Lecture 8: Neoclassicism and Nationalism in the Early American Republic

Historical context

American Neoclassicism

Flourished in the 18th & 19th centuries

The US was seeking to define its identity as a new nation

Uses (2) & Tensions (1) of American Neoclassicism

Uses

1. Allowed the US government to claim a Western ideological lineage

   • Referenced Greek democracy & the Roman Republic

     • Ideal values: democracy & justice

2. Provided cover for American cultural contradictions

   • Neoclassicism embodied the moral disparity between US founding principles as a land of liberty & equality, and the persistent disenfranchisement of women & POC

Tensions

1. Symbols of Neoclassicism were BOTH:

   (1) Useful for establishing a visual vocabulary for the US

   (2) An uneasy fit w/ a modern nation

   • Disjuncture w/ reality was sometimes comical

Early public portrayals of George Washington

Historical context

• The 1st American president

  • A farmer & soldier

    A reluctant political leader

• NO country had had a democratically-elected president before

  • Artists struggled to:

    (A) Give a portrait figure the gravitas of high office

    (B) WITHOUT necessarily deferring to royal trappings & indications of high birth

Early public portrayals of George Washington

Named example 1

George Washington (Lansdowne Portrait) (1796), Gilbert Stuart

Provenance

• Essentially became the official portrait of Washington used by the US

Description

• Washington standing in a portico-like structure

  • 2 pairs of Doric columns

  • A red curtain pulled aside to reveal a background of open sky

    • Rainbow symbolises the end of the revolutionary conflict

• Pose: arm raised

  • Classically-inspired oratorical pose

• Clothing:

  • An American-made black velvet suit

  • NOT Roman attire

  • Grasps a ceremonial (NOT battle) sword

• Surrounding objects:

  • Symbols of the newly-formed United States

    • Top of chair adorned w/ a seal depicting the US flag

    • Table leg beneath his arm is inspired by the ceremonial mace used in the US House of Representatives

      • BUT topped w/ eagles: American symbol

      • Ceremonial mace itself is inspired by a Roman fasces (symbol of civil authority)

• Books under the table:

  • Federalist papers

  • Constitutional by-laws

    = Washington’s leadership is based via rule of law, NOT birthright/military strength

• Complex web of symbols: elements symbolic to the new American nation + icons of the Roman Republic

Interpretation

• Stresses Washington’s position as a civilian commander-in-chief

  • NOT as a warrior, king, or God

  • But as a leader of state commanding a democratic form of government; a moral man

  • Contrasts w/ imposing grandeur of royal portraits

    • Washington’s pose of power is based on classical statuary, plain dress & a noble demeanour

    • Clarity & simplicity of the neoclassical style expressed the practical ideals of democracy

Early public portrayals of George Washington

Named example 2

George Washington (1788-92), Jean-Antoine Houdon

Provenance

• French artist

• Marble sculpture

• Made for the rotunda of the Richmond State Capitol in Virginia

Description

• Clothing:

  • Contemporary 18th-century attire

• Pose:

  • Contrapposto

  • Washington rests his arm on a bundle of rods

    • Roman fasces (symbol of civil authority)

      • BUT 13 rods

        = symbolises the original 13 colonies & the US motto at the time (‘e pluribus unum’ = ‘one of many’)

  • Behind Washington: a farmer’s ploughshare

    • Association regularly made between Washington & Cincinnatus

      • Ancient Roman Republican hero

      • Having won a war as a Roman dictator, stepped down from power & returned to his farm

        • Similar to Washington’s path from military leader → presidency → his Virginia plantation

Interpretation

• References the Roman Republic to establish a moral authority for American civil society

  • Allusions to grandeur & morality

Early public portrayals of George Washington

Named example 3

George Washington (1840), Horatio Greenough

Provenance

• Marble sculpture

• Was initially intended for the rotunda of the Capitol building

  • BUT was immediately criticised & sidelined as a work of art

    (1) Pagan connotations

    (2) General inappropriateness of having a buff, shirtless Washington presiding over people

    • Not befitting the dignity of the presidency as an office

    • Inconsistent w/ other types of representation of Washington

    • Thought of as comical

Description

• Clothing:

  • Bare-chested

  • In Roman-style drapery

• Pose:

  • Seated on a throne

    • Allusion to Phidias’s Zeus Olympios

  • Gestures w/ 1 hand towards the heavens

    • As the original source of all power

  • w/ his other hand: offers a sheathed sword to the people

Interpretation

• All power comes from above and then must be offered to the people

• Poor reception: different usages of Neoclassicism = different results

  • Represented in terms of classical myth

  • Aligns presidential power w/ that of the Gods

American Neoclassical Architecture

Named example 1

Virginia State Capitol (1795), Thomas Jefferson & Charles-Louis Clérrisseau

Provenance

• Thomas Jefferson

  • The 3rd president of the US

  • Author of the Declaration of Independence

  • One of the most accomplished architects in American history

    • An early proponent of Neoclassical architecture in the US

    • Believed that art was a powerful tool for eliciting social change & bringing about a general sense of enlightenment

  • BUT was also an enslaver of people

    • Ignored many moral contradictions of the US’s founding

    • Never forgave the British for the offences of the American Revolution

      • Often looks to examples of Roman architecture in France

        = make a national distinction

• Virginia State Capitol

  • 1st major project accomplished after the signing of the Declaration of Independence

  • Was the 1st to introduce Neoclassical vocabulary into American architecture

Description

• Modified version of the Maison Carrée

  • Roman temple in Nîmes, France

  • Jefferson visited on a trip to France

Interpretation

• Jefferson hoped to reinforce ideas about a classical past, BUT these contradicted w/ lived realities of his present

• Intentions for the building:

  • To symbolise the power of the people to govern

  • To serve as a model for civic architecture & the organisation of the federal government

Jefferson’s own home in Monticello (1772-1809), Thomas Jefferson

Provenance

• Jefferson designed his own home

• Was a working plantation: 130 slaves lived & worked on the property

• Looked NOT to local architecture that was in vogue

  • BUT to classically-inspired examples

Description

Plantation house

• Location:

  • NOT placed along the banks of a river (as was customary at the time)

  • But on a hill (Monticello = Italian for ‘little mountain’)

East portico

• Palladian pavilion

• Emphasis on symmetry, proportion, and classical elements

West façade

• Based on the Hotel de Salm in Paris

• Symmetrical, single-story brick home

• Doric entablature on the front

• 2-column deep extended portico

• Triangular pediment

• Decorated by a semicircular window

= creates a powerful sense of horizontality, rationality, & classical order

South wing

• Next to the west façade

• Housed the kitchen buildings & quarters for enslaved people at Monticello

Interpretation

• Fundamentally shows contradictions in how Neoclassicism is deployed in the US

• Location of site on a hill:

  • Allowed Jefferson to assume an ideological, elevated position

  • Designed lofty vantage points where he could overlook the enslaved people on his property

  • Intentionally diminished the visibility of slavery on his property (were housed below the hill)

  • The fact of slavery diminishes his high moral standing

Capitol Building in Washington, DC

Provenance

• Architecture known as Federal style: American Neoclassicism

• Designs solicited through a competition (1792)

• Function:

  • To provide quarters for the Senate & House of Representatives (2 branches of government other than the Presidency)

Description

• Name:

  • Deliberately invokes the famous temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus on Capitoline Hill in ancient Rome

• Development over time:

  (1) Original design by William Thornton (1793)

  • An orthodox, high-style Georgian building

    w/ a dome & portico

  • Reminiscent of the Pantheon BUT an expansion of it

  (2) Domed rotunda was added to the building (1860s)

  • Meant to be a focal point

• Interior:

  • Designed by Benjamin Latrobe

  • Drew upon classical style BUT made it distinctly American

    • E.g. altered the types of organic decoration incorporated into classical columns

      • Rather than using acanthus leaves

      • Used plants indigenous to/significant to the economy of the Americas (e.g. corncobs, tobacco leaf & flower)

Interpretation

• The classical aesthetic vocabulary lends a sense of grandeur; projection of power & nobility

• The construction of US national identity appropriates from indigenous culture

Progress of Civilisation (1853-55), Thomas Crawford

Provenance

• The sculptural frieze just above the entrance of the Senate wing on the US Capitol building

Description

• An allegorical personification of America @ the centre

• Scenes on either side illustrate what was perceived by the artist (& other white Americans) to represent the advance of civilisation

  • On the right: white woodsman chopping down trees to make way for agriculture

  • On the left: children & adult men representing different aspects of American society

    • A soldier

    • A merchant

    • A teacher & schoolchildren

  • In the rightmost corner: a seated Native American man

    • Holds his head in his hands

    • Mourning the destruction of the landscape happening before his eyes & the advance of white settlers

Interpretation

• The construction of US national identity both appropriates from & diminishes indigenous culture

  • Untroubled representation of the displacement of indigenous people

  • Embodies a 19th-century belief in the inevitable triumph of white American civilisation over indigenous cultures in the progress of civilisation

• Inherent contradiction: federal architecture was constructed w/ enslaved labour

  • High ideals expressed through visual language of Neoclassicism represent a thin veneer of stylistic ideology placed over more fundamental moral failings

Hiram Powers (3)

• Was a leading practitioner of the Neoclassical style in the mid-19th century (1850s)

• His vision relied on a limited formula:

  (1) Nude figures, idealised & broadly classical in inspiration

  (2) Limited attributes that tie them into a recognisable allegory

• Historical context:

  • 19th-century American audiences were prudish & sensitive

    • Any representation of nudity was considered controversial

    • Powers used symbols in a way that would justify the nudity by tying it into a narrative

The Greek Slave (1842), Hiram Powers

Provenance

• Powers wrote an explanatory text accompanying the exhibition of the work

  • Provided historical context for the piece

  • Offered a sentimental reading of the young woman’s plight

    • ‘Her father and mother, and perhaps all her kindred, have been destroyed by her foes, and [...] tempered indeed by the support of her reliance upon the goodness of God. Gather all these afflictions together, and add to them the fortitude and resignation of a Christian, and no room will be left for shame.’

• Inspired by the Greek War of Independence (1821-1832) against the Ottoman Empire

  • A successful rebellion by Greek revolutionaries

Description

• Depicts a Greek woman exposed for sale at a Turkish bazaar

• Chains around her hands & manacles

• Locket & cross carved on the support beam

• White Greek woman

  • May seem illogical/irresponsible in the midst of the political turmoil of American slavery

  • BUT was widely interpreted by audiences as a representation of the plight of enslaved black people in the US

Interpretation

• Representational ambiguity

  • Fusion of Neoclassical whiteness w/ visual tropes drawn from the contemporary abolition movement & Orientalising imagery

    • The classical figure as a container for different visual associations

    • Encouraged viewers to see the subject’s humanity > focusing on race & prejudice

    • WHILE still reconsidering the issue of slavery

      = allowed it to cleverly speak to the topic of American slavery indirectly, while still being a popular sculpture accepted by multiple & complex publics

• Its representational ambiguity has been criticised

  • E.g. the work’s staging at the Great Exhibition in London’s Crystal Palace (1851)

    • Post-abolition in England but NOT the US

    • Viewers were more quick to make an explicit connection between the work & rising anti-slavery sentiment in the US

      • Criticised the fact that this was not happening more overtly w/ American audiences

      • Slavery as a live issue repressed under the veneer of Neoclassicism & Powers’s sculpture

  • BUT the sculpture was nonetheless a successful symbol of the abolitionist movement in the US

• Powers’s goal in providing the explanatory text:

  • Emphasis on the subject’s innocence & Christian values

  • To convince American audiences who were scandalised by representations of nudity

    • That viewing the sculpture was a high-minded, aesthetic act

    • Enabled contradiction to work: clothed in Christian virtue DESPITE being represented in the nude

• Powers had abolitionist leanings

  • Made this figure of an enslaved woman → a sympathetic figure

  • At a time when slavery remained legal in the US

Harriet Hosmer

• Professional female sculptor

• ‘Every woman should have the opportunity of cultivating her talents to the fullest extent, for they were not given to her for nothing’

• Distinctive look:

  • Part of the dress reform movement at the time

  • Shorter bloomer skirt = could work more easily

  • Beret signifying artistic identity

• Reception

  • Many American visitors appreciated her growing talent

  • BUT some were shocked at what they considered to be her unfeminine appearance, manners, & flamboyant behaviour

    • Physical labour involved in making large-scale marble sculptures was considered unfeminine

• Interests:

  • Representing the historic plight of women

    • In a way that took subjects that were traditional to Neoclassical architecture, and altering them slightly to represent something different

Zenobia in Chains (1859). Harriet Hosmer

Provenance

• Marble sculpture

• Responds to Hiram Powers’s The Greek Slave directly

Description

• Depicts the Queen of Palmyra

  • Conquered Egypt

  • Reigned until Roman forces overthrew her

  • In this moment, she’s marched through the streets by Roman emperor Aurelian following her capture

• Dignified

  • Her head held high despite being in chains

  • NOT nude/an allegory

  • Hosmer tried to make her:

    • ‘Too proud to exhibit passion/emotion of any kind’

    • ‘She’s a prisoner, but calm, strong, and grand to herself’

Interpretation

• A show of skill

  • Intricate details of her dress & folded drapery are a testament to Hosmer’s abilities

• A counterpoint to the typical depiction of women as allegories & nudes rather than heroic figures

  • An early example of feminist art

  • The focus here is NOT Zenobia’s victimhood, BUT the dignity of her profile

    • Her bearing stresses strength > victimisation

Edmonia Lewis

Background

• Black, Haitian & Indigenous American heritage

• Shattered expectations by becoming a successful sculptor at a time when the art world was dominated by white men

• BUT faced significant racial & gender discrimination throughout her career

• Interests:

  • Explored racial & gender empowerment

  • BUT sometimes represented racial difference in ambivalent ways

    • E.g. Forever Free (1875): woman represented w/ white, Europeanised features rather than as a recognisably black woman

      = NOT an example of strong black womanhood

• This may represent her attempt to escape the limited autobiographical interpretation that was often placed upon her

  • The reason why she left the US in the first place

  • Always perceived as an artist of colour, and not just an artist

    • Did not want to similarly racialise her subjects

    • YET doesn’t avoid topics of slavery & identity completely

The Death of Cleopatra (1876), Edmonia Lewis

Provenance

• When exhibited, it was:

  (A) Praised for its realism

  (B) Critiqued for being ghastly & repellent

Description

• Depicts Cleopatra as she is dying

  • Wearing Roman attire (toga)

  • In majestic repose on her throne

  • After she’s allowed herself to be bitten by a snake

  • Expression of near ecstasy on her face

Interpretation

• Cleopatra as a symbol of Africa

• An African Queen taking agency over her fate

  • Unusual moment of depiction: most contemporary artists represent idealised Cleopatra contemplating suicide

    • Only as a victim & an imprisoned figure

    • Wrestling with/bemoaning her fate

  • In Lewis’s work, Cleopatra is taking charge

    • Expresses joy at being released from earthly problems

    • A sense of freedom that was unconventional but real for an embattled artist who persevered in making a career in face of overwhelming prejudice