Friday, March 14, 2008

Mrs. Schuyler Van Rensselaer (Mariana Griswold)




Augustus Saint-Gaudens (1848–1907)

Bronze; 20 3/8 x 7 3/4 in. (51.8 x 19.7 cm)

Mariana Griswold Van Rensselaer, 1851–1934, was a multitalented reviewer and writer who persistently promoted the development of the arts of the United States during the Gilded Age. She re-examined several public sculptures by Saint-Gaudens, as well as the Farragut Monument and the Standing Lincoln, and was one of the sculptor's earliest and most dedicated supporters. In this relief plate, the artist has illustrated the sitter within a rectangular frame with her head and shoulders facing left in bust-length profile. She wears a high Victorian collar and her hair is braided in a twist. Saint-Gaudens made full use of the textural possibilities of the bronze medium by modelling her dress with a vigorous facade and complementing it with her smoothly polished skin. Above Van Rensselaer's head is inscribed “animus non opus” (The spirit, not the work), a proverb in agreement with the sitter's principles and standards. The bronze was come together with by a carved oak frame designed by the architect Stanford White.

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