Fenway Court: 1975

Fenway Court 1975

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TENWAY COURT Isabella Stewart

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Published by the Trustees of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Inco rporated Boston, Ma ssachuse tts Copyright 1976 Des igned by Larry Webster Type set and printed by Thomas Todd Co., Printers, Boston

Photograph credits: Larry Webste r Frontispiece: The windows of the Tapestry Room and Chinese Loggia fro m the Monks' Garden p . 38 : The Monks' Garden cloaked in snow p. 46: The Tapestry Room wi ndows through a wi nter birch p. 51 : Wisteria at Fen way Court Lynn Mc laren p. vi: Marjorie Bullock at wor k on the Ahab tapestry

Joseph B. Pratt p . 42 Orchids in the Chinese Loggia p . 44: A rchival photographs on display

Cover: Jezebel looks out from a window of her castle as Jehu (below) enters Jezreel in triumph. To the left in the tower is the watchman who has seen Jehu a nd hi s company approaching the city (shown on the back cover) . Detail from The Story of Ahab tapestry.

Contents

3. A Fifteenth Century Tapestry of Tfie Story of Afiab

Donald and

Moniqu e King 10.

A Gothic Bestseller Rebecca Karo

16. Claude Bachet's Les Epistres d'Ovide

Donald Stone, Jr.

19. Leaves from Bayreuth Ralph P. Locke

27. Ralph Adams Cram a nd Mrs . Gardner The Movement for a Liturgical Art Douglass Shand Tucci

35. The Annual

eremonial

omes to Boston Geoffrey T. Hellman

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Incorporated Fifty-first Annual Report for the Year 1075 39. Report of the President G. Peabody Gardner 41.. Report of the Director Ro/1111

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Hadley

47. Note on the Organization of the Museum 48. Publications

50. Trustees and Staff

Foreword

It seems a far cry from the patronage of the Duke of Burgundy to the honors of the American Academy and National Institute of Arts and Letters, yet both were part of Mrs. Gardner's world. An account of the museum's tapestry from the former is ably presented by Donald and Monique King who have often written on the great tapestries of Europe. He is Keeper of Textiles at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Rare books in the collection were of interest to two authors, Rebecca Karo, who is the museum's bibliographer, and Donald Stone, Jr., Professor of Romance Languages at Harvard University, whose first connection with the museum was an article on the literary sources for Titian's Rape of Europa.

Three articles touch on contemporary history in which Mrs . Gardner was a participant. She was at Bayreuth when Liszt died and evidence of her pilgrimages to that city in search of Wagner are gathered together by Ralph Locke, a musicologist at the Eastman School, Rochester, N. Y. His article on Charles Martin Loeffler appeared in Fenway Court 1974. Douglass Shand Tucci, an architectural historian, uncovered new material on the significance of The Church of the Advent and the movement to foster religious art in Boston. He arranged for the exhibition on Ralph Adams Cram which was on view at the Boston Public Library. Finally, something of the flavor of the proceedings of the American Academy and National Institute' s Boston meeting, attended by Mrs. Gardner, is presented by Geoffrey Hellman of the staff of The New Yorker. His profile of these " notable achievers" appeared in the pages of that magazine.

The Story of Ahab, tapestry, Tournai, ca. 1460, H . 12'3", L. 14'10", Inv. No. T24e5. Third Floor Stair Hall, North, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.

A Fifteenth Century Tapesty of The Story of Ahab

The fine collection of tapestries which Mrs .

Gardner assembled at Fenway Court testifies to her discrimination in this field . Besides many admirable examples from later periods, it includes three exceptionally interesting fift eenth century tapestries which were purchased from various sources in Paris, the Amazon Queens and The Story of Ahab in 1897 and the Proverbs in 1905.

Of these the Ahab tapestry has been off exhibition for some time past for necessary conservation and it has been thought appropriate to celebrate its return to the galleries by giving a brief account of this striking piece, which has not been seriously studied since it was first published

by Ella Siple (Gazette des Beaux-Arts, XII, 1934, pp. 65-66) , and by re-assessing its place in the history of medieval tapestry.

It is a work of impressive size, measuring 12 feet 3 inches (3-73 m .) in height by 14 feet 10 inches (4 .52 m.) in length and including more than three dozen life-sized figures . The tapestry is woven on woollen warp threads, 7 to the centimetre (for this and other technical data we are indebted to the conservation staff of the museum). The weft threads are likewise of wool, but some silk is also used, chiefly for highlights in the costumes. The predominant colours are a range of reds and pinks, a range of blues and a range of ochres; black is also used in the shadows of the costumes. In common with most other fifteenth century tapestries, this one has been quite extensively restored in the past, with areas of re-weaving at the corners and in many other parts of the tapestry . In places these repairs may have distorted the original drawing and flattened or coarsened the effects of relief, but the character of the fifteenth century work is not seriously impaired. The purpose of the recent conservation work was to remove old discoloured repairs, to replace with new threads the heavy cotton warp threads on which these repairs had been worked and to work new repairs, in colours matched to the original work, using petit point stitch.

The tapestry has obviously lost a few inches of its h eight, both at the top, where the lettering is mutilated, and at the bottom, where the horses' hooves and the flowering plants have been curtailed . The original height was doubtless 13 feet or more, as was usual for major tapestries of the period. On the right of the tapestry, both the composition and the story seem to reach a natural conclusion and probably little has been lost on this side. It is true that at firs t sight the incomplete inscription at top right suggests the contrary, but this is a patch inserted here by a restorer and it originally formed the beginning of the inscription at top left, as will be demonstrated below. It is possible that all the other inscriptions are misplaced and that they were origin ally located further towards the right, where they would be better placed in relation to the scenes below. On the left, the present edge cuts through the figure composition in a way which suggests the possibility of considerable loss on this side . Moreover, as will appear shortly, the first scene depicted here cannot be the beginning of the story, but must have been preceded by other scenes, either on this tapestry or possibly on another tapes try of the same set.

Sets of large tapestries such as this - hall tapes tries as they were often called - were made to adorn the largest rooms of great houses on grand occasions. Their composition s may seem confused at first sight because, unlike panel paintings, they were not conceived to suggest depth and space seen from a single viewpoint, but were meant to be looked at from various directions and distances, sometimes as a sumptuous background seen from afar, sometimes as individual scenes or figures studied at close quarters, by people sitting, standing or walking in various parts of the hall. They formed great arabesques of figures, covering the walls of the room from floor to ceiling. Hence their horizons are very high and the figure compositions are 3

apt to be arranged in two tiers, which are generally clamped together and interlocked, as in the Ahab tapestry, by a lattice of strongly marked diagonal axes. Their ambiguous space, very shallow, with all the fig ures pressed into the foreground, yet with openings to distant horizons and to the sky, encloses yet extends the real space of the room on every side. The figure s are life-sized and dressed in the selfsame fa shions as the original spectators in the hall, so that the latter had the sensation of inhabiting the same time and the same space as these heroes of history and legend and of actually moving amongst them, as if in some three-dimensional picture-show. Each tapestry presented a number of scenes or subjects, without forma l divisions, but easily read as continuous narrative by a spectator walking round the room and studying each scene in conjunction with the caption at the top of the tapestry. The subjects often had high moral overtones and could be read as inculcating the truths of religion or history, but they were also chosen, as in the case of the Ahab story, for the entertainment value of their sen sationalism and violence.

In this respect these medieval picture-stories were not very different from modem cinema and television.

The Ahab tapestry at Fenway Court shows the concluding scenes of a longer story. To understand them, we must consider the account of the reign of Ahab given in the Book of Kings. Ahab succeeded his father Omri about 875 B.C. and " reigned over Israel in Samaria twenty and two years. And Ahab . . . did evil in the sight of the lord above all that were before him. And it came to pass . . . that he took to wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Zidonians, and went and served Baal and worshipped him" (I Kings 16). This provoked bitter opposition from the orthodox Jewish party led by the prophet Elijah. Among other alleged misdeeds of the royal couple, Jezebel was said to have 4

procured the death of Naboth, so that Ahab could take possession of his vineyard, adjacent to the royal Palace at Jezreel. Thereupon Elijah laid God' s curse on Ahab and his family : "Thus saith the l ord, In the place where the dogs licked the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick thy blood, even thine . . . Behold, I will bring evil upon thee, and take away thy posterity . . .

And of Jezebel also spake the lord, saying, The dogs sh all eat Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel."

Hearing this horrifying curse, Ahab showed signs of contrition and according to Elijah, God granted a postponement: " because he humbleth himself before me, I will not bring the evil in his days : but in his son's days I will bring the evil upon his house" (I Kings 21). The tapestry at Fenway Court depicts the fulfilment of the curse during the reign of Ahab's son Joram.

The first section on the left depicts scenes of fighting. The interpretation of these subjects given by Mrs. Siple was very imperfect, since she fa iled to realise that the fragmentary inscription at top right of the tapestry had originally been the beginning of the inscription at top left.

Putting the two parts together we may read them as follows, with doubtful parts shown in brackets.

Chy est ca [ment] hieu [ochist] le ray [jaram dedens] le camp de [nabat]h et ly ray acasias fut navret a mart en fu [yant] et fut partet en jerusalem

This inscription in Picard dialect (chy = ci, camp champ) may be translated as follows:

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Here is how Jehu [slew] king [Joram in] the field of [Nabot]h and king Ahaziah was wounded to death while f[leeing] and was carried to Jerusalem.

The reference is to events of about 841 B.C. when Jehu, one of Joram' s principal officers,

A man on horseback looks back as Joram sinks wounded in his chariot (detail).

rose in revolt with the support of the orthodox Jewish party now led by Elisha, who promptly re-promulgated Elijah's curse on the house ot Ahab. Jehu advanced on Jezreel, where Joram, recovering from wounds received in a campaign against the Syrians, was receiving a visit from his cousin Ahaziah, king of Judah. "So Jehu rode in a chariot, and went to J ezreel . . . And there stood a watchman on the tower in Jezreel, and he spied the company of Jehu as he came"; the watchman is depicted in the tapestry, in a tower over the gate of the city. Joram and Ahaziah rode out in chariots to investigate and met Jehu "in the portion of Naboth . .. And it came to pass, when Joram saw Jehu, that he said, Is it peace, Jehu? And he answered, What peace, so long as the whoredoms of thy mother Jezebel and her witchcrafts are so many? And Joram turned his hands, and fled, and said to Ahaziah, There is treachery, 0 Ahaziah. And

Jehu drew a bow with his full strength, and smote Jehoram between his arms, and the arrow went out at his heart, and he sunk down in his chariot. Then said Jehu to Bidkar his captain, Take up, and cast him in the portion of the field of Naboth ... according to the word of the Lord" (II Kings 9).

At the bottom of the tapestry we see King Joram (not Ahaziah as Mrs. Siple supposed) transfixed by Jehu's arrow and seized by armed men who are about to drag him from his canopied chariot. A stream of blood drops from his chest to the ground and a dog approaches to lick it, in fulfilment of the curse. Behind the chariot a warrior apparently carrying a bow and wearing a tabard with a device resembling an ornate letter H (for Hieu?) puts his arm round the shoulders of a second man and speaks to hi m ; this may be Jehu giving his order to Bidkar. Above, a body of mounted men pursues 5

a king and his companions into the hills behind Jezreel. This evidently represents the flight of Ahaziah, though it lacks the characteristic traits of the Biblical narrative. "Ahaziah .. . fled by way of the garden house. And Jehu followed after him, and said, Smite him also in the chariot. And they did so at the going up to Cur, which is by Ibleam. And he fled to Megiddo, and died there. And his servants carried him in a chariot to Jerusalem, and buried him in his sepulchre with his fathers in the city of David."

The next scene, in the centre of the tapestry, shows Jehu, now with crown and sceptre, entering Jezreel in triumph with his followers and passing in front of the palace. The caption comments:

Chy es t coment jesabel la roinne feme de acab fuit trebuchiet de hault en bas de son palais Here is how Jezebel the queen, wife of Ahab, was tumbled from top to bottom of her palace.

The fuller Biblical account is as follows (II Kings 9): " And when Jehu was come to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it ; and she painted her face, and tired her head, and looked out at a window. And as Jehu entered in at the gate, she said, Had Zimri peace, who slew his master ?" The reference here is to the assassination of Elah, king of Israel, by one of his principal officers, Zimri, who himself reigned only seven days before being overthrown by Omri, Ahab's father (I Kings 16) . " And he lifted up his fa ce to the window, and said, Who is on my side? Who? And there looked out to him two or three eunuchs. And he said, Throw her down.

So they threw her down ; and some of her blood was sprinkled on the wall, and on the horses: and he trode her under foot. And when he was come in, he did eat and drink, and said, Go, see now this cursed woman, and bury her : 6

for she is a king's daughter. And they went to 路 bury her : but they found no more of her than the skull, and the feet, and the palms of her hands. Wherefore they came again, and told him. And he said, This is the word of the Lord, which he spake by his servant Elijah the Tishbite, saying, In the portion of Jezreel shall dogs eat the flesh of Jezebel."

The next section on the right of the tapestry is captioned:

Chy est coment les samaritains sacorderent a hieu roy disrael Here is how the Samaritans came to terms with Jehu king of Israel.

The Bible text (II Kings 10) is as follows: " And Ahab had seventy sons in Samaria. And Jehu wrote letters, and sent to Samaria, unto the rulers of Jezreel, to the elders, and to them that brought up Ahab's children, saying . . . If ye be mine, and if ye will hearken unto my voice, take ye the heads of the men your master's sons, and come to me to Jezreel by to morrow this time." The delivery of a letter in the fortified city of Samaria is depicted at top right of the tapestry. "And it came to pass, when the letter came to them, that they took the king's sons, and slew seventy persons, and put their heads in baskets, and sent him them to Jezreel. And there came a messenger, and told him, saying, They have brought the heads of the king's sons . And he said, Lay ye them in two heaps at the entering in of the gate until the morning." The tapestry shows Jehu, the following morning, inspecting the severed and blindfolded heads in the presence of the assembled populace . The Bible quotes his speech on this occa sion, justifying his actions as the fulfilment of divine judgement. " Ye be righteous: behold, I conspired against my master, and slew him;

Delivery'of the letter (detail).

but who slew all these? Know now that there shall fall unto the earth nothing of the word of the Lord, which the Lord spake concerning the house of Ahab : for the Lord hath done that which he spake by his servant Elijah."

With the iconography of the tapestry clear, we may turn to its stylistic and historical aspects. In fact, nothing is certainly known of the history of the tapestry prior to its acquisition

by Mrs . Gardner in 1897, but fortunately its date and origin can be established accurately enough from internal evidence. As already noted, the inscriptions are in the Picard dialect, as spoken in the north-eastern extremity of the French-speaking area, including the great tapestry-weaving centres of Arras and Toumai. The text was certainly composed and the tapestry doubtless designed and woven in one of those towns or in some smaller centre in the same neighbourhood. The costume and armour depicted in the A hab tapestry are generally agreed to date from about 1460, give or take a few years. Rather similar fashions appear in the designs of tapestries which can be precisely dated to that time, notably the Alexander tapestries in Rome, of which a set was purchased by the Duke of Burgundy in 1459, the Trajan and Herkinbald tapestry in Bern, datable before 1461 on heraldic grounds, and the Swan Knight tapestries in Cracow and Vienna, of which the Duke of Burgundy bought a set in 1462. Besides the similarities of fashion, these tapestries are all related in style to the Ahab tapestry and the same ma y be said of others datable to the same period, such as the St. Peter set at Beauvais, dated 1460 by inscription, and the Old and New T estament series given to the abbey of SaintOmer in 1461. {For the literature of the tapestries mentioned, see J. P. Asselberghs, La T apisserie To urnaisienne au XVe siecle, Tournai, 1967.) Of the tapestries cited here the Alexander and the Swan Knight sets were bought from the great tapestry-dealer Pa squier Grenier of Tournai and 7

the remainder are commonly attributed to Tournai looms. Th is must be the most likely attribution for the Ahab tapestry also, though in the absence of documentary evidence an origin in one of the other centres of the Picard-speaking area cannot be excluded.

Besides the traits of local and period style which the Ahab tapestry shares with a number of others woven around 1460, it is possible to trace a much closer relationship with one other design, that of the Jephtha tapestries in Saragossa. The latter, two separate hangings, but each woven from the same cartoon, have been studied by J. K. Steppe (in Scrinium Lovaniense, Melanges Historiques Etienne van Cauwenbergh, 1961). He identifies them as survivors from two separate Jephtha sets, each comprising two tapes tries, one set recorded in the inve ntory of Pere de Portugal in 1466 and the other in that of Dona Juana Enriquez in 1468 .

The relationship between the Ahab and Jephtha tapestries seems to have been first noted by the English tapestry-historian H . C. Marillier who wrote to the Gardner Museum in 1930 comparing the costu mes, architecture and inscriptions of the tapestries and sugges ting that they might belong to the same se t (unpublished letter in 8

museum archives). The French historian R. A. Weigert also grouped these tapestries together, pointing out that the intense expressions of the faces, a characteristic of the Ahab tapestry already noted by Mrs. Siple, recur in the Jephtha tapestry (French Tapestry, London, 1962, p. 63).

Marillier was, however, mistaken in suggesting that the tapes tries might belong to the same set. The inventory descriptions of the Jephtha se ts include no Ahab subjects . Moreover, both the inscriptions and the architecture, which Marillier adduced in support of his idea, are far more elaborate in the Jephtha than in the Ahab tapes try . Even allowing for some blunting of the style of the Ahab tapestry by past restorations, it is perfectly clear that its figures and architecture were executed in a simple, vigorous, rather unadorned manner, which contrasts with the richer and more ornamental execution of the Jephtha tapestry. It is not likely that the two were produced by the same weavers.

Nevertheless, there is a close relationship betwee n them. There is, first of all, a kinship of theme. These are the only major tapestries survivi ng from this period which show narrative subjects from the Old Testament. Almost certai nl y both reflect to some extent the greatest

Comparison of details from the Ahab tapestry (left) and the ]eptha tapestry (right) in the Cathedral of San Salvador (La Seo) , Saragossa, Spain.

Old Testament series of the time, the lost Gideon set designed by Bauduin de Bailleu! of Arras (active from 1419 until his death in 1464) and woven for the Duke of Burgundy by Tournai contractors from 1449 to 1453. The Jephtha and Ahab stories are of roughly comparable narrative length and it seems likely that the Ahab set, like the Jephtha set, originally comprised two tapestries. The first tapestry of the Ahab set, now missing, would have shown the earlier incidents of the story, notably the judicial murder of Naboth and Elijah's curse on Ahab .

The arrangement of the extant Ahab and Jephtha pieces is very similar; both have a battle scene at one side, extending from top to bottom of the tapestry, and several further scenes which are subdivided by architectural forms. The ingenious figure compositions based on strongly marked diagonal axes are common to both tapestries. The scale, proportions, arrangement and spacing of the figures are very similar in both. The construction of little groups of figures in rigid formation with heads in the same attitude and gaze converging on a principal figure is also a characteristic feature . Both tapestries show in the upper part the delivery of a letter in similar subsidiary scenes of half-length figures . There are strong similarities between many individual figures . The ladies' costumes, jewelry and head-dresses are nearly identical in the two tapestries and the men's costumes are very similar. Characteristic renderings of men's hair, sometimes tight curls, sometimes looser curling locks, sometimes straight strands, are clearly repeated in both tapestries although the rendering of these effects by the weavers is somewhat less meticulous in the Ahab piece.

The connections between the Jephtha and Ahab designs are indeed so close and so specific that there can be little doubt that the same designer worked on both. Since the resemblances relate primarily to the composition and the figure-style, it is reasonable to suppose that this

man was responsible for the original small-scale design or petit patron and probably also for the figures in the full-size cartoons, while the architectural and other accessories may have been supplied by other hands. In the present state of our knowledge of fifteenth century tapestry designers we cannot identify him, but the fact that his style can be recognised in two major tapestry-designs of the period indicates that he was eminent in his profession and it is by no means impossible that evidence of his identity may eventually come to light.

To conclude this brief study of the Ahab tapestry, it is worth considering the documentary references to tapestries of this subject in the Este archives. Borso d'Este, Duke of Ferrara, bought many tapestries from Rinaldo Boteram of Brussels, a tapestry-merchant active in Italy in the middle years of the fifteenth century.

Among these were a single hanging (coltrina) with the story of Ahab, bought in 1461, and two hall tapestries (due pezzi d' arazzo da sala) depicting the story of Ahab, bought in 1469 (G .

Campori, L' arazzeria Estense, 1876). The story of Ahab is so rare in tapestry that this documentary evidence from the 146o's must without doubt be relevant to the Boston piece. Indeed, it is by no means impossible that the latter is actually one of the tapestries bought by Borso d'Este . But since it was normal practice to weave more than one edition of each design, it will be more prudent to assume that the Boston tapestry is probably a replica of one of the Este pieces.

However this may be, it is unquestionably an outstanding example, by a distinguished designer, of the superb tapestry style which was developed under the patronage of the Duke of Burgundy about the middle of the fifteenth century and which, within a very few years, was to be seen in all the princely halls of Western Europe.

Donald and Monique King 9

A Gothic Bestseller

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Johannes Nider, Sermones de Tempore et de Sanctis cum Quadragesimali, Esslingen, Germany, ca. 147678, Inv. No. U30cll, Gothic Room. The first page of the text.

10

The oldest printed book in the Gardner Museum is the Sermon es de T empore et de Sanctis cum Quadragesimali (Sermons for Sundays, Saints' Days, and Lent) by Johannes Nider, a German Dominican reform theologian and preacher. It was printed by Conrad Fyner of Esslingen, Germany, circa 1476-1478. Nider had died in 1438, two years before the traditional date of Gutenberg' s invention, and had left behind a corpus of religious writi ngs that were immensely popular among early printers and their public.

His writing was characteristic of the popular theology that Northern European presses in the fifteent h century patronized. Such incunables bear a striking resemblance to their Gothic manuscript predecessors. Indeed the commercial success of early printed books depended on this resemblance, for they were considered at first to be inferior to manuscripts, both in northern and southern Europe.

Italy, though, was turning toward another set of manuscript models for texts and script, namely those dassical texts preserved by copyists during the Carolingian Renaissance. Humanists were rediscovering the classical world and were learning to call the culture of the previous three centuries " Gothic," meaning barbaric and outmoded. Ironically the calligraphy of these classical manuscripts was the Carolingian minuscule developed in the monastic scriptoria of the ninth century. This script modified by the medium of metal type became the Roman type face, the type exclusively used for humanistic texts and the type we use today. But the Bible and traditional Christian writings continued to be printed in the familiar Gothic type that represented a link with the unbroken tradition of Christian book production. These two types of printed books competed side by side in the market place. Eventually the more legible Roman type and the secular book prevailed as publishers broke away from the restraints of manuscript imitation.

Johannes Nider was a Catholic moralist whose writings were collections of anecdotes drawn from life, the Bible, the Church Fathers and Doctors, and other common literary sources. He was particularly fond of citing St. Thomas Aquinas. His most important work was the Formicarius in which he urged Christians to labor at their religion with the zeal of the industrious ant for which the tract is named . This rich source of early fifteenth-century religious and social history was intended as a preacher's source book of sermon exempla. In it, diabolical activity, a subject that particularly interested Nider, is discussed at length. He had collected an impressive body of then-current demonic folklore, which he sought to refute with counterarguments and proofs culled from Catholic sources. As the compilatio is typical of Nider's literary style, he is now regarded more as an interesting editor than as an original thinker.

Indeed, the Dictionnaire de Theologie Catholique cites the following quotation from Nider admonishing writers like himself : "a cujusmodi compilatione si quisque quod suam est recipere velit, nihil aut modicum auctori manebit." (1487 Paris edition of Consolatorium timoratae conscientiae)

" If there is anyone who would claim as his own this manner of compilation, there will be nothing or only a trifle left for the author ."

Compilatio means literally a pillaging, and was considered a low form of literary activity by Cicero and other classical authors . However, in the Christian Middle Ages, the compilatio became a useful way of preserving and disseminating religious and cultural tradition to a less literate population. As a preacher and writer, Nider was not at all reluctant to borrow wisdom from any source, always, however, crediting the original author.

Much of Nider's popularity lay in the fact that he was attuned to his audience. One of his

treatises, D e Contractibus Mercatorum (On the Contracts of Merchants) is addressed to the rising class of merchants, and their Christian obligations in that capacity.

Nider waged an active campaign against the followers of John Hu ss, a powerful heretical sect in Bohemia, where he had been sent as papal legate . He abjured the use of violence in fighting such heresy whenever possible, as he preferred to rely upon the power of preachers armed with doctrinally sound sermons. The clergy was hi s direct audience, and they, in turn, translated his Latin sermons into the vernacular for lay congregations. He was also an ardent advocate for clerical reform. Nider enjoyed a distinguished career in the Church, and was dean of the facu lty of theology at Vienna at his death in 1438. His tract O n the Precepts of Divine Law enjoyed seventeen printings before 1500, while On the Contracts of Merchants had eight.

Th e Sermones had at least three editions before 1480. Clearly Catholic leaders like Nider were interested in rekindling religious spirit in large numbers of lay people. This was the great age of the sermon and its climax was reached with M artin Luther and the Protestant Reformation, when the press came into its own as the new medium .

Johannes Nider's Sermones is a continuous Sunday calendar for the liturgical year, with a special section of Lenten sermons, and sermons for the feast days of major saints. Following both the Sunday and Saints' Days sections are T abu lae or indices of the sermon s which preachers could consult in choosing texts to illustrate specific topics. Portions of the Tabula on the Saints' D ays section, with the initial Latin word and subsequent English translation of each entry, are listed below. They reflect the variety of Nider's pastoral concerns and his literary ingenuity:

11

A

B C

D

E L M

Accidia. Whether or not one should deplore misfortunes.

A ctiva Vita. What the active as opposed to the contemplative life should be like.

Advocati. Characteristics of good lawyers.

Agricola. How God is a farmer.

Amor. How complex love is .

Bellum . How the three-fold devil wages war with good men.

Certamen . The struggle with temptation.

Celum. With what lights heaven is decorated.

Caritas coniugalis. What is conjugal charity.

Co ngregatio . No congregation is perfect.

Corporis. What are bodily virtues .

Demon . How the demon tempts us.

Demon . How to recognize the devil when you see him.

Demon. How to vanquish the devil.

Demones. Whether there are many devils.

Demones. Demons' names and the feasts they honor.

Elemosina. Almsgiving.

Lepores. How lepers should be consoled.

Ludus. Idle sport should be discouraged.

Maternitas . The fourfold nature of motherhood.

Ma ria. Why Mary was betrothed.

M aria. How Mary bore and gave birth to Christ.

Mari a. Whether Mary can be called a martyr.

Matrimonius. What are legitimate grounds for marriage?

Matrimonius. Once contracted, how marriage ought to be observed.

M oriun tur. How different people face death differently, and why.

12

N

P

V Y

Mortis . How mindfulness of death is useful.

N egociator. What is a good businessman?

Negociator. How a businessman ought to behave for his spiritual welfare.

N obiles femine . How noble women ought to conduct themselves.

Pueri. Good children are praiseworthy.

Procuratores. How accountants ought to behave.

Purgatorium . What purgatory is like.

Vinea . How to tend your moral vineyard.

Virginitas . How virginity is praiseworthy.

Ydolorum . The names of idols and demons.

In both manuscripts and early printed books, a drawing of a hand with finger pointing to a significant text is often found . One such hand, skillfully drawn in red ink and contemporary with the rubricated capitals, points to the following text in the Sermones: On wifely jealously, Seneca gives the example of the philosopher Socrates who had two contentious and jealous wives . Once after one had hurled so much abuse that Socrates was forced to leave the house, in order to avoid more, she then drenched him with water.

'But,' said Socrates, 'I knew that where there was thunder, the rain would surely follow.'

Although his friends advised him to put his wives away, he said, 'With them at home, I learn how I ought to be even-tempered in the forum .' And then there is the jealousy of the wife who knows her husband to be out carousing with the boys, yet controls her temper and is silent, ignoring it, when she ought to have remedied this deplorable state of affairs .

(Page faro) This quality of writing established Nider's reputation and promised success for any printer who chose to publish his works.

The Sermon es on a refectory table in the Gothic Room.

Conrad Fyner, the first printer in the Wiirttemberg city of Esslingen, began his career in 1472 with an edition of the second part of St. Thomas Aquinas' s Summa Theologica . In 1479 he moved to another Wiirttemberg city, Urach, where he established a press and worked until 1481, after which date he is heard of no more.

Fifty-one imprints are attributed to him, including an edition of Johannes Nider's On the Contracts of Merchants (1474-1475) . He also printed the works of such varied authors as Julius Caesar, Petrarch, Peter Lombard, and several contemporary authors. With few exceptions, his books are in Latin printed in his characteristic Gothic type. Before 1480, each printer commissioned from local craftsmen type molds from which his typ~ font was to be cast, making each press's type unique. Fyner identified himself by a colophon in some of his publications during his career which encompassed two Esslingen presses and the one Urach press . Therefore, although there is no colophon in the Sermones, scholars can, by identifying the type, ascribe it to the later years of Fyner's first Esslingen press. His own Gothic type is more rounded and legible

to the modern reader than many, although, like other printers of Gothic type, he adapted from the script all the difficult conjoint letters and numerous abbreviations. Following the example of manuscript tradition, he maintained even margins and left spaces for capital letters to be drawn in by hand. This copy is gracefully decorated with red capitals and underlinings.

Unlike the other nine incunables in the Gardner collection, the Sermones of Johannes Nider (Number *11799 in Hain, Repertorium Bibliographicum ) is listed neither in the Stillwell nor Goff census of American incunabula . It was purch ased in 1922 from G . Michelmore and Co., in London, one of the last items Mrs. Gardner acquired before her death in 1924. The binding, fa stened with a chain at the top of the back cover, indicates that it originally belonged to a Northern European monastery. The chain prevented theft, while permitting the use of the book in the library. There is also a note in a late hand at the top of page a3r 0 , "Carmelites, Bamberg," suggesting that monastery as a possible provenance. Finely engraved brass corner pieces and clasps served to protect the book from

13

Line drawings from the original watermarks. The grapecluster, ca. 1460 from Pignerol in the Piedmont, is No. 13002 in C. M. Briquet's Les Filigranes. The bull's head, dated 1483 from Brescia, found on the binder's shee ts, is No. 14873. Germany was dependent upon Italian paper during the early years of printing.

its natural enemies of wear and dust. The dark brown calf cover on wooden boards has been badly worn away, obscuring the detail of the stamped ornaments, while still revealing their general overall arrangement. The binding has not been identified.

Lining the leather spine of the book are two fragments from an early manuscript. This was a common bookbinder's procedure, when a manuscript had become more valuable for its vellum than for its text. Although this process has destroyed many manuscripts, it has preserved others and makes exciting sport for modern scholars.

Paul Meyvaert of the Mediaeval Academy of America, Cambridge, Massachusetts, has identified the bifolio fragments as leaves from an early eleventh-century German missal. On the left-hand fragment, there are readings for the feasts of SS. Praxedes (July 21) and Mary Magdalene CJ uly 22), and on the right-hand fragment is a reading for the feast of S. Anne CJ uly 26) from the Book of Proverbs. One folio is missing between the two leaves represented by these fragments . David Hughes of the Music Department of Harvard University has found the notation on the right-hand fragment to be in a later German hand, possibly of mideleventh century origin, and appropriate to its accompa nying text.

This folio-sized copy of Nider's Sermones de tempore et de Sanctis cum Quadragesimali is complete in its text and includes the three blank leaves described in the British Museum Catalogue of Fifteenth Century Books. It measures 29.1 cm . in height. This edition has neither signatures nor page numbers which must have always been tiresome for its readers. The following collation has been postulated for this copy: (ab1ocd8e- k10.s.s1sm1onosp1oqsr-y10.s.sz10 A-DBÂŁ1oaadd8ee10ff-pp8qq6) , making a total of 372 leaves.

The Gardner copy has two Tabulae each following directly after its appropriate sermon

Fragment of the Xlc German missal with musical notation (inside back cover) .

Illustration of No. 270. NIDER (Johann) - Sermones . . . in catalogue No. 5 of G. Michelmore & Co., Pall Mall, London.

section. Therefore the Tabula super Sermonibus de Tempore belongs in signature (A) of the copy, while it occupies signature (pp) in the British Museum copy in which the Tabulae are found together at the end of the volume. The Bodleian Library' s copy at Oxford and the Library of Congress's copy have an arrangement similar to the Gardner's. However, there appears to be an anomalous feature in the museum's evidently not found in other copies . Two leaves from signature (pp) have printing on one side only with no interruption in the text itself, (pp2b) and (pp7a) being the blank sides. The binder, too, has interfered with the progress of the text by folding a sheet of paper around the first and last gatherings, causing two extraneous blank leaves with respect to the book as it left the printer's shop .

The presence of Johannes Nider's Sermones in the Gardner Museum is perhaps unexpected to those who know only of Mrs . Gardner' s taste for early editions of Dante. It is indicative of the variety and quality of her library .

Rebecca Karo

Claude 13achet's Les Epistres d' Ovide

Among the less visible treasures of the Gardner Museum is a copy of Claude Bachet' s 1626 translation of the Heroides entitled Les Epistres d' Ovide traduittes en vers fran\:ois avec des commentaires fort curieux . Printed by Jean Tainturier, this book is one of the earliest produced at Bourg en Bresse. The Gardner copy was bound in three separate volumes of old dark green morocco for the Marquis d'Entragues whose chiffre appears on the spine.1 Claude Gaspar Bachet, Sieur de Meziriac, was not the first Frenchman to render the Heroides into his native tongue. Octovien de Saint-Gelais published his Les xxi epistres d'Ovide at the beginning of the sixteenth century. It was followed in 1552 by Charles Fontaine's Les Epistres d'Ovide nouvellement mises en vers francoys .2 Comments by Fontaine and Bachet make clear that each subsequent translator had knowledge of his predecessors.

In his "Petit Advertissement aux Lecteurs" Fontaine speaks of Saint-Gelais as having written "lors que nostre langue frarn;:oise n'estoit pas encor bien auant sortie de son enfance" (p. 9) .

Bachet mentions both Saint-Gelais and Fontaine in his preface adding, " Mais comme ces deux ont escrit en vn siecle assez grassier, & auquel nostre langue estoit bien esloignee de sa perfection, il faut aduouer, qu'ils ont merite plus de lotiage, pour auoir fait vne si belle entreprise, que pour en estre venus a bout heureusement" (sig. *3v).

The temptation to dismiss each man's claims as so much propaganda for his new translation should probably be resisted. It is an established fact that in the course of the sixteenth century the French language evolved significantly and these translations provide further evidence of the transformation that occurred in poetic diction and prosody during the century. Saint-Gelais and 16

Fontaine use decasyllabic verse; Bachet, the alexandrine. Moreover, Bachet exhibits the capacity to exploit the longer verse line. He is better able than Fontaine to avoid the delayage so prevalent among sixteenth-century translators. Compare the structure and economy of Bachet's le me consume, helas ! come vne torche ardente Ou le souffre se treuue auec la cire ioint, Et iour & nuit Aenee a mes yeux se presente, Et de penser en luy ie ne me lasse point (p. 653) with Fontaine's le brusle, ainsi comme torche de cire Auec le soulfre, ou comme on pourroit dire L'encens qu'on iette au feu des mortuaires: Et a mes yeux, a tout repos contraires, Tousiours vn seul Eneas se presente: Le iour, la nuict Eneas represente Dedans mon cceur continuellement. (p. 142) Bachet demonstrates also that a certain shift in poetic language has taken place in French letters.

Compare Bach et' s Ainsi le Cygne au bord du fleuue de Meadre, Alors que de mourir il semble estre content, Couche parmi les fleurs, & parmi l'herbe tendre Va d'vne douce voix ses obseques chantant (p. 652) with Fontaine's Le cigne blanc chante ainsi au riuage De Meander, dessus l'humide herbage, Triste & seulet, pour dernier reconfort, Lors qu'il se sent aprocher de la mort (p. 140) or Saint-Gelais's Comme le cigne quad mort luy est prochaine Doulcement chante & a voix tresseraine Pareillement ie Dido .. . 3 â&#x20AC;˘ Saint-Gelais skims over the Latin text and omits any mention of the swan's surroundings. Fontaine is more faithful to Ovid but nothing in his

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version approaches Bach et' s careful structuring ("Ainsi . . . Alors . . . Couche . .. Va . . ."), the repetition of "parmi" and the artful movement of the fourth line with its three mute e's and use of "obseques."

Instructive, these aspects of the translations can also be charted in many other literary works of the day. The particular value of these renderings of Ovid's Heroides is to be found elsewhere.

Although Bachet was for a time a member of the Society of Jesus and taught rhetoric at Milan, 4 his way of describing Ovid is quite out of keeping with such a background. Indeed, it is SaintGelais and Fontaine, not Bachet, who make reference to Ovid's eloquence. In presenting his work Saint-Gelais speaks of the "treseloquent & renome poete Ouide." This linking of Ovid with eloquence is later reinforced when he offers the work to its dedicatee "pour manifester a vous seigneur en vulgaire stile ce i:j lague tant de bien dire coustumiere daigna nous laisser par escript en tres aoemee et parfaite eloquace."

At the close of his translation Fontaine affixes a short essay in which his efforts are seen as useful for two reasons. First, they are an example of good style ("rhetorique"), since in the Heroides " lon y sent, & recongnoist la vertu de dire du Poete tant estime, !es propos bien deduictz, les raisons & argumens de bonne inuention, !es motz bien couchez & appropriez, les belles comparaisons ou similitudes, les couuertes & douces insinuations, les fortes & apparentes persuasions, !es conclusions pleines de grandes & vehementes affections: a brief parler, la grace & efficace du Poete" (p. 233) . Secondly, the work is credited with the possibility of improving morals: "pource qu'il n'y a personne tant adonnee & eschaufee en ]'amour voluptueuse, qui n'en soit bien refroidie, & destoumee, apres qu'elle aura bien leu icy dedans, & bien considere !es peines & miseres des amoureux . . ." (p. 234).

For Bachet, the Heroides is Ovid's work "le plus remply de belles conceptions, le mieux lime,

& le plus poly" (sig. *3r). These considerations are hardly unrelated to rhetoric but whereas Fontaine enumerates the many individual rhetorical devices, Sachet emphasizes the overall care in execution. Missing completely from his remarks is any allusion to the Heroides's moral value. His many pages of commentary deal exclusively with such aspects as the background of the individuals mentioned in the letters and explanation of particular lines. These commentaries are far longer and more scholarly than the "Annotations" that Fontaine placed at the end of each of the translated letters.

Studies on sixteenth and seventeenth-century French letters have to some degree always recognized the existence of a transformation in attitudes toward classical literature comparable to the one sketched in these quotations . However, the phenomenon remains ill-defined and rather simplistically conceived. How many times have we heard that Renaissance humanism "rediscovered" antiquity; yet Fontaine's volume leaves no doubt that the sixteenth century continued in its way the medieval practice of using classical letters to illustrate and teach . By calling the seventeenth century France' s "Classical" period, critics have often implied that the authors held in great esteem the literary canons of antiquity ; yet it is Fontaine who draws attention to the constituent elements of good style present in the Heroides.

Bach et' s efforts are no less instructive. Given that his commentaries are more scholarly than those provided by Fontaine but also devoid of reference to moralizing, we must observe that for at least one learned mind scholarship in 1626 was no longer equated with moral purpose. Other of his remarks show antiquity to be a model of polished style but not necessarily of rhetorical devices. In both instances Sachet helps us to date with greater precision at what moment in time France undertook a serious reevaluation of its humanist traditions.

Moreover, by contrast he also points up the very particular nature of much of the scholarship effected by the Northern humanists in the sixteenth century. Despite what writers and scholars of that period may have said about their learning, it was often of the summary quality of Fontaine's " Annotations ." No less often it was linked to that desire to relate antiquity and moralizing which Fontaine also illustrates. This can be demonstrated for poems by the Pleiade as well as art work produced in France during the same period such as the famous Galerie Franr;:ois I at Fontainebleau. Sachet has separated the work of art and its aesthetic virtues from the domain of glosses . In so doing he announces a change in literary attitudes in France as momentous as any that occurred between the medieval and Renaissance eras.

Donald Stone, Jr.

NOTES 1 Collati on : x7, A-ZS, Aa- Z zS, Aaa-RrrS, Sss4 (leaf X2 is in the British Museum or the Biblioth~que Nationale. Their s igned X3 ) ; Bbb5, Bb5; Nnn5, '5) . No . IS02 in the Gerald E. earliest title is dated I556, a fact which explains why CioHart co llec ti o n. Purchased by Mrs. Gardner from Chas . F. ranesco 's Bibliographie de la litt erature fran<;aise du seizieme Libbie & Co ., Bos ton, April IS , I S90 . I.b.z /33-35, Long Gallery. si ecle makes no mention of a 1552 edition.

Ide ntical volumes exis t in the Houghton Library and the 3 Les xxi epistres d'ovide translatees de latin en francais Biblio theque N ationale .

(Paris , I526) , fol. xliir.

2 I have consulted the I552 edition printed in Lyons by Jean Temporal owned by Houghton Library. No such copy exists

18

See Rene Kerviler, Claude-Gaspard M â&#x201A;Źziriac (Paris , 1880) , p. 9.

4

Bachet,

seigneur

de

Leaves from Bayreuth

In the foothills of Lower Bavaria, northeast of Munich, lies a small town for which Isabella Stewart Gardner and countless music-lovers like her have felt a special reverence. There in Bayreuth, Richard Wagner, with the help of King Ludwig II, erected an opera theatre, the Festspielhaus, adequate to the special needs of his massive music-dramas. Since its inauguration in 1876 with the first performances of the Ring cycle, the annual Bayreuth Festival of Wagner's operas has been a place of pilgrimage for the musical connoisseur. It was more so in Mrs . Gardner's time, since, at Wagner's own insistence, Bayreuth was for thirty years the only theatre permitted to

perform his last opera Parsifal. The Gardners made several trips to Bayreuth during their summers in Europe and their impressions remain in the collection and the museum archives.

In its early years, the Bayreuth Festival published an official bulletin entitled Bayreuther Blatter (Leaves from Bayreuth), an allusion perhaps to the vaulting shade trees whose leaves slowly carpet the earth a mellow brown every August during Festival season. Mrs. Gardner, too, had her " leaves" from Bayreuth, although she didn' t call them that: memorabilia of her trips and tokens of her admiration for Wagner's music.

These leaves are of different kinds: the pages 19

,1011

a;~,trr :;

\'"1 11

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Travel Journal, vol. 1, v.1.a/4.13, Bayreuth, July 28 - August 7, 1886. Page 10 with photographs of the Festspielhaus, Wagner in his study and Ludwig II of Bavaria . The winged figure refers to the death of the King by drowning on 13 June 1886. (The illustrations on page 19 of this article are from page 15 of the Journal . These photographs show Wagner, his home " Wahnfried," Wagner's grave site and an ivy leaf Mrs. Gardner saved from her first trip to Bayreuth.)

20

From page 11 of the Journal for 28 July 1886. Photographs of Gudehus as Tristan and Materna as Isolde with sketches of the Festspielhaus and a page from Parsifal.

from her Travel Journal, an autograph Wagner letter (discussed separately below), librettos, and one treasured ivy leaf from the site of Wagner' s grave.

The Gardners' first trip to Bayreuth, from 28 July to 7 August 1886, is documented in Volume I of Mrs. Gardner's Travel Journal. More a scrapbook than a diary, it contains postcards and photographs of Wagner, his patron Ludwig II of Bavaria, the Festspielhaus, Wagner's home "Wahnfried" and the composer's ivy-covered grave. It is hard for us to realize that Wagner had been dead for only three years when Mrs. Gardner made this trip and the Festival itself was only in its eleventh season. The singers she heard and whose pictures are represented in the Journal, are the very singers who had created the roles or who in any case had sung them under Wagner's own direction at the Festival: Materna, Gudehus,

Sucher and Reichmann. The aged Liszt died at Bayreuth while Mrs. Gardner was there (31 July) and there are pictures of the master both alive and lying in state, as well as a view of the crowded funeral procession moving down the main street.

There was time for side trips to the Eremitage where, according to the caption in Mrs. Gardner's hand, Ludwig II and Otto I "slept in one little bed" when young, to Rollwenzel's house "where Jean Paul [Richter] wrote" and to the picturesque town of Berneck. But there is a good chance that the Gardners spent much of the time in the Festspielhaus, for Mrs. Gardner notes below a photograph:

Wagner Theatre Parsifal Tristan [und Isolde]

Six performances July 30 Aug 2 & 6 July 29 Aug 1 & 5 21

This may be Mrs. Gardner's record of the performances given at the Festival during her stay rather than those which she actually attended.

But we should not forget that in a day when there were no recordings and when live performances of the Wagner operas, notably Parsifal, were rare, a music-lover - and Mrs. Gardner was surely that - might well attend three Tristans and three Parsifals in eight days.

The Boston composer Clayton Johns, one of Mrs. Gardner's proteges, records in his Reminiscences (1929) some details of the Gardners' next trip to Bayreuth in 1888, notably a party at Wagner's house, hosted by his widow Cosima (nee Liszt). Johns recalls that, after introductions were made by Boston Symphony conductor Wilhelm Gericke,

On page 14 near this photograph, Mrs. Gardner wrote: " Liszt died late Saturday night July 31 & was buried Tuesday Aug. 3."

Frau Cosima received us graciously, particularly Mrs. Gardner. Materna [Wagner's original Briinnhilde] sang a scene from Gi:itterdammerung and other stars obliged with selections until it was early morning.

Mrs. Gardner remained interested in Wagner and during summers in Europe continued to attend the Festival. In 1892 the Gardners spent a week in Bayreuth; in 1894 they attended a lengthy performance of Gotterdiimmerung in Munich. Back in Bayreuth in August 1897 for the Ring, Mrs. Gardner annotated her libretto with the names of the singers: Gulbranson, Sucher and the young Schumann-Heink in leading women's roles ; Burgstaller, Van Rooy and Vogl among the men. With a broken leg in 1898 she insisted on hearing Walter Damrosch's Boston performance of Lohengrin from an offstage wheel chair. In 1902 B. J. Lang presented her with the libretto of Parsifal for Christmas, just prior to conducting a private performance in Symphony Hall in January 1903 (with Van Rooy now as Amfortas). And an undated libretto for Die Meistersinger inscribed " I. S. Gardner, Vienna" suggests still other performances which she may have attended.

22

Around 1900 Mrs. Gardner's musical allegiance began to shift. Largely through the influence of the great violinist, composer and Francophile Charles Martin Loeffler, she moved from the German masters favored by her earlier musical advisers Johns and Gericke to the works of Faure, Franck, d'Indy and perhaps even Debussy. But the attraction for Wagner must have remained, for when in 1921, only three years before her death, Loeffler' s wife Elise wanted to give Mrs. Gardner a Christmas gift, she could think of nothing more appropriate than the English translation of the Wagner-Nietzsche correspondence.

Apparently Mrs. Gardner's fascination with the self-professed prophet of the Music of the Future, so well captured in the leaves of her Travel Journal of 1886, did not die quickly.

Richard Wagner's revealing letter to the great tenor Joseph Tichatscheck is published in an English translation here for the first time. It was published in German in an abridged version only in 1883, first in the Vienna Neue freie Presse on 21 February and then reprinted, according to Wilhelm Altmann's catalogue of Wagner letters, in the Allgemeine deutsche Musikzeitung. The passages omitted consisted of the sentence in folio 2 beginning, " Her health is of course seriously impaired," and the two paragraphs in folio 1 2 , beginning " That is all for today!"

At the time the letter was first published, it was in the collection of the recipient's daughter, Frau Josephine Rudolph-Tichatscheck. It is marked twice with the figure "7"; perhaps Josephine wished to indicate its chronological relationship to other letters from the composer to her father. Mrs. Gardner must have received it sometime after 1883, perhaps as a gift from one of her musician friends or fellow Wagnerians .

As the original editor pointed out, the letter is a clear example of Wagner's skill at winning and keeping an ally. Tichatscheck had created the title role in Wagner's early opera Rienzi, the Last of the Tribu nes (1842) and he remained one of Wagner's most loyal supporters . Wagner had recently moved from Zurich to Venice with hopes of re-settling in Dresden. He wrote to Tichatscheck to thank him for his part in the recent revival of Rienzi in Dresden and at the same time to keep himself in the tenor' s good graces. Wagner could never afford to lose a singer who understood his music. He also needed every influential friend in Dresden, for he was seeking amnesty from the King of Saxony, the land that had banished him in 1849 for his revolutionary activities (which were the result, as h e puts it contritely to Tichatscheck, of a " delusion" common to many of his generation) .

In closing, Wagner sends greetings to two of his closest friends and associates in Dresden, the chorus-master Wilhelm Fischer and the stage designer Ferdinand Heine, both of whom had

collaborated on the premiere of Rienzi and had supported Wagner's efforts ever since. No doubt Wagner wished to count on their aid, too, in his attempt to return to Dresden. There are also strong suggestions that Wagner wanted to be invited back to Dresden as the prestigious Kapellmeister (music director) of the Opera, although he does not state this outright.

The letter is interesting for another reason, for a passage that was cut by the editor in 1883.

Wagner speaks rather blandly of his wife Minna's "suffering condition," by which he seems to mean the heart problem for which she had often been treated . Certainly it is true that, as Wagner says, "she was in need of rest," but Wagner does not explain why it had become impossible for her to get that rest when they were in Zurich . The fact is that the couple had been living in a small house on the estate of Wagner's patron Otto Wesendonk, and Minna had become unbearably suspicious of Wagner' s increasingly passionate relations with Otto's yo ung wife Mathilde . Many things are still not clear about the relationship between Wagner and Mathilde Wesendonk, but the two certainly did exch ange lofty love letters and poetry and often crossed the garden to visit with each other alone. Wagner set five of Mathilde's poems to music (the beautiful " W esen donk-Lieder" for soprano) , and we know that he identified Mathilde with the heroines of his two current opera projects : Sieglinde in Die Walkiire and Isolde.

The manuscript of the first act of Die Walkiire contains no less than seventeen cryptic marginal exclamations of love to Mathilde. Minna's suspicions were not without basis .

It was to put an end to all the tension and recriminations that Wagner left Zurich for Venice and sent his wife to stay with her relatives in Zwickau . His reference to Minna's " suffering condition" in the letter to Tichatscheck is thus a case of false na'ivete, for she was the victim, not primarily of an ailment in her own heart, but of the perpetual vagaries of Richard Wagner's.

Palazzo Giustiniani.

Campiello Squillini. 3228.

Venedig. 27 Sept. 58.

Nun endlich zu Dir, mein Heber vortiefflicher Freund! Dass ich so spat dazu komme, Dir fiir Deine glorreiche Wiedererweckung des Tribunen zu danken, daran bist Du, und ist diese Wiedererweckung eben selbst Schuld. Meine Lage, die augenblicklich ausserordentlicher Hiilfsmittel bedarf, nothigte mich, sofort und zunachst nichts zu unterlassen, um den Dir verdankten neuen Erfolg so vortheilhaft wie moglich auszubeuten, weshalb ich fiir einige Zeit fast immer nur Theatercorrespondenzen zu fiihren hatte, die mich ganz in Beschlag nahmen fiir das Briefschreiben. Dir wollte ich aber recht ordentlich und verniinftig schreiben, und nun muss ich Dich doch am Ende bitten, endlich wieder mit einem unverniinftigen Briefe vorlieb zu nehmen, denn ich habe schon zu vie! von mir gegeben.

Aber das muss ich Dir sagen, wie Du ein Wunder Deiner Art bist, so fiihle ich auch, class Du zu mir in ganz wunderbaren Beziehungen stehst. Du warst, wenn ich zuriickdenke, der Erste, der mich bei meinem Vortritt an die Offentlichkeit 1 [fol. 1 ] voll und riickhaltslos anerkannte ; die Proben zu Rienzi werde ich nie vergessen, ich habe nach dieser Seite hin keine schonere, anregendere Erinnerung meines Lebens. Das war vor 16 Jahren ; und nach dieser Zeit bist Du es iffier und einzig wieder, der mir unverandert, mit derselben Kraft, mit derselben Liebe zur Seite steht . Diese Wiederauferstehung des Rienzi unter Deinen Auspizien wird fiir die Kunstgeschichte ein ganz einziger Zug bleiben. Ich kann Dir iffier nur sagen : ich danke Dir! Fiir alles mehrige bin ich so unvermogend, und meine traurige Lage ist

24

Palazzo Giustianini Campiello Squillini, No. 3228 Venice, 27 September [18]58 Now finally to you, my dear, excellent friend!

That I am so late in thanking you for your glorious re-awakening of the Tribune [Rienzi] is your own fault and the fault of that very reawakening itself. My circumstances, which at the moment need extraordinary assistance, required me not to let pass a single means of exploiting as advantageously and quickly as possible this new success (for which I have you to thank). Thus for a time I was obliged to write almost nothing but letters to theaters, which took up all the time I had for letter-writing. I really wanted to write you a good, sensible letter, and now I must ask you after all to be satisfied once again with an " unsensible" letter, for I have already given too much of myself.

But this much I must say to you. Just as you are a marvel in your own right, I feel that you are marvelous in your relationship to me. You were, as I think back on it, the first to recognize me 1 [fol. 1 ] fully and unrestrainedly at my first appearance before the public; I will never forget the rehearsals for Rienzi - I ha ve in my life no more beautiful, more stimulating memory of the sort . That was 16 years ago; and since that time you alone continue to stand by me unchanged, with the same strength, with the same love. This resurrection of Rienzi under your auspices will remain a unique development in the history of art . I can still only say to you, " Thank you!" I am so powerless to do anything more, and my dreary situation is eternally in such need of help,

ewig so hiilfsbediirfthig, class ich die Freundschaft der Meinigen immer nur in Anspruch nehmen, sie aber mit Nichts, als eben nur meinem Danke erwidern kann. - Aber was ich thun will, ist, in meinem Testamente zu bestimmen, class man uns Beiden in Dresden beim Theater ein Monument setzt; wir beide miissen da ausgehauen werden, und in Zukunft soll man sagen, wenn man auf unsre Statuen weist: " Da stehen sie alle Beide, besondersch der Tichatscheck !" - Was mich betrifft, so bin ich nun seit 4 Wochen in Venedig, und finde class ich es zunachst hier aushalten [fol. 2] werde. Die wunderbare Stille, ohne alles Wagengerausch, meine Wohnung am grossen Canal, die hochst interessante Stadt und Bevolkerung, das alles sagt mir zu, und stimmt mein Gemiith zur nothigen Ruhe.

Die schone Luft, der immer heitre Himmel, mit den wundervollen Abenden, wirken vortheilhaft auf meine Gesundheit, und vor allem ist es mir lieb, hier die vollstandigste Zuriickgezogenheit und UngestOrtheit mir erhalten zu konnen. Ich sehe und empfange Niemand. Nachster Tage erwarte ich nun meinen herrlichen Fliigel und hoffe zu Gott dann auf gliickliche Wiederaufnahme meiner Arbeit. Das ist am Ende Alles, was ich Dir von mir sagen kann.

Fiir meine arme Frau hoffe ich nun auch bald auf Besserung ihres leidenden Zustandes. Ihre Gesundheit ist natiirlich auf das aeusserste angegriffen, und Ruhe, wie sie ihr nur die Entfernung von unsrem letzten Aufenthalte geben konnte, war ihr so nothig, class ich jetzt sehr getrostet bin, sie ihr versichert zu wissen. Bald gedenkt sie nun auch nach Dresden zu kommen, und scheint sich dazu zu bestimen, sich dort einzurichten, was mir auch sehr recht ist. Ich selbst, wenn mich spater nichts besondres abhalt, konnte mich gem auch in Dresden still niederlassen, natiirlich nur um zu privatisiren. So verlebten wir auch unser Alter am Ende noch [fol. 2 1 ] behaglich zusammen.

Eine Heimat muss man doch am Ende haben, und ich habe nichts gegen Dresden, iiberall sonst ware ich doch eigentlich fremd. Gebe nur der Himmel, class Eurem "allverehrten Konige" endlich einmal Milde ankame, und er diesem traurigen Zustande der Opfer einer einstigen allgemeinen Verblendung ein Ende machte ! Hoffen wir es! -

that, though I put demands on the friendship of my acquaintances, I can still respond to it with nothing but my thanks - But what I do want to do is state in my will that a monument should be placed in both our memory in the Dresden theater ; there should be sculptures made of us both, and in the future people will say, when they point at our statues: " There the two of 'em are, especially Tichatscheck !" As for myself, I have been in Venice for 4 weeks, and I think that I will stay here for a [fol. 2] while. The marvelous quiet (with no noise of carriages), my lodgings on the Great Canal, the highly interesting city and its people - all of this appeals to me and attunes my spirit to the peace which I need . The beautiful air, a sky which is always clear, plus the wonderful evenings, have a beneficial effect on my health . And above all I like it here because I can have the most complete seclusion and isolation . I see and receive nobody. In the next few days I expect my wonderful grand piano [a recent gift from Mme Erard] and hope to God that I will be able then to pick up my work successfully again. That is really all that I can tell you of myself.

For my poor wife I can only hope now for a quick improvement in her suffering condition.

Her health is of course seriously impaired, and she was in such need of rest - which she could only get by being away from our previous residence [Zurich] - that I am now consoled to know that she will be getting it. She is considering coming to Dresden soon and seems to be making up her mind to establish herself there, which is fine with me. I myself, if nothing in particular holds me back, could gladly settle quietly in D resden, of course only as a private citizen. In this way we would spend our old-age contentedly [fol. 2 1] together after all . One must have a homeland and I have nothing against Dresden - everywhere else I would actually be a stranger. Heaven only grant that your " Honoured King" be kind and put an end to the wretched state of the victims of what was at the time a common delusion! Let us hope so! 25

Fiir heute nimm vorlieb ! Griisse meine Freunde herzlichst, und sage ihnen grossen Dank fiir ihre Anhanglichkeit. Dass man Dich so gefeiert hat, ist eine spate Nachholung des langversaumten: man hat Dich in Dresden nie nur halbwegs nach Verdienst gewiirdigt. So hat mich's denn <loch sehr, sehr gefreut !

Griiss' auch Frau Pauline, Bruder Fischer und Papa und Mama Hei ne! Der Richard ware nun in Venedig, aber nicht Kapellmeister.

Jetzt will ich den T ristan fertig machen, dann einmal sehen, wie' s in der Welt um mich aussieht!

Leb' woh l, bester alter Freund! Reichen wir uns die Hand, wie ein paar alte Kampfgenossen, und bleiben wir uns iffier treu !

Dein Richard Wagner. '\. ~

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That is all for today! Greet my friends most warmly and thank them greatly for their loyalty.

The praise you are getting now is only making up belatedly for a long neglect. You have never been appreciated in Dresden even halfway according to your merits. That's why it has pleased me a great, great deal!

My regards also to Frau Pauline, Brother [Wilhelm] Fischer and Papa [Ferdinand] and Mama Heine! Tell them Richard is now in Venice, although not as Kapellmeister.

Now I want to complete Tristan and then I'll see how things look in the world around me!

Farewell, good old friend! Let us join hands, like a couple of old battle comrades, and let us stay faithful forever.

Yours Richard Wagner

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( Wagner's stay in Venice was one of the most peaceful periods in his rocky career. He took daily walks, either alone or with friends, and composed the Second Act of Tristan und Isolde, perhaps the greatest single musical achievement of his career. But his letter to Tichatscheck and the many oth ers like it to various Saxon artists and officials were largely unsuccessful. Tichatscheck remained personally faithful to Wagner and his work ; the next year (1859) he sang the title role in the belated Dresden premiere of

Loh engrin (first given in Weimar in 1850.) The Saxon authorities, however, refused Wagner the political amnesty he so urgently desired, and the composer soon left Venice to continue looking elsewhere - Lucerne, Paris and Vienna - for a patron and a suitable sphere of operation. He would finally find the one in Bavaria's Ludwig II and the other in the town of Bayreuth, but the search would not be fulfilled for another seventeen years .

Ralph P. Locke

Ralph Adams Cram and Mrs. Gardner: The Movement for a Liturgical Art

Ralph Adams Cram (1863-1942) from a photograph taken in the early 1890' s. Boston Public Library Architectural Archive.

The first retrospective exhibition of the work of Ralph Adams Cram (1863-1942), the foremost American Gothic scholar-architect of his time, which opened at the Boston Public Library on 5 December 1975, included new material relating to Cram and Mrs . Gardner that will be of increasing interest to scholars as they begin to probe more deeply into the intellectual background of both. Although only four letters survive from their friendship of thirty years, Cram's own typescript of an early draft of his memoirs, My Life in Architecture (Boston, 1936), discloses that though Mrs . Gardner's name did not appear in the printed version, his first thought had been to mention her in the chapter in which he discussed those figures in the arts in Boston in the 188o's and 189o's who had most influenced him.

It was his duties, Cram remembered, as art critic of the Boston Transcript in the mid-188o's, that first brought him into " remote contact" with Mrs . Gardner and her "notable circle," among whom he named Mrs. James T. Fields, Mrs. Maude Howe Elliott and the poet, Louise Imogen Guiney. While one could obviously debate endlessly on which is more significant - Cram's original remarks or his decision to omit them the fact that he first crossed out all the names but Guiney's and only crossed out the whole paragraph about Mrs. Gardner and her friends at a later reading suggests his train of thought; as Guiney was perhaps Cram's closest friend, he probably had reservations about naming her along with other and better known figures whose influence on him was not nearly so great.

Moreover, he may have felt that he had little choice but to omit the whole paragraph once he realized that he could hardly name only Guiney without implying that she was the leader of this "notable circle."

The omitted paragraph is also of interest because Cram went on to remark that Guiney was the " liaison officer" between him and his friends and Mrs. Gardner and her circle ; actually Guiney may well have introduced Cram to Mrs. Gardner in the first place. The fact that it was Guiney who introduced Cram to Bernard Berenson during the same period not only makes this more likely, but may also suggest the nature of Cram' s relationship with Mrs. Gardner. Cram liked and admired Berenson. But Cram argued for the Middle Ages as against the Renaissance in a correspondence with Berenson that while friendly enough to have lasted over fifty years was nonetheless too passionate to have allowed any sort of collaboration ; that Cram needed a " liaison officer" with Mrs . Gardner suggests a similarly quixotic relationship with the future chatelaine of Fenway Court, with whom Cram never collaborated on any known project.

It is scarcely a secret that both Cram and Mrs. Gardner were devoted to Venice, and that both were fascinated rather earlier than most with Japan. Only recently, however, has it become clear that Cram also knew and was influenced by Charles Eliot Norton and that he was even more strongly affected by Okakura-Kakuzo. As Cram and Mrs. Gardner were also ardent Wagnerians, it is hardly less intriguing to learn that both were at Bayreuth for the Festival in 1886, which Cram reported for the Tran script. But Cram, in his early draft, was surely thinking of stronger ties than these ; ties, moreover, which Van Wyck Brooks particularly seems to have perceived in his New En gland Indian Summer: 1865-1915 1 where he identified Mrs. Gardner, Cram, Charles Eliot Norton, Henry Adams and Bernard Berenson - all on one page, almost in one breath - as having been chiefly responsible for building in Boston during that period what Brooks called "a museum of idols" for what he unhappily concluded was an idolatrous age. Indeed, Brooks disparaged Cram and Mrs. Gardner for their romantic High Church

Royalism . But if this explains Brooks' dismay (his New England was relentlessly republican and to the extent that it was Anglican at all, decidedly Low Church) it points also to what was the common in terest of Cram and Mrs. Gardner in the late 188o's and early 9o' s - The Church of the Advent.

The most picturesque evidence of this interest is, indeed, at first glance only a souvenir of their Royalist leanings - the small figure of Archbishop Laud of Canterbury one may still see today in Cram' s sanctuary in The Advent's Lady Chapel. It was carved for Cram by Johannes Kirchmayer and was purchased from offerings collected on King Charles' Day, which was regularly observed at The Advent in the early years of the century largely at the behest of The Order of The White Rose, a " Jacobite" society whose adherents included The Advent's rector at the time, William Harman van Allen, and perhaps his most " artistic" parishioners, Cram, who was the North American " Prior" of the Order, and Mrs . Gardner. We know of her interest in the Order because Morris Carter, in his Isabella Stewart Gardner and Fenway Court, remembered Mrs. Gardner's " aesth etic" interest in the Order's journal, Th e Royal Standard, and that she occasionally marked King Charles' Day at Fenway Court with " a little supper for a few enthusiasts and an intimate romantic service in the chapel."

Moreover, in remarki ng that her interest in the Order was entirely "aesthetic" (as Cram' s certainly was) Carter caught hold of the point Brooks missed; and as we increasingly come to value both Cram's and Mrs. Gardner's own artand to conclude, for instance, that Fenway Court is as ad mirable a work of art as anything in it we will have to take such enthusiasms as the Order of The White Rose more seriously precisely because of their issue . The occasion for the figure of Archbishop Laud is, after all, as essential as its artistry . As early as 1907 R. Clipston Sturgis, wri ting in Christian Art, saw in the Lady

The Rt. Rev. Charles Grafton, Bishop of Fond du Lac. Before his elevation to the episcopacy Bishop Grafton was Rector of The Church of the Advent from 1872 to 1888.

Chapel sculptu re the promise of the profound change in American religious art Cram was to lead.

The Anglo-Catholic movement took root in New England when The Ad ven t was founded in 1844. It was under The Advent's auspices that the Cowley Fathers, the first monastic order for men in th e Anglican Communion, started their American work ; at Pusey's beh est, one of th e Society's found ers, Charles Grafton, became Rector of The Advent in 1872. It was in Boston too that the Society of St. Margaret began its Ameri-

can work, and this Boston movement yielded as well the Order of the Holy Cross, the first monastic order for men in the Episcopal church; its founder, James Huntington (whose father was Rector of Emmanuel Church on Newbury Street) having been influenced early by The Advent.

From the beginning this High Church bastion determined on a gradual restoration of church art.

As the expression of religion, art was the essence of the sacramental revival and The Advent embraced this Catholic tradition wholeheartedly. In 1845 The Advent displayed perhaps the first altar cross used in an Anglican church in this country.

Mrs. Gardner's involvement in The Advent is well known; her interest was by all accounts both deep and long lasting. It grew out of her admiration for Father Grafton, later Bishop of Fond du Lac (whose statue keeps company with Laud's in the Lady Chapel) and in her subsequent closeness to Grafton's successor, Father William Frisby, who consecrated the Chapel at Fenway Court, and to Father Arthur Hall, later Bishop of Vermont, the Cowley Father who converted Cram.

And notwithstanding the consequent folklore who has not heard of Mrs. Gardner washing The Advent's steps - her interest in The Advent extended considerably beyond personal connections and centered particularly on the artistic expression of the parish's liturgical life. Though her decoration of Father Frisby's study so as to suggest St. Jerome's (as depicted in a painting Mrs. Gardner had admired according to contemporary reports in The Advent's newsletter) was perhaps her most picturesque contribution, her principal activity at The Advent was the altar guild; during her time the flower arrangements in the chancel were widely known. As was to be expected, hers was the most impressive gift when The Advent's new Brimmer Street church was opened in 1883: she gave the high altar and reredos. In 1890-91 she also gave the h uge openwork reredos designed by Sir Ernest George and Harold Peto that was then added to the original reredos.

29

High altar and reredos of The Church of The Advent, Boston. Museum archives.

Cram's participation in The Advent has only recently been brought to light. Though he was scarcely likely to have earned so important a commission as Mrs . Gardner' s reredos (in 1890 he had been practicing architecture on his own for hardly a year and had never designed so much as an altar cross), we know from his correspondence that he was commissioned by Father Frisby to design the High Altar credence, a modest cut stone companion to the new reredos . The credence has the distinction of having been Cram's first ecclesiastical commission. Cram was also allowed to ruminate on the whole subject of church art in an article in 1892 in The Advent newsletter.

Of considerably more importance are two drawings in the Cram archives which document that Cram was the designer of The Advent Lady Chapel in 1894. Of course, like the church itself, the Lady Chapel is by John Sturgis; Cram was only commissioned to design the furnishings : the altar, reredos, altar rail, credence and clergy stalls. Yet it is an indication of how important these commissions became in Cram' s hands that the Lady Chapel seems more Cram's than Sturgis' s. Cram, however, never published this work.

Necessarily more robust than he might have wished (because the interior of The Advent, like the exterior, is brick), Cram's design is naive and even crude in detail; a reflection of the fact that

The Lady Chapel, Church of The Advent. The altar and surrounding paneling are by Cram, Wentworth and Goodhue, 1894 ; the figure sculpture commi ssioned by Cram was modeled and carved by Johannes Kirchmayer, 1894-1920 ; the entrance screen is by Cram, Goodhue and Ferguson (Boston office), 1907.

Bertram Goodhue, upon whom Cram depended for decorative detail throughout the first decade of their partnership, did not in 1894 fully understand the principles of Gothic decoration of which he would later become a master. Nonetheless the sanctuary ensemble of furnishings, Cram and Goodhue's first major essay in decorative detail, is a modest masterpiece ; a tour de force of simplicity and power. It is the first expression of Cram's then evolving conviction that if a sacramental religion must be rooted in worship, such a religion required an art (if it was to be functional) that was rooted in liturgy, only through which, such was man's nature, worship was possible. And for the Catholic Church, Cram

insisted, it must be a liturgical art, an art where everything from candlesticks to vestments and floor tiling was reticently integrated by the church building into an organic unity that expressed the corporate convention of the liturgy. The design concept itself, furthermore, answers effectively the inevitable query: how is an art rooted in the liturgy recognizable from an art that is not? One has only to compare the assertive, conventional bust of Bishop Grafton in the body of the chapel with Cram's reticent figures in the paneling that spreads out generously around the sanctuary to set off the altar and to enfold the worshipper. The whole design is like the liturgy it expresses: its parts m erge into a greater whole.

31.

Chancel, All Saints', Ashmont, Boston. George Hallowell, three of whose water colors hang in the Blue Room, painted the triptych above the altar.

Photograph by Jonathan Goep, 1975.

There are no overt links between Cram and Mrs . Gardner in the case of either the credence or the Lady Chapel. But the credence was sufficiently a companion to the high altar reredos that Father Frisby undoubtedly consulted Mrs. Gardner. It must also be remembered that she was closely associated at this time with Cram's friend R. Clipston Sturgis, who as supervising architect of The Advent gave both commissions to Cram.

Clipston's uncle, John H. Sturgis, had designed not only the original low Advent reredos she had given, but he had also designed her Beacon Street house, while Clipston, a close friend of Father Hall, was certainly her agent for the later and larger reredos she gave The Advent after John Sturgis's death, when Clipston was supervising The Advent's completion. Mrs. Gardner also knew Cram's other professional mentor in the 188o's and 189o's, Arthur Rotch, the architect under whom Cram trained for five years, and whose widow married Ralph Curtis, one of M rs. Gardner's most faithful friends.

The Lady Chapel was by no means the end of Cram's work at The Advent, which remained central to his crusade for a revival of American church art well into this century. In 1907, when Cram founded Christian Art, a polemical and scholarly journal dedicated to church art, the lead article of the first issue was by Bishop Grafton.

And when the Boston Society of Arts and Crafts (which Cram had long been prodding to take a lead in the revival of church art) held their historic Boston exhibition the same year, the centerpiece of the ecclesiastical exhibit was a completely arranged chapel composed of two works

by Cram for The Advent, the Lady Chapel entrance screen and the All Saints' Chapel reredos, the latter still much admired for Kirchmayer's strongly conceived and beautifully carved figures .

Although the reredos was designed to enshrine The Advent's by then historic 1845 altar cross, it is an indication of how controversial the High Church movement itself remained in Boston that

in 1909, only two years after the completion of the reredos, Cram's next major work for The Advent, a jeweled pyx and monstrance, caused still another confrontation with another Bishop of Massachusetts . Modelled by Kirchmayer and executed by William Stone, the monstrance, certainly the most magnificent gold plate of his design, so outraged Bishop Lawrence that, in correspondence found among Cram's papers, he discussed with several of his brother bishops bringing The Advent's rector to trial before an ecclesiastical court for using Cram' s vessel. Discretion prevailed, however, and The Advent's crusade continued unabated. In 1910 the nave

Interior of the Chapel, "Whiteh all," Sudbury, Massachusetts. Ralph Adams Cram, 1914. Photograph by Paul J. Weber.

windows, designed and made for Cram by Christopher Whal!, perhaps the most distinguished British glassman of his time, decisively influenced the work of the American glassman, Charles Connick, Cram's chief protege, and directly led to the revolution in American stained glass design Cram and Connick were to accomplish in the next twenty years. Cram' s work at The Advent continued until 1924 (the year of Mrs. Gardner's funeral there) when his last commission, the Great Rood, was installed. (ram's and Mrs. Gardner's experience at The Advent in the cause of a revival of liturgical art may also have influenced both more than either of them influenced each other. Cram's development of the interior of the chancel of his first church, All Saints' at Ashmont, from 1897 to 1904, and at the same time Mrs. Gardner's building and decorating of her Back Bay palace are comparable in the very organic way in which art is knitted into architecture. And if it is more evident that the chancel of All Saints' is a repercussion of Cram' s design concept in The Advent Lady Chapel than that Fenway Court is rooted in Mrs . Gardner's experience at The Advent, one could cite her flowering Easter chancels at The Advent in the 188o's and 189o's, which seem to have anticipated the arrangement of the Cloisters and Spanish Chapel at Fenway Court. For Catholic liturgical art, the art of the High Mass, is characteristic and unique in the manner in which its architecture knits sculpture, glass, music, carving, ceremony, and flowers into an organic unity that is meant to be pervasive and overwhelming.

It is thus not surprising that Fenway Court and All Saints' chancel - or, indeed, Cram' s churches generally - are more alike than they might seem at first.

One sees this affinity particularly in Cram's private chapel in Sudbury. Built like Fenway Court of architectural fragments, the chapel was fashioned from rocks taken from several of the old granite walls that wandered through the

Sudbury estate, symbols alike of Cram's New England ancestry and of the sensitivity to its environment he always thought a church should demonstrate. The interior was furnished over the years with many wonderful objects that nonetheless do not destroy its simplicity: a ninth century tabernacle door, a splendid fifteenth century Spanish triptych, and superb modern work

by Kirchmayer, Connick, the Krasser Company and Stirling Calder.

In a letter to Mrs. Gardner about a proposed visit by her to his chapel, Cram emphasized that it was not only his chapel and that it was his intent that it should be open to the public regularly. It was a point Cram certainly wished to 33

The Spanish Chapel from a 1926 photograph. Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.

make with the builder of Fenway Court. It was scarcely less outrageous for ram to build a "12th century" family chapel near the white clapboard farm house of his Sudbury estate, named "Whitehall" for King Charles' place of martyrdom, than it was for Mrs. Gardner to build a enetian palace in the Back Bay. It was perhaps more to the point that in the case of both chapel and palace sincerity and taste yielded convincing, even distinguished, results - where so often similar pro1ects seem only eccentric. And it was precisely sincerity and taste, and a certain spontaneity, that ennobled so much that might otherwise be thought ostentatious in the legacy 34

of beauty both Cram and Mrs. Gardner have left us. or is it beside the point that Cram should have left his fieldstone chapel (by the side of which he and his wife are buried) to the Cowley Fathers. Mrs. Gardner in a sens left her own chapel in the same hands by her provision that the Cowley Fathers should celebrate her yearly requiem mass Both chapels were built for others as well as for the future. By this it could be said that Ralph Adams Cram and lsab Ila St wart Gardner disclosed their mutual philosophy of art and recommended it to their posterity.

Douglass Shand Tucci

The Annual Ceremonial Comes to Boston

In the early 19oo's, before the railroad heir and Hispanophile scholar Archer M. Huntington gave the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the National Institute of Arts and Letters their grand home - two Italian Renaissance mansions - on Audubon Terrace, in upper Manhattan high over the Hudson River, these intertwined honor societies, open, upon election by their peers, to " native or naturalized citizens of the United States qualified by notable achievements in Art, Music, or Literature," used to meet, in small groups, in a back room of the Century Club, and to hold their big, annual, public assemblies in big, public buildings, generally in New York 路 but sometimes in Washington, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Boston. These convocations were marked by speeches, the reading of papers, the awarding of medals, and concerts featuring the compositions of members. The seventh such fixture, which is now called the Annual Ceremonial, took place in the fall of 1915 at Jordan Hall, in Boston. It was customary on these occasions to put in a friendly word for the host city . " For many reasons we feel entirely at home in this splendid metropolis and commonwealth. Creative art and literature, criticism, music, and the drama are represented in America by a great throng of Pennsylvanians," William M. Sloane, the Academy's chancellor, had said in his opening address in 1912, in Philadelphia, and now, three years later, he again gracefully adjusted himself to his home away from home. "We derive in a certain sense from the Boston and Concord spirit," he observed, and he went on, a little later: Once every year in some great community which cultivates the things of the spirit we seek for an even broader sympathy. Homogeneity is stagnation. Too much inertia, too much sta-

bility, too much local patriotism, too much homekeeping either in place or occupation, create but a homely wit. We need, in order to be truly national and American, to breathe the different atmosphere, be it the circumambient air of the Federal capital, or of the metropolitan cities of East or West, or of Boston, still as ever the mother alike of movements and of leaders. So we thank you for the opportunity which yo ur hospitality gives us .

This hospitality included a reception given to members and th eir wives by President and Mrs .

Lowell of Harvard, a luncheon tendered by James Ford Rhodes, a Boston historian and charter member of the Institute, which in 1898 had preceded the Academy by six years; and, on the afternoon of November 19, the convocation's last day, a visit to Fenway Court as the guests of Isabella Stewart Gardner. Frances Preston of the museum staff kindly provided a list of the guestbook signatures - forty in all - ranging, alphabetically, from Brooks Adams to Owen Wister, and including, in between, such notable achievers as Edwin H . Blashfield, George W. Chadwick (a conductor and composer who had made Jordan Hall ,available), Timothy Cole, Wilbur L. Cross, Walter Damrosch, Daniel Chester French, Cass Gilbert, Arthur Twining Hadley, Mark Antony De Wolfe Howe, Robert Underwood Johnson, Abbott Lawrence Lowell, Hamilton Wright Mabie, Brander Matthews, Bliss Perry, Charles A . Platt, Lorado Taft, and Augustus Thomas .

What had these refugees from a homely wit been listening to in two days of speeches and papers? Well, for one thing, an early answer to women's lib in a paper by Mr. Adams, titled " The Revolt of Modern Democracy Against Standards of Duty":

35

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I am constant as the northern star SMAs~rt .

Page from Mrs . Gardner's Gu est Book, v.l.b/4.25, vol. XIV, page 10, 19 November 1915.

To preserve the family , and thus to make society stable, the woman has alwa ys sacrificed herself for it, as the man has sacrificed himself for her upon the fi eld of battle. The obligations and the sacrifices have been correlative. But I beheld our modern women shrilly repudiating such standard of duty and such a theory of self-sacrifice. On the contrary, they denied that as individual units they owed society any duty as mothers or as wives, and maintained that their first duty was to themselves . If they found the bonds of the family irksome, they might renounce them and wander through the world in order to obtain a fuller life for themselves. This phase of individualism would appear to be an ultimate form of selfishness, and the final resolution of society into atoms, but none the less it would also appear to be the feminine interpretation of the American " democratic ideal."

Adams went on to inveigh, inter alia, against commercialism in art - " I was one evening con-

versing in a club with a well-known painter about some decorations which were attracting attention and were very costly, but which offended my taste as being frankly plutocratic" - and in letters: " I wonder whether we as literary men have in mind, when we do our work, an ideal which is our standard ... or do we worry little over the form or the substance of our labor, and think mostly of the artifices which may attract the public, and charm the publisher by stimulating sa les." (Mrs. Gardner, who was one of Mr. Adams' listeners, subsequen tl y wrote him a note congratulating him on his address and asking for a copy. He had several printed, and sent her one.)

In anot her dissertatio n, " The Country Newspaper," William Allen White, the proprietor and editor of Th e Emporia Gazette, delivered a paean to the country town ("A kitchen-garden smiles in th e back yard, and the service of public utilities ." ), and to the superiority of its is so cheap newspapers to the metropolitan press. The cir-

Letter from Ripley Hitchcock, Secretary, The National Institute of Arts and Letters.

cumambient air of Boston did not cause him to pull his punches : Boston people pick up their morning papers and read with shuddering horror of the crimes of their daily villains, yet read without that fine thrill that we have when we hear that Al Ludorph is in jail again in Emporia. For we all know Al; we' ve ridden in his hack a score of times .

The morning session wound up with a couple of poems by H enry Van D yke, professor of English at Princeton, one of them, " Lights Out," denouncing the European war, which America was to enter seventeen months later. The afternoon was given over to the traditional concert of compositions by members, followed by a dinner at the Harvard Club.

The day of Mrs. Gardner's reception began with a cheerier reference (than Mr. White's) to the convention's municipal host by Mr. Blashfield, the Institute' s president: Here in Boston, which has Cambridge at its door and Concord only over the way, every man of letters and every artist, wherever he may ha ve been born, fee ls that for the time he is in his father's house. It is quite certain that somewhere among the historic furniture brought in the Mayflower was hidden the cradle of American Arts and Letters in America and that Boston has rocked it, sometimes m;re, sometimes less, gently until its twin occupants became articulate.

Articulateness continued to abound. A poem

by Percy MacKaye, pleading for peace ("Never before were there such grand doings in the world as we are seeing toda y," Mr. White had said. " Screen the great war from us, and we still have a world full of romance . . ."); a discussion of urban architecture by Arnold W. Brunner, an urban architect - " Architects are the scene-painters of the wo rld"; a disquisition on "Discipline and the Social Aim of Education" by Nicholas Murray Butler ; and one on " The Ameri-

, 2

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~_; y

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can Quality in American Literature" by Brand Whitlock, an Urbana, Ohio-born diplomat and novelist who supplied a rather touching note on a local poet : Longfellow was perhaps nearer the people than any of the others (Irving, Cooper, Poe, Whittier, et al), though it may be that I have this impression because there is very clear in my memory that wintry morning in the Ohio school-house when the teacher told us he was dead. [Mr. Whitlock was looking back thirtythree years.) We were all as depressed as though we had lost a friend, and one little girl put her head down on her desk and cried.

Presentation of the Institute' s Gold Medal for Fiction, in absentia, to William Dean Howells, a valetudinarian in Florida but still the founding president of the Academy; the reading of a letter of acceptance ("! felt that if by no other right the medal might be mine by the right of seniority, for I have been writing novels now for nearly fifty years.") and the notable achievers were sprung for the pleasures of Fenway Court.

Geoffrey T. Hellman

37

Report of the President

As the director has covered the chief happenings at the museum in 1975 there is little for me to add except to emphasize what his and the treasurer' s report reveal, namely that expenses keep increasing and income does not.

We continue to be penalized by an illogical and unjust tax on our income. Our expenses over the last few years have been substantially increased by rising contributions to Workmen's Compensation and FICA, and to increased fringe benefits for the staff, notably all the expenses of premiums for the Blue Cross/Blue Shield program, a dental plan, long-term disability and accidental death and dismemberment insurance, life insurance and a pension plan.

All of which means that we were reluctantly forced to institute a one dollar admission charge on Sundays, so that after April 6th we could no longer claim that the Gardner Museum was the last free museum in Boston. It now appears that we must give consideration to further admission charges.

Again we are grateful to our director and his loyal and efficient staff.

G. Peabody Gardner

39

Wisteria at Green Hill, 1905. Photograph by Thomas E. Marr.

Report of the Director

A common thread that runs through all museums and seldom, if ever, is mentioned to the visiting public is at once the most expensive activity, the concern of every staff member, and never far from the minds of directors. It is security. Within professional ranks one hears more and more of the trials of safeguarding collections.

More time than usual was devoted to security last year in the Gardner Museum, with a resulting increase in expenses.

Additions made to equipment, now more sophisticated and expensive, to supervision, and to the rules that govern visitors and guards, have not provided peace of mind, only the belief that the museum is keeping abreast of the times.

Armed robbery in museums here and abroad caused the consideration of armed guards, already standard in several museums, and reluctantly, the acceptance of firearms in the building. All this effort, thought and expense is calculated to assist the individual response to unusual circumstances, which is still as it has always been, the basis for museum security.

Although the museum is no longer free on Sundays, visitors last year were offered several extra benefits which have been well received. An information desk is in the Spanish Cloister, where one may purchase guide books, folders, the taped tour, or simply ask questions. A small exhibition from the museum's collection of photographs appeared in the rear corridor for the evening the Art Historians of Greater Boston met, and since then hardly a person has passed who has not been fascinated with the dinner party on Beacon Street, the early shots of Fenway Court, Sargent at work in the Gothic Room, or Czar Nicholas, and George Sand. The selection and mounting was done by the resident conservators.

Mantegna' s Sacra Conversazione, a painting on panel from the 149o's underwent a partial transfer and was cleaned with excellent results in the spring. Treatment was recommended for the Rembrandt double portrait, where an old relining

continued to cause difficulties . Subsequently, the Rembrandt was cleaned as were the pendant portraits of Sir William Butts and Lady Butts by Holbein. A much larger undertaking was the Madonna and Child by Bellini, which had suffered major losses over the centuries. Lippo Memi' s Madonna and Child received minor work.

Almost every room has textiles and conservators in the textile workroom found something to do in each. Not only the extensive group of collected examples need repair but also furniture and case covers. An article in this issue on the XVc Flemish tapestry which has been a major undertaking for three years is an impressive example of the museum's facilities . From a long list one might single out as typical of the constant, demanding work successfully carried on by the staff the French XVIIIc cope in the Blue Room and the Italian XVI or early XVIIc green cut velvet chasuble in the Chapel.

Work on paper was furth er enhanced by the part-time service of another trained conservator to assist in this enormous undertaking. Archival storage now includes 3000 letters which have passed through the laboratory and are indexed in manuscript boxes. Eventually that number will double. Scholars using the archives or rare book collection do so under rules drawn up by the conservators for the handling of such objects.

Some cases with rare books were redesigned to eliminate harmful dust and ultraviolet light, the books and bindings treated and repaired as necessary. Of note among several prints and drawings treated this year was the Van Dyck drawing after Th e Rape of Europa which, when separated from its mat, was found to have a signature and provenance with the great collector and connoisseur J. C. Robinson, from whom Mrs .

Gardner acquired a number of her old master drawings.

Physical renovation in the building included new lights in the Dutch and Blue Rooms, new wiring around the galleries on the second floor 41

and in the Veronese Room, third floor, with some increase in lighting in other places. The roof, always a budget item, received new snow clips and the greenhouses were again given a coat of paint on the exterior wood .

In addition to the regular schedule of some 130 concerts this year, the museum introduced a spe42

cial Bicentennial series. These concerts, dedicated to the presentation of American music- both of today and Revolutionary times - are open to the public without charge.

While chamber music is the usual fare during the concert season, dancers, puppeteers, electronic sounds, opera productions and orchestral concerts attracted large audiences . Once again the Music Performance Trust Fund and the Goethe Institute, as well as some other private trust funds in Boston, generously provided opportunities which might not have been possible with the museum's limited budget.

For the Name Day Concert, the audience was treated to an evening that would have pleased Mrs. Gardner. Three undergraduates from Harvard presented Schubert's Trio in E-Flat on 8 April in the T apestry Room followed by a reception in the Spanish Cloister. In December the Trustees had a lunch for staff and former staff members in the Dutch Room. A good number of outside organizations were granted special visits with those of more than 100 in attendance recorded below : Yugoslav Scholars of Boston 27 February (120) 26 Ap ril Boston University Law Review (200) Boston University Women's 30 Ap ril Council (200) 11 May Harvard Business School, Program for Management Development (225) Young Audiences of 15 May Massachusetts (300) H arva rd Class of 1925 (400) 10 June Third International Orthoptic 3 July Congress (400) United States Conference of 6 July Mayors (600) Harvard Business School, 71st 27 July Advanced Management Program (350)

27 September 19 October 25 October 12 November 24 November 12 December

Former Members of Congress (125) Italian Culture Commission (300) New England Renaissance Society (150) American Association of State Colleges and Universities (350) Jewish Community Council of Metropolitan Boston (250) Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts (500)

For the first time, the museum remained open on Sundays throughout the summer and the year's attendance was higher than last year by a small margin. (An error in last year's report increased the attendance by exactly 10,000.) An exact comparison follows : 1 974

Weekdays Sundays Special Visits

1975 1 31,947 61,577 4,822

119,142 69,549 2,066

Totals

198,346

190,757

The standards set by the head gardener and his staff are such that the magnificence of the courtyard is taken for granted by everyone who has seen it and returns a second time. Excellence has its rewards which last year included a first prize and a gold medal for a collection of conservatory plants at the Spring Flower Show of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society. For a display at the Begonia Show at Horticultural Hall in September, an award of appreciation was given by the American Begonia Society. For entries in the Camellia Show, four first prizes and two second prizes were won in the class division for "individual blooms" and three first prizes and two second prizes in the " three blooms" category. Sixteen groups enjoyed a tour of the greenhouses.

Increased receipts at the Sales D esk reflect the large numbers of visitors and the additions of

desirable items, notably the catalogue, European and American Paintings in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and the color prints from it which are sold separately.

Books Guides and Information Folders Cards Color Transparencies Miscellaneous Total

1975 $ 9,376.26

1974 $ 4,653.82

7,399.15 9,668.25 1,799.55 4,332.84

6,550.60 7,594.20 1,760.05 2a62.87

$33,576.05

$22,92i.54

Curatorial staff was occupied on research in the archives, deciphering and interpreting letters and guest books for future publications or to assist visiting scholars. A selective checklist of the museum's rare books, published by Mrs . Gardner in 1906, is now being revised and updated for a new publication. A long awaited catalogue of Oriental and Islamic Art, published by the trustees (134 pages, fully illustrated) in small format, arrived and will go on sale in 1976. With the advent of the sculpture catalogue the major holdings will be available in print in more than summary form for the first time.

Volunteers are more in evidence these days for which the museum is indeed grateful. In return for experience, these students take on chores which make it possible for staff members to pursue new projects. Nancy Dolberg, Michael Cudahy, and Hannah Shore assisted in the Conservation Lab while Barbara Boehm worked in the office . Martha J. Monahan and Cheryl R. Simpson, both college students on work-study grants, were also an enormous help to the administrative staff, the former continued her excellent service in 1976.

Three of the staff have retired : Alfred Donnell, guard, 29 December; Albert Gordon, guard, 29 December ; Ana Wertelecki, conservation technician, 30 September.

43

Six of the staff have resigned: Kevin Brien, nightwatchman, 1 July ; Exibee Coleman, maintenance, 5 February; Maureen Cunningham, research associate, 24 January ; Joyce Haynes, administrative assistant, 30 May; Patrick Hurley, guard, 3 December ; John Madden, gardener, 23 July.

Seven have been engaged for regular duties : Maurice Ahern, nightwatchman, 24 April; Greg Cartmell, armed guard, 17 August; Stuart Collind, maintenance, 18 February ; Caroline Graboys, conservator of paper, 18 February ; Paul McCurdy, nightwatchman, 24 April; Barbara Sykes, information desk, 19 August ; Rebecca Karo, research associate, 1 September.

Employed for shorter periods or special projects were: John R. Duffe, Fred Creager, Steven Lenox, Charles Russo, Christopher McMahan, John Niland II, Christian Pierce, J. Anderson Carpenter, Nancy Purinton .

The director continued as treasurer of the Boston Redevelopment Authority's advisory panel in the Fenway neighborhood (FenPAC), and was elected second vice president of the Association of Art Museum Directors at their meeting in June . He was a guest lecturer at the museum in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, and continues to serve as president of Save Venice, Inc. Other staff members represented the museum at the annual 44

meetings of the American Institute of Conservation in Mexico City, the College Art Association in Washington, D . C., and the American Association of Museums in Los Angeles.

In a summary such as this, the emphasis naturally falls on what has been done to strengthen the museum, with resulting benefi t to the public. Day to day operations often requiring unusual judgement and more than ro uti ne effort are easily overlooked in the selection. It is a tribute to the staff that both their noteworthy and their unrecorded actions are performed with enthusiasm. The deep concern of staff and trustees maintains the museum in the fo under's spirit. A quotation from Henry Ja mes on that guiding spirit is now inscribed on a plaque on the fence near the main entrance, put there by the Boston Bicentennial Commission last summer.

To attempt to tell the story of the wo nderfullygathered and splendidly-lodged Ga rdner Collection would be to disp lace a little the line that separates private fro m public property .. . .

It is in presence of the resu lts mag nificently attained, the energy triump hant over everything, that one fee ls the fine old disi nteres ted tradition of Boston least broken . (The American Scene, 1907) Rollin va n N . Hadley

Sir William Butts, M.D., by Hans Holbein, oil on oak, 0.468-72 x 0.370-73 m . Cleaned during 1975. Isa bella Stewart Gardner Museum.

45

Note on the Organization of the Museum

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Incorporated (Museum Corporation), a Massachusetts charitable corporation, is the sole trustee under the will of Isabella Stewart Gardner.

Upon her death in 1924, Mrs . Gardner left to seven individual trustees the property which now constitutes the Museum - Fen way Court and the works of art she had collected there, some of which were owned by her directly and some by a corporation of which she owned all the capital stock, The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in the Fenway, Incorporated (Fenway Corporation).

She also gave her trustees an endowment fund for the support of the Museum.

In 1936 the individual trustees under Mrs. Gardner's will organized the Museum Corporation and resigned as trustees under the will. The Museum Corporation was appointed by the Probate Court to be successor trustee in their stead and now holds all the trust property, consisting of the real estate, the collection (owned either directly or through Fenway Corporation), and the endowment.

Under the By-laws of the Museum Corporation it is managed by a board of seven trustees who have the power to fill vacancies in their own number. The officers, elected annually by the trustees, are a President, Vice-President, Treasurer and Secretary. A Finance Committee of at least two members appointed by the trustees is respon sible for the Museum's investments.

Under the terms of Mrs . Gardner's will full authority over the Museum, the collection, and the staff is vested in the Director, who is appointed and subject to removal by her trustees (now the Museum Corporation).

47

Publications

EUROPEAN AND AMERICAN PAINTINGS IN THE ISABELLA STEWART GARDNER MUSEUM, by Philip Hendy 1974 A descriptive catalogue, with biographies of the artists and reproductions of all the paintings ; 282 black and white illustrations, 38 color plates.

Cloth bound $30.00 $ 2.00 (domestic) Postage and packing $ 2.25 (foreign) DRAWINGS / ISABELLA STEWART GARDNER MUSEUM, edited by Rollin van N. Hadley A small group of notable drawings ranging in date from the late fifteenth to the early twentieth century; 38 illustrations, frontispiece in color.

Paper bound $ 1.25 Postage and $ .40 (domestic) packing $ .45 (foreign) ISABELLA STEWART GARDNER AND FENWA Y COURT, by Morris Carter A biograph y of Isabella Stewart Gardner and a history of the formation of her collection by the first director of the museum; foreword by G. Peabody Gardner, President, Board of Trustees; illustrated; third edition . $ 6.oo Cloth bound Postage and $ .50 (domestic) packing $ .60 (foreign) MUSEUM GUIDE For the use of visitors; illustrated; 116 pp.

Paper bound $ 2.00 Postage and $ .{O (domestic) packing $ .45 (foreign)

TITIAN' S RAPE OF EUROPA, by Arthur Pope A study of the composition and the mode of representation of this and related paintings ; 26 illustrations; 62 pp. $ .95 Paper bound Postage and $ .40 (domestic) $ .45 (foreign) packing Cloth bound Postage and packing

$ 1.95 $ .50 (domestic) $ .5 5 (foreign)

A CHECKLIST OF THE CORRESPONDENCE OF ISABELLA STEWART GARDNER AT THE GARDNER MUSEUM A list of persons who wro te to Isabella Stewart Gardner, with a guide to locations of letters in the museum ; 12 pp .

Paper bound $ 1.00 Postage and $ .15 (domestic) packing $ .25 (foreign) ORIENTAL AND ISLAMIC ART IN THE ISABELLA STEWART GARDNER MUSEUM, by Yasuko Horioka , Marylin Rhie and Walter B. Denn y 1975 A fully illustrated catalogue ; this small collection includes sculpture, paintings, ceramics, lacquer ware, miniatures and carvings.

Paper bound $ 3.50 Postage and $ .5 0 (domestic) packing $ .60 (foreign)

FENWAY COURT Annual Reports for 1970 and 1972 through 1975 are available. Reports of the president and director, and illustrated articles on the collection.

Paper bound $ 2.00 (1970: $1.50) Postage and $ .30 (domestic) $ .35 (foreign) packing FENWAY COURT 1966-1970 A small illustrated journal, each issue on one subject. A list of 22 subjects will be sent on request. 10 cents per issue.

(Library discount offered only on set of 22 issues.)

Mail orders will be shipped by 4th class, book rate (domestic) or surface rates (foreign). Please make check or money order payable to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.

Libraries and other educational institutions are offered a 40% discount on most items.

A list of slides and color reproductions is available on request.

49

Trustees

Staff*

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Incorporated, Sole Trustee under the will of Isabella Stewart Gardner

Director Emeritus George L. Stout

President G. Peabody Gardner Vice-President and Secretary Malcolm D. Perkins Treasurer John Lowell Gardner

Elliot Forbes Mason Hammond Francis W . Hatch, Jr. James Lawrence, Jr.

ADMINISTRATION

Director Rollin van N. Hadley A ssistant Director Linda V. Hewitt Curatorial Assistant Frances L. Preston Research Associate Rebecca Karo Publications Editor Paula M . Kozol Photographer Joseph B. Pratt Director of Music Johanna Giwosky Docents Marie L. Diamond Judith E. Hanhisalo Clara S. Monroe Sales Clerks Loren L. Benson Susan M. Sinclair Information Desk Barbara Sykes

SECURITY AND MAINTENANCE

Supervisor of Buildings John F. Niland Security Foreman Patrick J. Naugh ton Assistant Security Foreman Thomas J. Sisco Maintenance Foreman Alfred J. Smith Shop Technician Michael Finnerty MAINTENANCE AND WATCH

Maurice B. Ahern Robert Anderson Elizabeth Bing Patrick Burns Greg Car tmell Stuart D . Colli nd Stephen F. Duffe William Evans Robert French Thomas Little Paul W. McCurdy Yvonne Mercer Joseph Miniu tti Patrick T. Niland Alfonso Wa lker GUARDS

CONSERVATION

Conservator of Paintings Gabrielle Kopelman Conservator of Textiles Yvonne A. A. Cox As sistant Conservators, Textiles Marjorie R. Bullock Lawrence R. Williams Conservator Leo V. Klos, Jr. Paper Conservators Caroline A. Graboys Pam M. Peterson

Thomas J. Jennings John J. Kennedy John J. King Erving L. Kinney Charles A. McStravick Daniel O 'Connell Edwin J. Olson John Pantano Charles R. Pa rsons Jo seph Rajunas John C. Rihner Ma rtin J. Roper Patrick H . Slevin David A. T womey

Kenwood M. Cappers Jeremiah J. Clifford Edward F. Conley James J. Culhane Bernard Doherty Benjamin J. Donahue Edward P. D owns Frederick C. Doyle Dennis Fitzgerald John W. Fleming Anthony Flynn Francis R. Gillis Edward Gray John H. Holland Michael H u rley Neil E. Jam ieson

*on regular duty 31 December 1975

GA RDENING

Hea d Ga rde ner Robert M . MacKenzie Garde n ers Charles P. Healy, Jr. Jo seph F. Kiarsi s Stanley Kozak

Report of tlie Treasurer STATL 1 NT

or

TA ~ETS

D Cl 113l.R 31, q75 A. 'l) 197路1

(Note

!:Sf ENIS

l974

1975

TS

NET A;; 2):

Bonds (quot <l market pric , 3,700,980 in 1975 and 3,091,486 in 1074)

$ 3,655,448

$ 3,305,829

Stocks (quot d mark t pric:<', $7,054,157 in 1975 anJ $4,096,019 in 197 ~)

7,100,969 $10,756,417

7,638,259 -$10,()44,088

4,726

(2,956,583)

Total invc tments, at

co~t

Allowam.e for unrealized Jpprc 'ation (d prcciation)

$10,761,路143

$ 7,987,505

428,438

'l,2'11,051

$1 "l,"189,581

$ 9,198,556

99,991

231,139

u8,780

141,887

(28,556)

(28,<)46)

Commercial paper, t cost whi h ppr ximates market

CASH

RrcuvAnLES, primarily divi<l 1ds and inter st

Accauw

--Sn,379,796

ExPENsr

MusEuM PROPERTY (

s 9,542,636

1

ote 1):

Museum building and underlying land

$

Contents of Museum building Greenhouse and underlying bnd

Net Assets

366,400

366AOO

4,015,000

4,015,000

56o,507

560,507

$ 4,941,907

$ 4,941,907

$16,321,703

$14,484'543

FUND BALANCES 0PUlATING

(Note

$

GENERAL Pms10N

路140,166

4)

(Note 3)

MAINTENANCE AND DEPRtClATIO

(Note

1)

$

75,000

14,527,767

12,403,691

822,774

l,"163,701

830,996

842,151

$16,3n,703

$14,484,543

The accompanying notes are an integral part of these financial statements.

Report of the Treasurer STATEMENT OF NET ASSETS DECEMBER 31, 1975 AND 1974

1974

1975

NET ASSETS INVESTMENTS (Note 2): Bonds (quoted market price, $3,706,986 in 1975 and $3,091,{86 in 1974)

$ 3,655,448

$ 3,305,829

Stocks (quoted market price, $7,054,157 in 1975 and $4,896,019 in 1974)

7,100,969

7,638,259

$10,756,417

$10,944,088

Total investments, at cost

4,726

(2,956,583)

$10,761,143

$ 7,987,505 ' 1,211,051

Allowance for unrealized appreciation (depreciation)

428,{38

Commercial paper, at cost which approximates market

$11,189,581

$ 9,198,556

99,991

231,139

RECEIVABLES, primarily dividends and interest

118,780

141,887

ACCRUED EXPENSES

(28,556)

(28,946)

CASH

$1.1.,379,796

$ 9,542,636

MusEUM PROPERTY (Note 1): Museum building and underlying land

366,{00

$

4,015,000

4,015,000

560,507

560,507

$ 4,941,907

$ 4,941,907

$1.6,321,703

$14,484,543

Contents of Museum building Greenhouse and underlying land

Net Assets

366,{0Q

$

FUND BALANCES OPERATING (Note 4)

$

140,166

$

75,000

14,527,767

12,403,691

PENSION (Note 3)

822,774

'1,163,701

MAINTENANCE AND DEPRECIATION (Note 1)

830,996

842,151

$16,321,703

$14,484,543

GENERAL

The accompanying notes are an integral part of these financial statements.

STATEMENT OF OPERATIONS FOR THE YEARS ENDED DECEMBER 31, 1975 AND 1974

1974

1975 INVESTMENT INCOME:

OTHER INCOME: Sale of publications Grants and contributions Sunday admission fees Other receipts Total income OPERATTNG EXPENSES: Museum operating expenses Maintenance and security Administration Care of collections and paintings Gardening and grounds Music Cataloging expense Pensions (Note 3) Professional services Federal income taxes (Note 1) Real estate taxes Insurance Insurance rebate Compensation of managing trustees Repairs and maintenance Total operating expenses lNcoME FROM OPERATIONS NaN-OPERATING EXPENSES: Renovations to Museum building INCOME (Loss) BEFORE GAIN (Loss) ON INVESTMENTS REALIZED GAIN (Loss) FRoM SALES oF INVESTMENTS (Note 2) PROVISION FOR UNREALIZED APPRECIATION (DEPRECIATION) OF INVESTMENTS (Note 2) Net income (loss) ALLOCATED TO FUNDS AS FOLLOWS: Operating General Pension Maintenance and depreciation

$ 415,757

414,102 312,160

$

Interest Dividends

355,355 771,112

$

$

726,262

$

33,685 11,658 26,459 11,456

$

23,445 5,800

83,258

$

35,225

$ $

5,980

809,520

$ 806,337

280,962 198,692 82,186 51,895 39,454 1,722 47'450 38,680 27,700 19,557 (1,480) 2,840 2,146

$ 242,135 195,175 77,845 47'611 38,821 76,256 48,300 33,771 29,000 (13,000) 15,710 (2,008) 4,860 2,190

$

791,804

$ 796,666

$

17,716

$

$

9,671

$

(26,339) (16,668)

(11,155) 6,561 $ $ (837,233)

$(1,085,406)

2,961,309

(2,956,583)

$ 2,124,076 $ 2,130,637

$(4,041,989)

$

65,166 2,124,076 (47'450) (11,155)

$ 2,130,637 The accompanying notes are an integral part of these financial statements.

$(4,058,657) $

57,971 (4,0411989) (48,300) (26,339)

$(4,058,657)

,,

â&#x20AC;˘

TATEMENT OF FUND BALANCES FOR TilE YEARS ENDED DECEMBER 31, 1975AND1974

ALANCE, December 31, 1973 Net gain (loss) Fund transfers BALANCE, December 31, 197 4 Net gain (loss) Purchase of annuity contracts

Operating

General

$ 359,790

$16'445,680

(16,668) (268,122)

(4,041,989)

$ 75,000 6,561

$12'403,691

Pension $1,055,169

(4,058,657) 108,532

159,590

$1,163,701

$842,151

$14,484, 543 2,130,637 (293,477)

2,124,076 (293,477)

(Note 3) Fund transfers

(47'450)

(11,155)

$ 822,774

$830,996

58,605 $ 140,166

BALANCE, December 31, 1975

Maintenance & Total Depreciatiqn $18,543,200 $682,561

$14,527,767

$16,321,703

STATEMENT OF CHANGES IN NET ASSETS FOR THE YEARS ENDED DECEMBER 31, 1975 AND 1974

1975

1974

$ 837,233 293'477 11,155

$ l.,085,406

$1,141,865

$ 1,111,745

$2,961,309

$(2,956,583)

$1,837,16o

$(4,058,657)

$1'991,025

$(4,308,524)

NET AssETs WERE RECEIVED FROM: Income from operations NET AssETs WERE UsED FOR: Realized loss from sales of investments Purchase of annuity contracts (Note 3) Renovations to Museum building

OTHER

INCREASES (DECREASES)

IN

26,339

NET AssETS:

Change in unrealized appreciation (depreciation) of investments (Note 2) ToTAL INCREASE (DECREASE) IN NET AssETS

TuE INCR'EASE (DECREASE)

IN

NET AssETs WAS REPRESENTED

BY

CHANGES

IN:

Investments

(131,148)

Cash Receivables

(23,107)

48,735 (24'919)

390

13,540

Museum property Accrued expenses

$1,837,160

The accompanying notes are an integral part of these financial statements.

212,511

$(4,058,657)

NOTES TO FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

Summary of Accounting Policies The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Incorporated (Museum Corporation), the sole trustee under the will of Isabella Stewart Gardner, is the owner of the property which now constitutes the Museum - Fenway Court and the works of art collected there by Mrs. Gardner. The more significant accounting policies of the Museum Corporation not covered elsewhere in this report include the following:

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A. Basis of Presentation - The accompanying financial statements have been prepared on the accrual method of accounting. Under this method, dividends are recorded on the ex-dividend date, interest income is accrued on a daily basis, and expenses are recorded when incurred rather than when paid.

B. Museum Property - Museum property is stated at appraised values established on December 24, 1936. Additions made subsequently are stated at cost. The Museum Corporation has consistently followed the practice of charging renovations to expense rather than providing for depreciation of Museum property. Allocations to the Maintenance and Depreciation Fund are credited thereto when authorized by the Trustees.

contracts has been charged to the Pension fund during 1975.

During this year, the Museum Corporation decided to institute a retirement plan for employees presently in the Museum's employ, embodying substantially the retirement benefits' customarily granted by the Museum to its employees and complying with the requirements of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.

4. Restriction o'n Operating Surplus The Trustees are directed under the will' of Isabella Stewart Gardner to pay to certain designated hospitals any surplus of income which, in the opinion of the Director and Trustees, will not be needed for the proper and reasonable maintenance of the Museum. These amounts, if any, are payable at the end of successive five-year periods, the next of which ends December 31, 1979.

REPORT OF INDEPENDENT PUBLIC ACCOUNTANTS

To the Trustees of The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Incorporated, Trustee Under the Will of Isabella Stewart Gardner:

We have examined the statement of net assets of THE ISABELLA STEWART GARDNER MUSEUM, INCORPORATED (a Massachusetts corporation, not for profit), TRUSTEE UNDER THE WILL OF ISABELLA STEWART GARDNER as of December 31, 1975 and 1974, and the related statements of operations, fund balances and changes in net assets 2. Investments for the years then ended. Our examination was Investments are stated at cost, adjusted by a made in accordance with generally accepted auditing valuation allowance to state the investments at standards, and accordingly included such tests of the quoted market price. This valuation allowance was accounting records and such other auditing proestablished in 1974 by a charge to operations of cedures as we considered necessary in the circum$2,956 583. At December 31, 1975, the excess of the stances, including confirmation of securities owned quoted market price of investments over cost was at December 31, 1975 and 1974 by correspondence recognized by a credit to operations of $2,961,309. with the custodian.

3. Pension Fund In our opinion, the accompanying fmancial stateThe Museum Corporation has no formal arrangements present fairly the financial position of The ments with its employees. However, the Trustees Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Incorporated, have authorized discretionary payments to certain Trustee Under the Will of Isabella Stewart Gardner retired employees from the Pension Fund which is as of December 31, 1975 and 1974, and the results of replenished from time to time by vote of the its operations and changes in its net assets for the years then ended, in conformity with generally acTrustees. cepted accounting principles consistently applied During 1975, the Museum Corporation purchased during the periods. annuity contracts for all its retired employees who ARTHUR ANDERSEN & Co. have been authorized such discretionary payments by the Trustees. The annuity contracts provide that January 16, 1976, the retired employees will be paid the authorized Boston, Massachusetts benefits for life. The amount paid for the annuity C. Federal Income Taxes - Under the Internal Revenue Code, the Museum Corporation is classified as a private operating foundation, and accordingly is required to pay a tax of 4o/o of of "net investment income," as defined.

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