3244. Hiram Powers to EBB
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 19, 206–208.
Florence
Aug’st 7th 1853
Dear Mrs Browning
I received your very welcome and most kind letter of the other day, but could not answer it at once as I wished—not that I had not time, but I had a new statue on the stocks and my mind has been so wholly occupied with it, as to put it almost out of my power to write such a letter as I could wish to send to you– I have been in the midst of a poem, composed in plaster, and of such poor materials as my dull brain could supply.
The plaster has not smoked under the fire of genius, as I can almost suppose the paper to have done under your own glowing pen, but it has grown up rapidly into form, and it now stands before me fully five feet ten inches high, and looking wishfully to Heaven, as much as to say, “God help me up to the realization of my maker’s hopes”– It is “La Penserosa” [1] the small model of which you may remember to have seen in my studio–
I am sorry that you have felt any concern about the article on coloring statuary, [2] but this shows me how friendly you are, and it makes me still more grateful for the position I am permitted to take near the fire side of your friendly heart–
I have lately seen an intelligent gentleman from Rome who says that Mr Gibsons views are gaining favor there and that they are likely to be adopted in practice– He says too that Mr Gibson will be glad if the order for his Venus [3] is countermanded on account of the coloring, for then he will cause the statue to be exhibited in England on his own account. There is therefore to be a battle between the Colorists and the Anticolorists, and I for one shall gird on my armour for the field in the ranks of the latter.
It is true, I believe, that many of the ancient sculptors did color their statues, the Egyptians all did it and the Greeks who learned from the Egyptians naturally did the same, but the Apollo, [4] the most beautiful work that has come down to us, has evidently never been colored, and it is an historical fact that the famous Venus of Cnidus by Praxiteles was not colored. [5] At least Lucian says so. This goes far to prove that coloring is not necessary.
The Greeks probably gave the Egyptians as authority for certain peculiarities in art, just as modern Artists do with the Greeks and there are but few who dare to question such authority; with us the Greeks stand supreme as doubtless with the latter the Egyptians for a time stood supreme—but we have toppled down the spirits of all their Gods and Goddesses which the Ancients adored, retaining only their bodies for our veneration, possibly there may be defects in these soulless bodies. We have made immense progress in physical developments and we fancy at least, that the same has been done in religious and moral phylosophy. Is there then no room for advancement in the fine arts?
That the Greeks paid more attention to the body than to the soul is evident from the heads of their statues, as well as from history. I speak of generals and not of particular instances. They cultivated the physical of man as a general rule, more than they did the intellectual. Their wars, their games and bodily exercises were national themes—and, for this reason, probably it is, that so few of their statues (ideal statues) have intellectual heads. The body of the Venus de Medicis [6] is exquisitely beautiful as well as natural, but the head is misshapen and most unnatural. Not a feature is properly formed or distinctly made out, indeed I venture to affirm that the author of that statue did not know how to form a human head– The same might be said of the Apollino. [7] It is plain, that the authors of those two works did not regard the head as of sufficient importance to engross much of their time and attention. I mention these two statues of the Tribune as examples of the truth of my affirmation but there are many others that might be named in support of it.
Bodily beauty was therefore mainly aimed at by the Greeks, and coloring naturally fell within their scope, for mere physical beauty affects no higher than the senses—it is perceived and felt by the sensuals which will not be satisfied if color is wanting–
For my own part I shall never attempt to gratify such material desires, believing as I do, that the legitimate aim of art should be Spiritual and not Animal. A nude statue should be an unveiled soul, and not a naked body–
Color most certainly adds to nudity while it detracts from the purity of the spirit revealed by the form. There is spiritual beauty in form, and material beauty in color. The one excites the highest order of innocent pleasurable contemplation in a sphere above the animal senses which require the other for their gratification– Nevertheless I am fond of color when and where it is necessary and proper.
We are glad to learn that you are so happy and well situated at Lucca, and glad should we be to visit you there but there are too many of us to make it convenient.
I have heard no more of the “manifestations” if I except what you already know through our friend Mr Lytton who has promised to read me his fathers letter.
Pray write to me sometimes for I love to read your letters, and with my warmest regards to Mr Browning, believe me always sincerely yours,
H. Powers.
Publication: Donald M. Reynolds, “The ‘Unveiled Soul’: Hiram Powers’s Embodiment of the Ideal,” The Art Bulletin, 59 (1977), 394 (in part).
Source: Author’s copy at Smithsonian Institution.
1. Inspired by lines from Milton’s poem, Il Penseroso, Powers’s statue of a female figure was completed in marble in 1856. According to Richard P. Wunder, the plaster model has not survived (see Hiram Powers: Vermont Sculptor, 1805–1873, Newark, Delaware, 1991, II, 183). The statue is now at the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia.
3. The “Tinted Venus” (1851–56), John Gibson’s best known work, was not exhibited until 1862 at the London International Exhibition. Commissioned by Robert Preston, a Liverpool manufacturer, the statue is now in the collection of the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool.
4. The Apollo Belvedere, a Roman copy of a Greek sculpture, discovered in the fifteenth century. Named for its early placement in the courtyard of the Belvedere at the Vatican, it was considered, until the late nineteenth century, to represent the perfection of classical art. Today, it is in the Vatican’s Museo Pio-Clementino. Powers referred to this statue in his piece for The Athenæum: “Colour the Apollo Belvidere and he ceases to be a god, a spiritual embodiment; he steps down from his throne on high, and becomes man among men” (24 December 1853, no. 1365, p. 1560).
5. Best known by its Greek name Aphrodite of Knidos, this statue (of which only copies survive) is considered the masterpiece of Praxiteles, an Athenian sculptor who flourished in the late fourth century B.C. Lucian, second-century rhetorician and philosopher, refers to this Aphrodite in his dialogue, Essay in Portraiture. One of the speakers, in order to approximate the beauty of a woman he has recently seen, proposes to combine the best features of statues by different sculptors. Included in the portrait are the hair, brow, and eyes of the Praxiteles work. Before the portrait can be completed, however, the various parts must be painted, the implication being that originally they were without color (see Essays in Portraiture, pp. 6–9, trans. A.M. Harmon).
6. This antique sculpture of the Roman goddess is perhaps the work of a follower of Praxiteles and is displayed in the Tribune of the Uffizi.
7. Another antique sculpture, also in the Tribune of the Uffizi.
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