Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco acquire masterpiece by American sculptor Hiram Powers
The First Art Newspaper on the Net    Established in 1996 Sunday, November 24, 2024


Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco acquire masterpiece by American sculptor Hiram Powers
Hiram Powers, Greek Slave, ca. 1873.



SAN FRANCISCO, CA.- The Fine Art Museums of San Francisco have acquired a two-thirds-scale marble version of the American sculptor Hiram Powers’s iconic masterpiece, Greek Slave (ca. 1873), the most famous sculpture of the 19th century.

Drawing inspiration from the renowned Hellenistic marble sculpture of the Venus de’ Medici (1st century BC) in Florence’s Uffizi Gallery, Powers completed his original plaster in 1843. His Florence studio subsequently carved six full-size and three two-thirds-size marble versions for British and American clients.

Powers’s subject is a shackled Greek woman taken captive by Turkish Ottoman forces during the Greek War of Independence (1821–1832) and publicly displayed for sale in a slave market in Constantinople (Istanbul). The young woman’s fringed shawl and hat are placed on the post adjacent to her right hip, as are the discreet locket suggestive of broken familial bonds and a Christian cross symbolic of her faith. While the Venus de’ Medici represents an idealized, mythological subject, Powers’s Greek Slave explicitly depicts a contemporary Greek woman.

Greek Slave was one of the first full-length fine-art nude sculptures exhibited publicly in the United States, and it generated enormous controversy as well as popular and critical acclaim. When the second and third full-size marble replicas toured the United States between 1847 and 1851, nearly 100,000 people paid 25 cents each to view the sculpture. While the Presbyterian minister Lyman Beecher (the father of Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin [1852]) declared the statue to be indecent, most viewers took their cue from an explanatory pamphlet published by Powers’ tour manager and embraced her as an exemplar of Christian faith and virtue in the face of great adversity.

Powers’s primary theme—the modern Greek struggle to re-establish a democracy in the country that created the first democratic republic in the Old World—had particular resonance in the United States, which established the first democracy in the New World. However, numerous commentators also explicitly linked the enslaved status of Powers’s white subject to the contemporaneous enslavement of African Americans. Greek Slave soon was adopted as a potent propaganda symbol by the international abolitionist movement.

Early in his career, Powers had opposed the “rabid abolitionists,” but by the mid-1850s, he declared of slavery, “I think it high time to oppose it tooth and nail everywhere.” Embodying both the high ideals of democracy and the harsh realities of slavery, Greek Slave became a beacon and a lightning rod for viewers during the protracted political and social turmoil that culminated in the American Civil War (1861–1865).










Today's News

April 1, 2016

Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid, famed for futuristic curves, dies aged 65 in Miami

More analysis needed on King Tut 'hidden chamber': Egypt minister Khaled al-Anani

The Oppenheimer Blue: The largest Fancy Vivid Blue diamond offered at auction

Son begins quest to bury Islamic State-slain Khaled al-Assaad known as 'father of Palmyra'

Hungarian Nobel Literature Prize winner Imre Kertesz dies in Budapest after a long illness

Daily: Exhibition of works by Annette Messager opens at Marian Goodman Gallery in New York

Apple chooses de Young Museum app to premiere on Apple Watch

Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco acquire masterpiece by American sculptor Hiram Powers

Steidl and UCLA College present "Robert Frank: Books and Films 1947-2016" at Bergamot Station

Freeman's appoints new SVP & Division Head of American & European Furniture & Decorative Arts

Pace/MacGill Gallery opens exhibition of works by British artist Richard Learoyd

Career spanning exhibition of work by Michele Oka Doner opens at Perez Art Museum Miami

Exhibition of new work by Barbara Takenaga opens at DC Moore Gallery in New York

French and international art dealers exhibit at PAD Paris

Russian artist Pavlensky declared 'sane' after spy agency protest

Britain's remaining milkmen keeping tradition afloat

Costume, performance, persona, and pose are explored in exhibition at sepiaEYE gallery

Getty awards $8.45 million in exhibition grants for Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA initiative

Exhibition of works by Sam Lewitt opens at Kunsthalle Basel

Solo exhibition of new works by British-born artist Tatyana Murray on view at Gallery nine 5

New film installation by Stan Douglas on view at David Zwirner

Exhibition of works by Radcliffe Bailey opens at Samsøñ

Raven Row presents the work of Channa Horwitz

National Portrait Gallery acquires new sculpture of Baroness Joan Bakewell




Museums, Exhibits, Artists, Milestones, Digital Art, Architecture, Photography,
Photographers, Special Photos, Special Reports, Featured Stories, Auctions, Art Fairs,
Anecdotes, Art Quiz, Education, Mythology, 3D Images, Last Week, .

 



Founder:
Ignacio Villarreal
(1941 - 2019)
Editor & Publisher: Jose Villarreal
Art Director: Juan José Sepúlveda Ramírez
Writer: Ofelia Zurbia Betancourt

Royalville Communications, Inc
produces:

ignaciovillarreal.org juncodelavega.com facundocabral-elfinal.org
Founder's Site. Hommage
to a Mexican poet.
Hommage
       

The First Art Newspaper on the Net. The Best Versions Of Ave Maria Song Junco de la Vega Site Ignacio Villarreal Site
Tell a Friend
Dear User, please complete the form below in order to recommend the Artdaily newsletter to someone you know.
Please complete all fields marked *.
Sending Mail
Sending Successful