisted Mr. Sargent in the installa- tion of the decorations, has kindlg prepared the fol- loieing description of the U'orh. The Museum is greatly indebted to M r. Fox for the permission to offer the,se pages to its t'isitors. MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, BOSTON Decorations of the Dome of the Rotunda By John Singer Sargent GENERAL DESCRIPTION The Rotunda is elli|)tical in plan, with the longer diam- eter or axis in a line with the approach from the main stair- way. Directly in front of this is a recess and door to the Tapestry Room. On the shorter diameter or axis are two larger recesses, beyond which on the left is the door to the Chinese and Japanese (Galleries and on the right that to the Egyptian (Galleries. The walls between the entrance from the stairway and the recesses and between the re- cesses themselves form four wide piers with a j)ilaster at each corner. There are niches in the two piers o{)posite the stairway; in that on the left is a cast of the Venus of the Capitoline Museum at Rome; on the right a cast of the Minerva (iiustiniani of the Vatican. In each of the recesses are two Ionic columns and over them the main cornice which is carried around the entire Rotunda. Over the cornice in the reces.ses is a balustrade with pede.stals; that in the smaller recess is surmounted by a vase with a griffin on each side. Each of the two j^edestals in the larger re- cesses support a vase of Greek form. The surface of the dome it.self is pierced over the en- trance from the stairway and also over each recess by a semicircular penetration, or opening, and at the top by an opening elli{)tical in shape through which come both the natural and artificial light of the Rotunda. [ 3 ] The four piers are extended, or carried up, from the top of the cornice to a band around the ceiling opening in a form which was known in the development of the work as ribbed panels, formed by a centre surface bounded by a rib on each side, which are connected over the semicircular openings by a band or surface about corresponding in width and technically known as an archivolt. Each of the ribbed panels has near the base a pedi- mented frame enclosing a bas-relief, above which are figures also in relief. Over these is a circular frame enclos- ing a painted comjmsition and supporting a relief of two boys with a shield and drapery. Above the semicircular penetrations of the dome be- tween the ril)bed panels are four elliptical surfaces with moulded frames, straight from top to bottom but curved horizontally. The one opposite the entrance is accented at the bottom with two boys modelled in practically full re- lief, on each side of an inscribed j)anel, and there is a similar panel without sculpture over the arch of the en- trance from the main stairway. Beginning with the ribbed panel on the left of the en- trance from the stairway and turning from left to right, the subjects of the compositions in the pedimented frames are as follows: (1 ) Cupid and Psyche. (2) Dancing Figures. (,‘}) The Three (iraces. (4) ^"enus and Cupid. I'he reliefs above the pedimented frames in the order given above are: (5) Fame. (()) Satyr and iMaenad. (7) Arion. (8) Education of Achilles. [-^] The painted compositions in the circular frames in the order given above are: ({)) Ganymede. (10) ]\Iusic. (11) Astronomy. (T2) Prometheus. At the top of each of the four ribbed panels is a relief of two boys with a shield and drapery which, although ap- pearing at first to be the .same design, are of quite different composition and detail. The subjects of the painted compositions in the large elliptical frames beginning on the left of the entrance are: (13) Apollo and the M uses. (14) Figures representing the Arts (Architecture, Scailpture and Painting) protected from the ravages of Time by Minerva. (15) Classic and Romantic Art. Apollo in the centre is seen in the attitude of a judge half .seated on a tripod. Classic Art is repre- sented as a female figure under the tutelage of Minerva, the Goddess of Wi.sdom. Ro- mantic Art, a youth, is singing under the guidance of Pan, the god of shepherds and their flocks and pastures. Pan is repre- sented in the traditional form, having the head and body of a man with his thighs like those of a goat, of which animal he also bore, as here, the horns and ears. (^1(5) The Sphinx and the Chimaera. The commission for the work was given to ^Nlr. Sargent by the Trustees early in November, 1!)1(), and the material execution of the work was carried on in three periods, with intermissions. The first was from the date above to the end of ^lay, 1918, during which time the general scheme was developed and worked out on the model, and small-scale studies were practically completed. About this time the work at the Museum was carried to a })oint where the plain surfaces of the dome were made ready to receive the mouldings, en- richments, bas-reliefs, and the ])ainted decorations. Dur- ing the second period, from about the first of May, 1919, until about the first of July, Ul'iO, all the l)as-reliefs were modelled in full size, east, and put in place, the frames made, moiddings run, and enrichments applied. In the third and last period, from the middle of February, 19‘21, to the twentieth of October, 1921, when the work was un- veiled, the four circular panels and the large elliptical panels were painted on canvas, put in place, and the gen- eral painting and gilding was completed. Mr. Sargent seemed to feel from the first that the Ro- tunda called for a sculj)tural rather than a j)ictorial char- acter of decoration, and it was his original intention, as can be seen from the model on which all the work was studied, to do the four large elliptical panels in relief as well as color. He found, however, by a careful observation of the lighting both in the model and the building itself, that there was not enough direct light on the elliptical panels to justify the use of the third dimension, as the modelling of the upper parts would be invisible; so he aban- doned his first intention, and these panels were conse- cpiently painted, and the bas-relief treatment was reserved for those parts of the dome receiving more direct light. F'or the benefit of those who must unfortunately deriv’e their imj)ressions of the work from reproductions rather than by the study of the decoration itself, it should be .said that the bas-reliefs, mouldings and plain surfaces of the dome are white; the balustrades, cornice, and walls below being slightly darker in value. The shields at the toj) of [ple in allusion to the single apple whose award by Paris on Mount Ida created the discord between Ilera, Athena, and Aphrodite. The ])resent decoration shows the figure on the right hold- ing instead a lyre, .symbol of concord, above the heads of all. Below the capitals of the two pilasters, are the faces of veiled nymphs. (4) Aphrodite (Venus) and Eros (Cupid). Aj)hrodite was said to have first appeared drifting ashore in sea foam on the island of Cyprus. In allusion to her birth she is here [ 10 ] Fame Sattii and Maenad Copyright, 1921, by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Mass.nchusetts represented standing on a shell drawn by small dolphins. She has long, flowing tre.sses and holds aloft a (juiver, draw- ing from it an arrow, while Eros dying behind her smilingly draws his bow to discharge another arrow. Since the Greeks, the pains of awakened love have been called wounds of Cupid’s darts. Helow the capitals of the two j)ilasters, are the heads of satyrs crowned with vine clusters. ( 5 ) The Latin word “Fama,” our word “fame,” de- rived from a (ireek verb signifying to speak, became in classical mythology a name for the per.sonification of Rumor, or the common rej)ort. On majestic wings, her drapery blown about her, the goddess dies abroad sounding a trumpet with four bells, in allusion to the four corners of the earth, or four (juarters of the globe, to which her message is sent. (6) Satyr and ]\Iaenad. A colossal satyr holding a maenad by the waist on his hip, steps out in a wildly ath- letic dance. Her right leg droops relaxed. With her left foot she partly sustains herself upon the satyr’s thigh, and with both hands holds aloft a tambourine. The satyr has caught her drapery midway in one hand and brandishes an end of it in the other. [ 11 ] I'he satyrs were half animal sj)irits, haunters of the woods and mountains. They represented the genial luxuri- ous life in nature which under the protection and with the aid of Pan and Dionysos (Bacchus), spread over fields, forests, and meadows. In the art of the best period they exhibit only such signs of an animal form as small goat’s horns and a small goat’s tail, indicating that they were thought not far from human. The life of the satyrs was spent in woods and hills in a constant round of hunting, dancing, music, gathering and pressing the grapes, or in the company of Dionysos whirling in wild dances with the maenads, the women attendants of the god, who wrought themselves into a frenzy at his festivals. (7) Arion and Dolphins. Arion bestrides one of two dolphins (or porpoises) swimming in company. He holds on one shoulder a small stringed instrument and in the other hand raises a short bow. Arion, in distinction from the other figures represented, in the decorations, was a real, if semi-legendary, per.son. He was a Greek lyric poet who flourished about 6'-25 n.c., and though his works are lost he is still remembered as the hero of a myth told by Herodotus and embellished by later writers. Besides being a poet, Arion was a famous musician. On his return by ship from Sicily, laden with prizes received in musical contests, he was condemned to death 1)V the sailors, who coveted his wealth, but asked leave to sing a parting song to the accompaniment of his instrument. Having finished his song he flung himself into the sea where dolphins, charmed by his music, gathered around and saved him. The dolj)hin was thereafter translated to the stars as the ancient constellation Delphinus. (8) The centaur Chiron and his pupil Achilles. Both carry bows, and Achilles, astride the centaur’s back, leans sidewise to take an aim like that of his master. Both have Copyright, 1951, by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts drawn their arrows to the point, and Chiron’s tail is elo- quent of his pedagogic zeal. The centaurs were a race of beings half man, half horse, supposed to inhabit the mountains now called the Balkans. The early Greeks ditl not know the horse and regarded the northern cavalry as one with their mounts. Centaurs were first represented as men with the haunches and hind legs of a horse affixed to the back; later as men only to the waist. They were lawless, sensual beings with the single exception of Chiron, who was respected for his wisdom and was the fabled teacher of many Greek heroes. He instructed Achilles in the arts of war, feeding him on the inward parts of lions, bears, and wild boars. Chiron was accidentally wounded by a poisoned arrow shot by Heracles, and re- nouncing his immortality in favor of Prometheus, was placed by Zeus among the stars as the constellation Sagit- tarius. (9) Ganymede and the Eagle. The eagle flies through clouds on widely outstretched wings while Ganymede hangs from his neck by both arms, raising one hand in terror. Ganymede, the most beautiful of all mortals, the son of Tros and Callirhoe, and grandson of the founder of Troy, [ 13 ] Ganymede Music Copyright, 1921, by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts was stolen away by Zeus in the form of an eagle to become cupbearer of the gods in succession to Hebe. Zeus com- pensated Tros for his loss by the gift of four tlivine horses. Ganymede was afterward regarded as the genius of the Nile and identified with the constellation Aquarius. Above the frames of this and the three succeeding panels, the forms of two youths in high relief are seated or on their knees in attitudes different in each relief, before a car- touche with elaliorate hangings. (10) Music. Music is personified as a young girl in light drapery seated playing the violin. Her bow is poised ready to strike the strings. (11) Astronomy. Astronomy is personified as a woman nude to the waist, seated, with one hand on her knee, the sole of one foot showing beneath heavy drapery. In the background a band representing the Zodiac in which the emblems of the constellation Cancer (the crab) and Pi.sces (the fishes) can be descried among other signs. (12) Prometheus. Prometheus lies half supine in a con- torted position, with fetters on both ankles and his hands fettered behind him. His left thigh serves as a perch for one of the vulture’s claws and his figure half disappears under the double arch of the great wings. The head of [ 14 ] Astronomy Prometheus Copyright, 19‘21, by the Museum of Fine Arts, Hoslon, Massachusetts the hircl at its meal looks out over the right thigh of the hero. The story of the punishment of Prometheus is the Greek version of a widespread myth about a hero from whom mankind learned the use of fire. In the trilogy by the Greek poet Aeschylus, of which only one drama, Prome- theus Pound, is extant, the Titan Prometheus, whose name means forethought, thwarted the design of Zeus to de.stroy mankind and create a better race, by stealing fire from heaven and founding the useful arts. As a puni.shment Zeus chained Prometheus to a cliff in the Caucasus where his liver was daily devoured by a vulture and nightly grew again. Heracles finally slew the vulture by permission of Zt'us and freed Prometheus, to whom the wise centaur Chiron voluntarily transferred his right to a place among the immortals. Prometheus has become the personifica- tion of a high-minded resistance to injustice. (l.S) Apollo and the Muses. Nine girlish figures in light drapery dance, barefooted, hand in hand about the god, who stands on a pedestal in the centre and holds a lyre on his left hip. Their hair is bound simj)ly with fillets, his more elaborately with a crowning knot as in the famous statue called the Apollo Belvedere. He raises his right [ 15 ] hand as if directing a movement after striking the lyre. His head is outlined against a bright circular disc like a halo, bearing a pattern of radiating lines. He is nude ex- cept for drapery knotted on his left hip. The Muses were the choir that sang under the leadership of Apollo at the banquets of the gods. They were originally imagined as nymphs of the springs of Pieria on the north- ern slope of Olympus, the fabled abode of the gods, a mountain rising to a height of nearly ten thousand feet on the coast of the gulf of Saloniki. Later they were goddes- ses of song and later still of all the departments of letters. Calliope was the IVEuse of Epic Poetry, Euterpe of Lyric Poetry, Erato of Erotic Poetry, ’Melpomene of Tragedy, Thalia of Comedy, Polyhymnia of Sacred Verse, Terp- sichore of Choral Song and Dance, Clio of History, and Urania of Astronomy. In the present decoration they ap- pear without the emblems that identified them to the ancients, as a bevy of beautiful girls in graceful move- ment. As their leader, Apollo was called “Musagetes” — the Muses’ guide. He was the foremost of Greek divinities after Zeus, a personification of light, physical and mental, and of the sun; witness his name Phoebus, “the bright one,” witness also the autumn celebration of his departure, and the spring celebration of his return. The brilliant disc behind his head in the present decoration is emblematic of the sun and its rays. In each of the corner panels below the picture, a tragic and a comic mask in low relief hang together by ribbons. (14) Architecture, Painting, and Sculpture jjrotected by Athena (Minerva) from the Ravages of Chronos (Time). Architecture, represented as a stately woman fully clothed and wearing a hood, sits between figures re- presenting Sculpture and Painting with an arm about each. Sculpture, a vigorous youth nude to the waist, [l(i] Apollo and the Muses Copyright, 1921, by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts [ 17 ] wearing a skull cap and carrying a mallet and chisel, rests one elbow on the thigh of Architecture and crosses her knee with his own. Painting, a superb young girl partly clothed in a mantle and wearing a hood from which a luxuriant lock escapes, carries a palette and brushe’s and rests her head upon the shoidder of Architecture. Archi- tecture gazes straight before her. Sculpture aside and downward as if in thought. Painting out and upward as if at a haj)])y vision. Athena, goddess of wisdom, patron and protectress of all the arts of peace, bends above the three seated figures, bearing her shield on her right arm as her only weapon, and stretches a protecting and reassuring hand over them. She wears a tunic and a voluminous cloak clasped at the neck. Her helmet is crowned by three crested animal forms — a sphinx in the centre, and a winged hor.se on either side. Chronos, in rapid flight behind her, his scythe at its furthest backward swing, has caught sight of the de- fense that is to defeat his purpose. The central position of the figure of Architecture in the group and the support it gives to the figures of both Paint- ing and Scul{)ture are vividly emblematic of the real historical and aesthetic relation of the three arts. The panel furthermore typifies the essential function of a museum of art, as the preserver of objects threatened with destruction, and is appropriately made the focus of the whole scheme of decoration. The spectator may be ghul to be reminded also by this panel of the union of architecture, sculpture, and painting in the decorations themselves. A cartouche below Ijears the names of the three arts. It is supported by two naked youths seated, one with a wreath about his arm and looking downward, the other with a flaming torch and looking upward. Above is a wreath of laurel in high relief entwined with palm leaves; [ 18 ] Arcuitkcture, Paixtixg, axd Sculpture Copyright, 19-^1, by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Mussachusetts [ 19 ] below, in the corner panels, in low relief, are designs of laurel and palm about a lyre and a vase. (15) Classic and Romantic Art. Neither the subject of this decoration nor all of the personages are derived from tradition. The panel pre.sents a fancied scene of judgment in the cloudland of mythology, in which two eternally di- vergent currents of man’s fancy, in the persons of two mortals, boy and girl — the one. Romantic Art. inspired from Earth in the person of Pan, the other. Classic Art, from Heaven in the person of Athena — submit to the arbitrament of the intellect in the person of Apollo. The god sits on a pedestal supported by the central cloud. He is entirely nude and has thrown one leg carelessly over the tripod at his side, emblem of his oracidar powers, grasping the edge with one hand. The other hand rests akimbo on his hip and holds the laurel wreath that is to be the prize. Massive and ])rilliant rays spread from behind his head to the limits of the scene on right and left. At his feet a white swan, emblem of Music, preens its snowy wing. On the left, the boy, also entirely nude, stands between the shaggy knees of Pan’s enormous figure and, holding his lyre under his right arm, pours forth his song, his left arm lifted by its vehemence. Beyond, a leopard lies among pine branches and stretches a paw over Pan’s knee. The god, pleased at the sound, has put down his shepherd’s pipe and rai-sed his head to listen. He has a flat face like a goat, goat’s horns and goat’s feet, but above the waist a human form. Beneath his figure may be seen fragments of a curving red background suggesting the earth. Pan was the rustic god, the divinity of out-of-doors, and a lover of music, as his pipe shows. Athena sits opposite, putting away by a gesture of one hand her helmet, shiekl, breastplate, and spear, emblems of active defense, and with the other hand drawing to her side the lovely figure half kneeling on the cloud before her. The girl gazes up- [^ 20 ] Classic and Romantic Art Copyright, 1921, by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts C‘21] ward as if to follow the flight of the song and stretches her hand naively toward the singer as if to arrest it. She also carries a lyre and presses it against her left side. (IG) The Sphinx and the Chiinaera. In this decoration the juxtaposition of the two familiar figures, one a piece of existing sculpture, the other a poetical figment, strongly emphasizes the chief traditional meaning of each. The Sphinx has always symbolized My.stery in its most in- scrutable form; the Chiinaera, the Imagination in its most extravagant aspect. The motive of the panel was suggested to ^Ir. Sargent by a passage at the end of La Tentation de Saint Antoine by Gustave Flaubert, where the Unknown and the Fancy con- front one another before Saint Anthony in the persons of the Sphinx and the Chiinaera: Lc Sphinx (’’est que je garde mon secret: je songe et je ealcule. La mer .se retourne dans son lit, les hies se balancent sous le vent, les caravanes passe nt, la poussiere s’envole, les cites s’eeroulent; — et mon regard, que rien ne pent devier, demeure tendu a t ravers les choses sur un horizon inacces- sible. La Chi mere Moi, je suis legere et joyeuse! Je decouvre aux homines des perspectives eblouissantes avec des paradis dans les images, et des felicites lointaines. Je leur verse a Tame les eternelles demences, projets de lionheur, plans d’avenir, reves de gloire, et les serments d’amour et les resolutions vert Ileuses. Le Sphinx () Fantaisie, emporte moi sur tes ailes, pour desennuyer ma tristesse. La Chimhre () Inconnu, je suis amoureuse de tes yeux. The Sphinx of Egypt, long in itself a mystery but now identified as a portrait head of King Chephren carved from [ 22 ] Sphinx and Chimaera Copyright, 19il, by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Alassarhusptts [ 23 ] u cliff before his pyramid in Giza, was a being with the face of a king and the body of a recumbent lion. The Sphinx of (Greece had wings and the head of a woman. The IVIuses taught her a riddle and those that conld not solve it she devoured, until (Edipus gave the answer and the Sphinx destroyed herself. The renowned figure on the Nile, an insoluble riddle to anticpiity, was doubtless the .source of the Greek story. In the present decoration the Sphinx has comely, vivid features, lacking at once the passivity of a Zeus, the smile of a Buddha, and the warmth of a Christian ideal. The face is so hewn upon a massive block that it turns upward toward the Chimaera hovering close as if to catch its faintest breath. There are suggestions of the real Sphinx in the type of countenance, in the hood about it, in the |)yramidal shape of the block, and in the claws and mighty foreleg. According to Homer, the ('himaera was a fire-breathing monster with a lion's head, a goat’s body, and a serpent’s tail; and doubtless it became an emblem of unbridled invention because of this fanta.stic combination of forms. The Chimaera of the present decoration is a woman per- fect in form and face, and with abundant streaming hair, who in place of arms has only magnificent wings, now con- torted and flame-like in a swirling flight that has also torn her ankle chains asunder. Above the frame, is a wreath of laurel in high relief en- twined with palm leaves; below, is a cartouche with the title of the picture; in the corner panels, in low relief, are designs of laurel and j)alm about a lyre and a vase. October, 1922 [ 24 ] I'NVEiLED October "20, 1921 Copyr'iKht, 19il, by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massnehusetts [ 25 ] Group Crowning the Panel of Prometheus