Fenway Court: 1982

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Fenway Court



Fenway Court 1982 Isabella Stewart Gardn er Museum


Published by rhe Trustees of rhe Isa be ll a Srewarr Gardne r Muse um , Inco rpo rated 2 Palace Road Bosro n, Massac huseu s Co pyrig ht 1983 Des ig ned by Michael Sand Phorog raphs by Greg H e ins T ype sec by Crocke rg raphics Primed by Se rvigraphics

Cover : Sarco phagus with Flying Erores, Ro m an, ca. A.D . 250, Greek (Thasian n, m arble, 51 x 195 .5 cm., In v. N o. SG-7e2, Spanish Cloister, Isabella Srewarr Gardner Museum. Fro ntispiece : N as rurrium s cascading fro m a balco ny in rhe spring .


C

ontents

6 Vicro ry in Dea th : R ma n Triumphal Art a nd Pri vate Life Cornelius C. Verm eule, Ill 14 An Altar pi ece by G iulia no da Rimini

Jam es H. Stub blebine 28 Sucterman ' Young Commander Ident ifi ed

Lisa Goldenberg t oppat o 36 Dodge Macknig ht Karen ÂŁ. Haas

painting the t own red and violet . ..

48 Mrs. Gardner as Matchmaker

Andrew Gray The Isabe ll a Stewart Gard ner Mu seum , Incorp rated Fifty-eig hth Annu al Report for the Year Nine tee n Hundred and Eighty Two

Malcolm D. Perkins

56 Report o f the Pres ident

Rotiin van

58 Repo rt o f the Direcror

. Hadley

62 Report o f the Curaror

Deborah Gribbon

66 A Recent Acquisitio n

Susan inctair

68 Membership Events 70 Membership 72 Pub Iications 74 Repo rt o f the Treas urer 78 Tru stees and Staff


rn Death : Roman Triumphal Art and Private Life

Fig ure 1 Sarcophagus with Flying Ero res, Ro man, ca. A.O. 250, G ree k (Th asia n ') marb le, 5 1 x 195. 5 cm., Inv. No. SG -7e2, Spanish Clois ter, Isabe ll a Stewa rt Gardner Museum .

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A sa rcoph agus ca rved o f m arble fro m the G reek is la nd o f Th asos in the no rthe rn Aegea n abo ut the middle of the third ce ntury of the Christian E ra has been described in the Ga rdne r Museum 's ca talogue of sculpture. ' This mo nume nt, in the Sp anish Clo iste r at Fe nway Court, dese rves a new phorogra ph (figure l ) and a furth e r wo rd of comme nt in lig ht o f the relatio nship be twee n a p ri va te cit izen 's buri al a nd the all -pe rvas ive iconog raphy o f the Graeco- Ro m an state in an era of cris is and change. Around 25 0 the Ro m an Empire was in such a shaky phys ica l and intellectual sta te that m a ny G reeks and Ro m a ns chose ro put

their wea lth into elaborate coffins for place me nt in fam il y romb-c hambers rat her th an inro b uil d in~s, la nd , or co mme rcial ve nt ures . In a nswer ro t his collective dea th -w ish , Ro ma n a rr turned in wa rds, the ico nog raphy o f triu mph beco ming the chro nicle of deat h . The fig ures and sy mbo ls used for two ce nturies o n Ro m an t ri ump hal a rches and in the fri ezes o f public monume nts o r sta te te m p les we re tra nsfe rred o nto pri va te sculptures des igned for funerary purposes, ro se rve as sym bols of t he triumph of li fe and im morta lity over deat h.


The sarcop hag us at Fe nway Co urt is no t rhe mo nume nr of an emp ress o r even , probably, of o ne of her re latives . Since the sa rcophagus certainl y was dug up in the area of Ro me and since most Ro m a ns somehow wo rked fo r the impe rial gove rnme nr o r depe nded on the im peri al dole, we ca n assu me the deceased had some connectio n, albeit distanr, with the imperia l ho usehold. The po rtrait is tha t of a pros pe rous, middle-cl ass lady of the era betwee n the last years o f the young Emperor Severus Alexa nder (222-235) and the death of Tra ianu s D eci us (24925 1) at the head o f the Ro man legio ns in the swamps o f the Balkans. W hile no t a famous impe rial mothe r like Seve rus Alexande r's Julia Ma m aea o r a noteworthy impe rial co nsort like Herenn ia Etruscill a, wi fe of T ra ia nus Decius, this lady has chose n ro cloak herself in the ico nogra phy of Ro m an imperium , the ea rth and t he sea, a nd the cycle of the four seasons, all sy mbo ls reserved at the height of impe rial prosperity fo r g rea t e mpero rs fro m Augustus (27 B.C.- A.D . 14) th roug h Marcus Aurelius (161-180), o r his demenred son, Co mmodus ( 180- 192 ).

The unide nrified lady (a n in criprion o n the now- los r li d doub rle s gave her na me and h w lo ng she li ved ) looks o ur a r us fro m th e ci rcula r fr ame of a sh ield. The Ro m a n shield -po rt ra it (imago cfy peata) traced back ro rhe late Re publ ic a nd ea rl y E mpire w he n hero ic citi ze ns and , soo n, the e mpero r a a ro utine courtesy we re awa rded the s hie ld o f virtue (ciypeus i•irtutis ) which had bee n rhe M ilita ry Cross o r Sil ve r Sta r o f Roma n mili tary decora tio ns in the ea rl ie r cenr uries o f the Ro m a n Re pub lic. Placi ng rhe lady's image in o r o n a shield ide nrified he r with the re wa rds o f Rom a n vicro ry, in thi s case vicro ry o ve r dea th . The se nse o f imperi al a pot heos is is m ade all the mo re evide nr by rhe eagle suppo rting rhe shie ld with its wings . Ro ma n e mpero rs and empresses rode hea ve nwa rds o n a n eag le w hen , so the re we re eyew itnesses ro testify, they jo ined the O lympi an divi n it ies fo llo wing cre m a tio n o n a n elabo rate pyre in Ro me's Ca mpus Marr ius. The imperi al s h ie ld a nd the Jov ia n eag le, the n, could ass ure a n average Ro m an lady of future identificatio n wit h the divae when she o rde red her sa rcophagus from o ne of t he scu lprors' s howroom s of Ro me.

Sculpture m the Isabella St ewa rt Gardner Museum, Bosron, 1977, 46, no. 62 (phorog raph reversed and probably dared a generation coo soon ). Karen Haas, Jack Soulca nian , Flo rence Wo lsky a nd Mary Comsrock have helped wich this essay. Other sarcophagi ce laced ro che example at Fenway Court have been des cribed with parallels in Sculp111re in Ston e, The Greek, Roman and Etruscan Collections of the Museum of Fin e A rt s. Boston, Bosro n, 1976, 155- 164, nos. 245260. T hose sixteen sarcophagi and fragments include ample evide nce th at Bosro ni ans ad m ired such monu me nts wi th joyous funerary Amo rini o n chem as far back as the 1850's, if not ea rlier.

V erme ulef Victo ry in Dea th : Ro ma n Triumpha l Arc a nd Pr ivate Life

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2 Mo re about the coins from Ro man As ia Mino r discussed here can be fou nd in M.B. Co msrock , "G ree k Imperial Coins ," Bulletin : Museum of Fin e Arts, Bost on , LXV , 1967, 160- 174, a nd in Chapter VIII , " Numismatic Art," o f C. Vermeule , Roman Im perial Art in Greece and A sia Min or, Ca mbri dge, Mass ., 1968.

In the times mentio ned here, specifica ll y in the years 249 ro 25 1 which co incided with the Millennium o f Rome, a large bronze co in o f Cremna in Pisidia , southern ce ntra l Asi a Mino r, sho ws a n empero r and his two so ns suppo rted by the Ro m a n o r Jo vi a n eag le o f li ving g lo rifi ca tio n.2 The obverse of this co in , natu ra ll y the same shape as a circu lar s hie id , presents the E mpress Er rusc ill a sup po rted by the sem icircl e o f the crescent moo n (figure 2). In this case the eagle o f apo theos is is prophetic in an o minous, funerar y way, for the Empero r Trai anus Dec ius , as mentio ned, perished wit h his a rmy in a ba ttle with ba rbari a ns in the Ba lk ans o r the a rea o f modern Austri a alo ng the D a nube. O ne so n d ied wit h him , the o ther s ho rtl y thereafter back in Ita ly.

Figure 2 Coi n, Ro man, reig n o f Traianus Decius , A.O . 249-25 1, Cremn a in Pis idia, bronze , 3.2 cm., Acc. N o. 62 .557, Museu m o f Fine Arts, Bosro n.

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Vermeule / Victory in Death: Ro man Triumph al Art and Private Life

The two la rges t fi g ures o n the lady's co ffin o ug ht to be the Vicrories who cusromarily suppo rt t.he shield of imper ia l triumph . H e re, robe sure, they a re a irbo rne, winged crea tures, large Erotes o r Cupids. Thei r legs splay out in the traditio n associated with the Victories in the sp a nd re ls o f triumpha l arches, good exa mples o f which still rem ain on the major mo numents of Rome, notably the Arch of Titus (A.D . 81) at the Co losseum e ntrance ro the Ro m an Fo rum . A b ronze co in s truck at An aza rbus in Cili cia, southeas t Asia Minor, in the nam e of the child-Caesar Diadumeni a nus (2 17-2 18), sho ws where the design passed fr o m the decora tion of big buildings ro the a rts of the co mmon m an (fig ure 3). Two Vicrories support a s hie ld which has the p alm-stump of eas te rn la ndsca pes, symbolic of eastern cam pa ig ns. The co in also keeps this who le subj ect in the wo rld of fantasy, as does the sarcoph ag us , for the po rtrait on the obverse is of some a no nymous military gove rn o r ra the r th an the child whose father gra bbed the Empire briefly fo llowing the army 's murder of the E mpero r Caraca ll a nea r Carrhae in no rthe rn Syri a in 2 17. Beyo nd the big Erotes, at the corners of the co ffin , a re two mo re such fi gures. These Erotes a re sm aller and stand with attributes such as rorches (now missing) in their o utstretched ha nds . The figure o n the le ft a lso ho lds up the butterfly of Psyche, symbol of the Soul, and a bow unde r each of the la rger, flying Cupids is a no ther reco llection o f their a morous fun ctio ns. The bo w was also the instrument o f Apo llo, used ro strike dow n those carried off suddenly by a


Figure 3 Coi n, Ro man, re ign o f Mac rinu s, A.O . 2 17-2 18, Anazarbus in Ci lici a, bro nze, 3. 15 cm ., Acc. No. 6 3. 91 9, Museum o f Fine Arts, Bosto n .

heart attack, a st ro ke, o r a co ntag io us disease. Posed like G reek gods in mini ature, a running Hermes o r Me rcury on the rig ht and Apo llo o r yo ung Herakles o n the left , the seco nd pa ir of Cupids serve as excl a m atio n p o ints at the feet of their la rge r, sky-bo rne counte rparts . Little fig ures such as these two Erotes o r Cupids are also fo und o n triumph al arches, at the feet of Vic ro ries o r geographical pe rso nificati o ns in the spandrels , no tably o n the Arch of Septimius Severus (A.D . 201 ) at the Capito line end of the Ro m an Fo rum . Taken rogether, the two pa irs o f love gods , big and sm all , combine their symbo lism of triumph with that o f the four seaso ns, Autumn , Spring, Summe r and Winter, o r Spring , Autumn, Winte r and Summer. If yo u we re an o ptimist about eternity yo u had the two jo yo us

seasons next ro yo ur bu st, but if yo u looked o n the g loo m y, fata li sti c s ide yo u p robabl y o pted fo r t he chillier, co lde r, wette r seasons, Autumn and Winte r. H e re o ur lady mu st have bee n a bit of a pess imi st, fo r the butte rfl y o ug ht ro be lo ng with Spring o r, at least, Summe r. The fl ying a nd sta nding Erotes o r Cupids te ll of o ur lady be ing ca rried heave nwards in a rea lm of pe rpe tua l ca re w ith flowe rs and fl ow ing wate rs. The seaso ns symbo li zed no t o nl y the cycle of life, fr o m birth ro death , but also the e te rna l cycle of the ages, the rh ythms o f the cos mos o r the co ntinuity of the unive rse. Be nea th th e shie ld, at e ither side o f the eagle, recline Mo the r Ea rth (Ge o r Te llus ) o n the le ft with he r co rnucopi ae across her ha lf-d raped midriff and , o n the rig ht, the Ocea n (Oke anos o r Ocea nus) who o nce he ld a lo ng rudde r o r paddle in his le ft ha nd.

Vermeule / Vicro ry in Dea th : Ro man Triumph al Arc and Pr ivate Life

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F ig ure 4 Sa rco ph agus with Flying Erotes, side view of figure 1.

The lady looks out at us with the directness of an Ame rica n primi tive po rt ra it softened by the sidewards g lance of anx iety fo und in the Roman portra its around 250 or late r. Despite the tensions of the times, R om an fi ghting Rom an in civil wars and barbari ans plunderi ng the pe ri p heries o f Empire, s he knew as she went hea venwards that she could look dow n o n all the wo rld, the orbs terrarum as the Ro mans ca lled it. T erra firma was below her in o ne direction and the expanse of the seas in the other. The ter rors o f the sea, here perh aps p ro tective o f the lady in the coffin , were re in fo rced by the sea -beas ts, veritable drago ns of the deep , carved in low relief on the ends (figure 4). Bas kets of fr uit, nuts (the Peretti pea rs or the Dell a Rovere aco rns), or o ther p roduce we re ca rved in front of their fo rep aws when the sa rcoph agus was turned into a village o r streetco rne r fo untain during the Re naissa nce. The re is no indica tio n of the lady's relig ious beliefs. Paga ns , Christi ans, and Jews were interred in sa rcophagi like this in the ca taco mbs and columbaria sur rounding Ro me. T wo of her fingers are extended across her cfoak, which mig ht be a Christi an bless ing, without references to the Trinity which mig ht occur a century or more later in GraecoRoman art. The use of recli n ing, geographical personifica tions was also bro ug ht from triumphal monuments to sarcophagi such as this th roug h the intermediary of coins, both those struck in Rome and those minted in the cities of northern Greece and Asia Minor, nea r where the marble

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Vermeule / Victo ry in D ea th : Ro ma n T r iump hal Art and Pri va te Life


fo r such sa rcoph ag i was qua rr ied a nd where these fun e ra ry ches ts we re blocked our befo re shipme nt to rhe sho wroo ms of Ro me. In Ro m e, of course, the lady's p o rt ra it was added whe n she se lected the sarcoph agus in ad va nce or whe n it was purchased by he r lov ing surv ivo rs. A large bro nze co in of Philippus I, know n as Philip the Arab fr o m hi s o rig ins before rising in the Ro m a n arm y, was struck ar Sa itta in Lydi a, no rtheast of Ephesus and Smyrn a in wes te rn Asia Mino r. The obverse presents a bus t o f rhis harsh military m an in pro fil e, the "Joya l' ' lieute nant who murdered yo ung Gordian III in 244 and was , in turn , cur down by his troop s in 249, whe n T ra ianus Decius beca me e mpero r (fig ure 5). On rhe reve rse two reclining geograp hical perso nificatio ns suppo rt a chair o r throne in which T yc he o r the p e rso nification of the Lydi an city o r d istrict is sea ted in p arti al p rofil e. One of these young m ale perso nificatio ns may be a loca l lake and rhe o the r m ay be a local river , of which the re were severa l, including the H e rmos a nd the H yllos in the area, altho ug h old , bea rded gods are genera lly used fo r Ocea nu s (as o n the sa rcophagus), and va rio us m ajo r ri ve rs in Ro man impe ri al a rt. Or we m ay see the genii of rhe mountains a nd lo wlands around the city, Lydi a having bee n o ne o f the most prospe rous areas of the Ro ma n Empire with a histo ry go ing back at leas t to rhe legenda ry King Croesus a nd beyo nd to the T rojan W ar. The arra ngement of the re ve rse of this co in could show rhe lady o rde ring he r coffin th at she was being ho isted up hea ve nwa rds in a mythological, allego rical, and geogra ph ic setting wo rth y of the who le Ro m an

Em pi re. H e r apot heos is, symbolica ll y speaking, was gra nde r th an the ho no rs affo rded o ne mere city in wes te rn As ia M ino r in co n nectio n wit h recognit io n o f o ne po we rfu l, if unlo ved , empero r. All this was a sp lendid way fo r a n ave rage Rom an lady o f mea ns to go off into t he fam ily sepulch re a ro und 25 0 of t he Ch r is ti a n Era o r up to a gene ratio n late r. 3 In the darkest mo ments of rhe E mpire, Ro m a ns never lost s ig ht o f the p e rso nal as pects o f the ir triu mph al a rr. T hi s was a message being handed ove r at this time to t he ico nog raphy of J udais m and Ch ristia nit y, bo t h w ith t he Old T esta me nt sce nes a nd t he deeds of Chri st a nd t he Sa ints.

3 The equiva lent sce ne on a marb le sa rcop hagus in th e Museo Nazio nale, Rome, is dated A.O. 280 ro 300: see G.M.A. Han fma nn, The Season Sarcophagus in Dumbarton Oaks , II , Ca mbridge, Mass ., 195 l , l 76, no. 47 la, fig. 47a. Roman art from Nero ro Theodos ius, A.O . 54 ro 392, offers si mil ar figu res in a va riety of media : R. Stuveras, Le putto dans !'art romain , Co llectio n Lato mus, Vo l. XCIV, Brusse ls, 1969, passim, especiall y fi gs. 4, 8, 24, 26, 37, 40, l l l , 144, etc. The Egypt ia n connection stem med fro m Alexa ndria as a ce nter of ca rving in ivo ry in Antiquity a nd fro m the fact that Erotes we nt ro the Ni le when t hey wished ro fi sh.

Fig ure 5 Co in, Ro man, reig n .of Phi li ppus I, A.O. 244249, Sait ta in Lydi a, bro nze, 3.75 cm ., Acc. No. 1973.6 10, Museum of Fi ne Arts, Bosro n.

V e rmeule / V icto ry in D e ath : Ro m a n T riump hal Art and Pri vate Life

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Figure 6 Pyx is or circu lar box with lid, Roman, Eros wit h Psyche's butterfly, ca. A.O. 25 0, ivory , height 7.5 cm., Acc. No. 1981.87, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston .

The lady who went ro her eternal repose amid sy mbo ls o f apotheos is , personifications of g lobal geography , and love-gods , large and sma ll , as victorious seasons, could have carried coi ns with related subjects on her voyage to the beyo nd . She also could have take n alo ng a pair of sma ll ca rved ivo ry pyxides or jars in which the myths of joyous Erotes were perp etuated on a decorative obj ect used to ho ld cosmetics o r ink for writing letters back from the Elysian Fields o r the Judeo-Christian Heaven. Such obj ects were fo und in sarcop hag i, as ivo ry o r bone boxes from the Archaeological Ins titute of America 's excava tions at Assos, northwes t Asia Mino r, in the ea rly 1880's bear witness .

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Vermeule / Victory in Death: Ro m a n Triumph al Art and Private Life

On one round jar or box , an Eros fri g htens another with his butterfly (figure 6). The seco nd little love-god tumbles backwards in amazement, a se t of Panpipes in his extended rig ht hand. On the companion pyxis , the pair o f Ero tes are fi shing (aga in an image of the sou l), while a pinecone-topped s taff (thy rs os) stands vertically in the ground behind their backs (figure 7). The fl at upper surfaces of the two lids are ca rved with busts of temales, one like a mask fro m the Graeco- Ro man theater and the second with fo ur lo ng strands of pl aited hai r like the Graeco-Egypt ian goddess Isis. Such heads would have also appeared in profile on the fr ont corners of the lid of the sa rcophag us at Fenway Court.


Figure 7 Pyxis o r ci rcul ar box wi th lid , Roma n, Eros wi th a basket fo r fish , CtJ. A.D. 25 0, ivo ry, he ight 7 cm., Acc. N o. 198 1.86, Museu m of Fine Arts , Bosto n.

As on rhe lady's sarcophagus , rhe sce nes on rhese rwo lirrle jars provide a lmos r everyrhing a Roma n loved abo ur life a nd dearh prese nred under rhe g ui se of lirrle Cupids. Eros a nd his counrerparr, somrimes called Anreros , fr o lic wirh Psyche's burrerfly , symbo l of rhe hum an spirir. Two Erores haul a fish inro a bas ker in rhe way people's minds were rurned ro religion or, ar leas r, rh oug hrs o f rhe higher powe rs . The Dionysi ac sraff was here an emblem of rhe same happy afrerlife awairing rhe lady o n rhe Fenway Courr sa rcophagus . Mas ks o f rhe rhearer and of rhe romanric pasr of Egypr were parr of everyo ne's ancienr herirages . There was norhing necessarily rriumpha l abour rhe carv ings o n rhese rwo boxes. They were designed ro exhib ir a m o re personal, more human as pecr of rhese divine allegor ical rhemes .

Epilogue

W alking rhrough Fenway Courr, o ne can easily see how much Mrs. Ga rdner liked Roman fune ra ry reliefs fe aruring Erores, Cupids, or Amorini . There is norhing morbid or d isras reful abou r rhese sculprures . Indeed, rhey are joyous in spi rir and were as ple as ing ro rhe Renaissa nce or Vicrorian ro Edwardian mind as rhey had been ro rhe R o m ans of rhe E mpire. D o n are llo, G hirlandaio, a nd Manregna revelled in rhi s as pecr o f Antiquity because there were m any such reliefs aro und Ro me, Pisa and Flo rence in the Qu atrrocenro. They were avai lable ro collectors in norrhwest E urope and N o rrh America in rhe larrer p arr of rhe nineteenrh cenrury. Mrs . Gardner was correct in considering m onumenrs such as this Sarcophagus with Flying Erotes as essential ro the co mpletio n and perfection of a Neo-Rena issance palazzo as they had been ro a late Ro man cemetery or a Rena issa nce garden .

Cornelius C. Vermeule, lII Curator, Department of Classical Art Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

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) I

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Figu re I G iulia no da Rimini , The

An Altarpiece by Giuliano da Rimini

Madonna and Child, with SS. Francis, and Clare and Other Saints, tem pe ra, 1. 79 x 3.2 m ., Inv . N o . P 27e46, Lo ng Ga lle ry, Isabe ll a Stewart Gardner Museum .

The sumptuously colored, vi vaciously figured Italian altarpiece (figure 1) that hangs in the Long Gallery is not always noticed by visitors and probably seldom seen, much less examined, by the art historical community.1 It is, nevertheless, a well-known, frequently mentioned work of art although the truth of the matter is that the inscription across the top of the panel is what has elicited much of the comment : ANNO . DNI . MILLO . CCC . SETTIMO . IULIANUS . PICTOR . DE . ARIMINO . FECIT . OCHO . PUS [HOC OPUS) . TENPORE . ON! . CLEMENTIS . PP . QUINTO .

Obv iously, this inscriptio n is full of information : not only does it tell us the

artist's name , Giuliano, and h is school, that o f Rimini , but the date of the picture, 1307, and the fact that it was do ne in the time of Pope Clement V (1305-131 4). We know that the p ainter Giulia no was dead by 1346 when a document characterizes his wife as a wido w.2 Pope Clement V, a Frenchman who as Pope never set foo t in Italy, was the first A vigno nese po ntiff to reig n during the so-called Babylo nian Captivity. We know so m ething of the early history of the picture. It cam e fro m Urbania, a tow n a fe w miles southwest of Urbino. A round 1898 it was broug ht to Am e rica fr o m the cathedral at Urb an ia where it had been for some time. Origi nally, it had belo nged to the chap el of Sa n G iovanni D ecollato located e lsewhere in the town .

Deborah Gribbon, the Curato r, and Jack Soulcan ia n, the Chief Conservaror, made my research and examination o f the picture

immensely easy and p leasant. Lambertus van Zeise and Pamela England of the Resea rch Labora to ry at the Museum of Fine Arts have kindly examined and rested the panel. I am also indebted ro Willi am Shank of the Fogg and John Lupia of Rutgers University for invaluable sugges tio ns.

2 L. To nini, .. Di Bi ronro e della sua tavola di S. Gi uli ano, non che di alcuni pitcori che furono in Rimini nel secolo X IV,.. Atti de/la

deputazione di storia patria per le provincie di Romagna, II , 1864, 7.

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Figure 2 Ent hroned Madonna, dera il of figure l.

T recentisti ri路m inese;

mt/a f ormazione detla pittura riminese de! '3 00, Rome, 1963, 34.

4 LA pitture riminese de/ trecento, Mil an, 1965, 10- 12, 69 (ca t. no. 1).

"Una 'Depos izione' d i scuola riminese ," Para -

gone, no. 99, 1958, 50.

6 The Development of th e Italian Schools of Paint ing, IV, 1924, 3 16, 328. 7 Catalogue of the Exhibited Paintings and Drawings, Bosro n, 193 1, 177 ; European and American Paintings in

the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum , Boston, 1974, l 1 l -12.

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The high ly inform ative inscriptio n has encouraged scho lars ro rely rather heavily o n it in deciding a number of questions about rrecento painting. The dare of 1307 is early for a painting o f the Riminese school; this is reflected in the way art hisrori ans have treated the picture and the artist. Maurizio Bonicorri in his study o f the Riminese school exclaimed that Giuli ano was an almost isolated phenomenon , well before the school of Rimini began to flourish .l Carlo Volpe began his large vo lume on Riminese painting of the fourteenth century with the observation that Giuliano's Bosron picture annnounces the intellectual direction the school will pursue later on.4

Fo r the critic Federigo Zeri there is "a serious lacuna between this work and the rest of Riminese painting, a lacuna that weighs heavily on the entire school. ''> Van Marie, as so often, is bewildered : if Giuli ano's activity is robe limited ro the first quarter of the century, how is it that he so resembles the mid-century painter,

Stubblebine / An Altarpiece by Giuliano da Rimini

Baronzio.6 Philip Hendy, in his earlier 1931 cata logue of the Gardner pictures , could call the Giuliano painting "the largest known altarpiece of the early Ro magnole school and the earliest painting from that quarter of Italy." Expecrably, in the more sophisticated 1970's, Mr. Hendy deleted this sentence from the revised edirion.7 From the literature, we detect a scarcely concealed bafflement that th is one picture-an impressive , colorful altarpiece, was created several decades before anything comparable appeared. A host of artists flourished in the 1330's, the forties a'.1d the fifties , among them Baronzio, Giovanni da Rimini, Pietro da Rimini, the so-called Master of the Arengo, and Francesco da Rimini . To demonstrate that the Giuliano painting came along much earlier than these painters and belonged ro the decade 1300-1310, critics adumbrated a number of supposed archaisms, of old-fashioned elements that hark back to the thirteenth


Figure 3 Verrine Mas te r,

fv1,1do11 11a of the Mise ricordi11, San Barm lo mmeo, Verr ine (Chi ant i).

8 Stubble bin e, Duceto di B11o ni11se[!. na, Prin ceton,

1979, I, 11 7- 18; II , figs. 28 1-84 .

9 Th e sta nda rd wo rk o n the the me is still V. uss m ann , " Ma ria mit de m chutzma nte l,"

Marb11rKer Jah rbuch /ii r K1111st wissenschu/t , V, 1929, 285-35 1; see also P. Pe rd r izet , La Vi erge

de M1se rico rde; et11de d '1111 theme iconograph1q11e, Pa ri s, 1908.

centu ry : t he oblo ng shape o f the who le, t he la rge ce nt ra l fi g ure fl a nked by two rows of s m all - ca led fi gures ro e ithe r s ide, the sta nd ing Chr ist Child-a posture associa ted w ith Cim abuesq ue works . Looked at mo re obj ecti vely, a nu m be r o f ad vanced e le me nts a re di scove red in the Ga rd ne r a lta rpiece, o nes we mig h t expect ro see o nl y fa rthe r a lo ng in the ce ntury. Fo r ins ta nce, the m a ll figu res knee ling ro e ithe r side of the Mado nn a a nd Child (fig ure 2) a ppea r ro have been bo r rowed fr o m the im age of the Virg in of Me rcy , a lso ca lled the Mise rico rd ia. Such an im age by a fo llo we r o f Duccio at Ve rrine in Chi a nti (fig ure 3) is typica l: the sta nd ing Virg in spreads he r a mple cloa k protecrive ly ro enclose the clustered groups a t he r fee r. 8 Kn ee ling supplica nts m ay a ll be fro m o ne co nfraternity o r they m ay represe nt a dive rse g roup : so me in re lig ious ga rme nts, so me crow ned o r wea ring a bi sho p 's miter, o r the y may re present rich lay pe rso ns. Jn a mixed g roup, the Virg in is o fte n a M at er omnium o r Mo ther of All. 9

Scubb lebine / An Al ta rpiece by Giuli ano da Rimini

17


Figure 4 D rawi ng of fabric design o n the throneback in figu re I. 10 M. Mallo ry, 'Tho ug hts Conce rning the Mas te r o f the Glo rifica tio n o f St. Tho mas," A rt Bulletin, LVII , I 975, I 2ff, fi g. I 2. See also the Miserico rdia o n fo . I, ms. 52 in the Biblioceca Co mun ale, Bo log na, dated I 329 (Domenico Fava , Emilia e Romagna, Mila n, 1932, fig. 150). At chis very sa me time, the theme is introduced into the tr iptych in Santa Chi ara , Trieste, by Pao lo Veneziano (R. Pallucchi ni , La

pittura veneziana de/ Trecento, Ve ni ce, 1964, figs . 36, 39). ll

Italian Schools , IV, 408. See also B. Row land , Jr., "A Fresco Cycle from Spoleto," Art in America, X IX , 193 1, 224-30 a nd fig . 4. Th e threadbare sta te of these frescoes ca n be seen in o ld photographs taken before their detachment from the walls a nd before ex tens ive

Ano ther exa mple is the Mis ericordia in the Orvieto ca thedral of about the same time, that is, abo ut 133 0, formerly attributed to Lippo Memmi but now given to the St. Thom as Mas ter, with groups very close to Giu li ano's in a rrangment. 10 It wou ld be difficult to po int to a representatio n of the Miserico rdi a theme earlier tha n ca. 133 0, a time when we see it emerge in a great ma ny pl aces. Van Ma rie, discussing the Misericordia in the lo wer left co rner of the Last Judgment from Santa Ma ri a inter Angelos near Spo leto, is forced to write that it was "the ea rliest examp le of the Miserico rdia which was to become so po pul a r late r .... "1 1 Wh at Van Marie did no t no tice was th at the Last Judgment was no t co ntemporary with the o the r late dugento fres coes there and should , in fact , be dated to ca. 1330. This is bo rn e ou t by a number of sty li stic factors, especia ll y the dramatic Chri st fig ure whose torso fa lls forward fro m the stem of the cross .

rescoration .

18

Stu bblebine / An Altarpiece by Giuliano da R imini

It wou ld be difficult to account for the way those fi g ures cluster aro und the Virg in in G iuli a no's picture without refer ring to the Misericordi a composition. Of the eight figures, five a re nuns - no doubt of the Order o f Clares , the so-ca lled Poor Cl ares for who m the altarpiece was commissioned: o ne has a crow n and rwo women are lay people, the o ne to the rig ht wearing two strings of beads o r rosaries as well as a ga rl and of red and white roses in her 路ha ir. The tone of the group is exactly what we expect in the images of the Mise ricordi a. Of course, G iuli ano on ly bo rrowed the kneeling figures; the centra l im age is of an e nthroned Madonna ho lding the Child so th at we ca nnot call this a Miser ico rdia image bur o nl y a reflectio n o f it due , no doubt, ro the e nthus ias m of the Clares and probabl y the artist for this new th eme. We im ag ine tha t the fabric designs Giulia no used for the clo th of hono r behind the Virgin as we ll as for her robe would reflect co ntempora ry patterns. The g rear variety of these des ig ns in fourteenth-


Figure 5 Drawi ng o f fa br tC de 1g n in rhe Mado nna by rhe mas ter o f rhe Are ngo, o rrer Museum , Ve n tCe.

·entur y Italian p aintings h as been srudied iy Brigitte Klesse. 12 One o f t he p ro blem n all such stu d ies is th e te nde ncy ro use :errain arrisrs' wo rks as g uidelines . Fo r ~ xa mple , Klesse co mpares Gio tto ' iesigns ro rh ose o f a number o f ther irrists fr o m vari o us schoo ls ; yer m an y o f 1er examples o f Gio rro 's p atte rns are ·aken fro m rhe Sr. Francis Legend at -\ssisi . For the m an y w ho do no r asso:iare Giotto wirh th ose frescoes, this is ~o r a trustwo rth y acco unt o f G io rro 's fabrics .

pa rrern a va r ia nt o f rhe o ne in rhe o rre r Mu eum Madon na (fi g ure 5) no w atrribured r rhe Ma re r o f rhe Areng and d ared ro rhe 132 0' , althoug h I believe ir m ay be l a rer . 1 ~ Re la red ro all rhree o f rhe e i rhe de ig n o n rhe bier clo rh in Pao lo Venezi ano' Dorm ition in Vicenza, ig ned and d ared 1333 .16 Thu , rhe o rr o f fa br ic de ig ns and rheir g eneral so ph isricarion appear ro belo ng ro rhe sryle o f rh e 132 0's and rhe 1330' s as revea led in a num ber o f pa intings fr m rh e schoo l o f R imi n i.

Wirh rhis sho rtco ming in mind, we can -ead Klesse's co mments on G iuli ano 's 'a bric designs in rhe G ardne r p anel. The :hroneback clo th (figure 4 ) has rwo o ver.apping design system s o f pl aited tendrils ~ nd quarrefoils , a rather complex arrangement rhar Klesse related ro rhe ~ pron pattern on rhe Crucif ix in San Francesco, Rimini .13 This is a wo rk rh ar Klesse and rhe older criticism g ave ro Giotto bur which no wad ays is m o re gen erally co nsidered a Riminese wo rk o f rhe 1320's. 14 Klesse also called rhe Giulia no

Critics have had di ff icu lty re lati ng o rhe r wo rks ro Giu lia no da R imin i la rge ly, ir see m s, because o f rh e earl iness o f rhe 1307 da re inscribed o n rh e Gard ne r pa ne l w hich iso lares h im fr o m rh e m a insrream o f Riminese p aint ing . W e do kn ow h e was co mm iss io ned alo ng w irh ano rh er arri s r, Pierro d a Rim ini , ro m ake rh e p a ne l for rh e hig h alra r o f rh e E re m ira n i church in Pad ua in 1324, bur o f rhis th ere is now no rrace .17 The occas io na l arrribu ri o ns o f pictures ro him by va r ious criti cs h ave no r enlisted much suppo rt.

12 ~<1du111 0//< 111dtr11.i

liu111 th <11 \l.ih rt·1 d t·1 l -1 J.ih rlu mdt rt 1, Bern,

1967

I'> Fo r rhe (,J rdner p1uure, 1h1d , 5 1, I H, tJr no 9 1, fig 180, fo r rhe R1min1 mu/1>., 1/ud , I H, cJr no . 85 J, f ig I 79 11

P11111ru lfuliunu dd dt11:Cf.: ll/ (J

t: I f t!Ct: lll O.

CU l..J

folio dellu m oflru Ji10I t effu d1 F1n ·n w dtl / 9J7, eds G in1ba ld 1 e G Brunern , Flo rence, 191 3, fo r a rev ie w o f rhe l1re rarure ro rh a r po in t 581 8 '>. ca r no . 188 15

Kies e, Setdenil o// e, 2 15, ca r no . 92. 16 /Ind., 166, car. no I. 17

A. Mo che rri , Bolle11 1110

de/ M11seo C11·ico di Pud19) 1, 20 1; Zeri , " Un a ' Depos izio ne'," <18.

0 1·<1 ,

Srubbl e bine / A n Al ta r p iece by Giu lia no d a R imi n i

19


Figure 6 Stigmatizat ion of St. Francis, dera il o f fi g ure I.

And, as a m atte r of fa ct, wr ite rs have bee n less inte res ted in pursuing such effo rts than they have in de mo nstra ting G iuli ano's de pe nde nce upo n va rious fr escoes at Sa n Fra ncesco, Ass is i. The pos ture of St. Fra ncis in the Stigmatization o n the Ga rdne r p anel (fig ure 6) is tho ug ht ro rely o n th at in the St. Francis Legend (fig ure 7) . 18 In bo th , the Sa int knee ls o n his rig ht knee, raises his face ro gaze at the Seraphic Chri st fr o m who m issue the stig mata seen mos t co nsp icuo us ly o n St. Fra ncis' up raised palms. The for mul a is o ne oft e n obse rved in re presen tatio ns o f the subj ect, includ ing seve ral fr o m G io tro's shop and fo llow ing. Mill ard Me iss believed th at G iulia no m ust have been ro Ass isi a nd m ade draw ings, includ ing no t o nl y the Stigmatization but also t he St. Clare fig ure in t he St. N icho las Chape l of t he lowe r chu rc h. 19 The St. Cla re o n the Ga rd ne r p icture, like the o ne at Ass isi, d raws up an edge o f drape ry w ith o ne hand and ho lds a lil y in t he o ther (in the panel t he fig ure, and so also these gestures, are reversed ). Because o f these s im ilarities, Me iss felt co nst rai ned ro date the frescoes in the up per church befo re 1307 while those in the St. Nicholas Chape l that he had t houg ht we re late r, ca. 1310- 1315, must also date befo re 1307 .

18

J. Whire, "The

Dare o f 'The Sr. Franscis Lege nd ' ar Assi si," Burlington Maga zine, XCV Ill , 1956,

344-5 1. 19 Giott o and A ssisi, New Yo rk , 1960, 3, 4.

20

Stubbl ebine / An Al rarpiece by G iuliano da Rimin i


F 1 ~ ur~ \11g111Jll J/11111 11/ \/

,.,,,,,,,,upper thunh, SJn FrJn< ,w, A'""

cubblebine / An Alcarpiece by Giuliano da Rimini

21


Ano ther a lta rpiece (figure 8) discussed by Meis h as re leva nce ro our inqu iry, th at by the Cesi Ma tet , pro bably a n Umbri a n , which bea r the date 1308.20 The ce nt ra l im age o f the Ce i ca thedra l p anel i a n enthroned Madonna ho lding the hild by the left foot and the right bo ulder, exactly the po e o f the Mado nn a pa nel aro p the rood beam o f the Verification of th e tig mata in the t. Fra ncis Legend. Thi s imilarity led Meiss ro uppose th at the esi Mas te r imi rated w h at he saw in the fresco a ltho ugh it seems to me th at bo th m ay h ave a proto type in so me lost duge nto pa nel o f a rigid ly fr o n ta l Mado nn a.21 In additio n ro the abo ve evidence, we s ho uld add the im age o f th e Magd a len in the upper ri g ht o f the Ga rdn e r a ltarpiece (figure 9) . The s im il arity o f this kneeling figure ro tha t o f the praying Magd ale n in the ch apel dedicated to he r in th e lowe r chu rch is so close as ro m ake a re lati o n hip almos t ce rra in n

22

Scu bblebi ne / An Alt a rpiece by Giu lia no d a Rimini

We ca n undersrnnd why critics ge ne ra lly have ag reed th at th e re lati o nship between the Gard ner p anel as well as the Cesi o ne a nd the Assisi frescoes is so persuasive.21 Bo th pa ne ls, but especially the Ga rdner o ne , h ave been used tO date the St . Francis cycle a nd the frescoes in the St. Nicho las Chape l before 1307 (or L308 ). It is this that h as fo cused so much a ttentio n o n the Gard ner pa ne l and tO a lesser extent the Cesi o ne.21 The inscriptio n o n the Ga rdner p anel is unusu a l in s pecifying that it was p ainted duri ng the time o f a p a rticular Po pe, Cleme nt v .25 And so, in fac t , does the Cesi picture, whose inscription strikingly resembles that o n the G a rdner pai nting recited above : NOIE . DNI . AMEN . ANNO . DOMINI . MILLO . CCCVIII . CLEMENTIS . PP . V . INDICTIONE . DNA . ELENA . FECIT . FIERI 路 HOC . OPUS .


1

Figure 9 St. M11ry Ma gd,i/en , deca il of figure I. 20 " Reflectio ns of Ass is i: A T abernacle and rhe Ces i Mas te r;路 Seri/Ii di st o riu dell'art e in ono re di Alario Sul111i , Rome, 1962, II , 104 -06; idem , G io cro a nd Assi s i, 4. 21 Me iss a lso pointed ou t ch at che Saines Tho m as a nd Matthew in ch e lowe r right o f che Ces i p ane l were drawn fro m ch e sa me fi g ures in che St. Nicho las Ch ape l (Giott o and Assisi, 4). 22 Fo r a n illu s cra cio n see Gio110 e i g io11 eschi in Assisi, ed . G iu se ppe Pa lumbo , Ro me , 1969, fi g . I 02. Perh a ps che image o f ch e Magda le n in che sce ne o f he r s pea king wich che ange ls (ibid. , p la ce XV ) is eve n mo re persu as ive , especia ll y in the luxurious ly lo ng a nd wavy red hair. 23 See che re vi ew o f ch e crici cism in A. Sma rc , Th e Assisi Problem and th e Art of Giott o , Oxford , 197 1, 29-33. 24 Bur che pro blem o f che Cesi pa ne l d ace ca nno t be go ne inro he re . 25 An earlie r examp le o f chi s so rt of in scr iptio n is found o n a Crucifix in Pe rugia att ributed tO Benede ttO Ra inucci , a Ma rchig ia n pa inte r : ANN O . DOM INI . MCC LXXII . TEMPORE . G REGO RII . PAPA E . X .

See L. Ve nturi , " A rraverso le Ma rche;路 L'A rt e, XVII I, 191 5, 4.

Stubblebine / An Altarpiece by Giuliano da Rimini

23


We should o rdin aril y a sume char rhe inclu sio n of rh e Pope's name would make the dare mo re authe ntic. Bur quire rhe oppos ite occurs. One oche r panel ha a similar legend in cribed o n ir. This is the polyprych (fig ure LO ) in rhe Gallery at Urbino by an anise often co nsidered rht head o f rhe Riminese schoo l, Baronzio. ANNO . ON! . MILLO . CCCXL. QTO . TPE ON! . CLEMATI S . PP . O C . OPUS . FECIT .

Figure IO Baro nzio, Po lyptych, Galleria Naz io nale de lle Marche , U rb ino.

24

S cubblebine / An Alta r piece by Giu lia no da R im in i

IONNES . BARONTIUS . DE . ARIMIN O . '"


This panel is o ften dated 1345 under the mistaken assump tio n th at the QTO (quinto) is part of the date ; but sure ly it is a misplaced refe rence ro Clement. Thus, we have a pa ne l dated 1340. If we were ro believe the inscription , the pa nel was made in the time of Clement V who, however, had died so me twenty-five years ea rlier. The in sc riptio n is impl aus ible ; for whatever reason of cult or politics, the Urbino panel received an inscription recalling a lo ng dead pope a nd this may even have been done at a time unrela ted ro the time the picture was painted. Perhaps, the Ga rdne r painting has bee n judged very much by its inscriptio n just as the famous 1221 date inscribed on the Guido da Siena Madonna in the P alazzo Pubblico of Siena used ro co lor eve ry assess ment of that picture. As we now realize, the Guido painting belo ngs ro the stylistic period around 1280; the inscription added in the ea rl y fo urteent h century refers mo re ro the D o minica n Order than the painting itself o r its artisr.27 A closer exa minatio n o f the inscriptio n or, rather, the three ba nds of inscriptions, on the Gard ner picture is revealing. The one we have discussed runs across the rop of the panel and is painted in white letters on a black band . So, roo, is the inscription that runs across the botrom edge of the panel.2 8 There is a third ba nd on this alta rpiece, o ne that often escapes notice: it runs ac ross either side o f the picture between the upper and lower rows of saints. But this inscriptio n is done in an entirely different medium: sgraffito. In this technique the gold

grou nd is covered with a band o f blue and then the letters a re scra tched out ro yield the names of the saints in the upper register. Although this Gothic lettering is o nly dim ly legible, it must or igi nally have been e legan tl y luminous. It is ha rd to imagine th at the artist wo uld have emp loyed two systems of inscription in a sing le painting: one de licate ly g leaming a nd vibrant, the other far mo re leg ible but clumsy in its pictorial effect. We must suppose that the white o n bl ack inscripti o ns are in t he nature of cha nges, of revisions or substitutions at a time late r tha n that at w hich the altarp iece was painted. 29

If the inscription as we now see it is extra neous to the painting, we ca n no longe r put comp lete fa ith in it. Presum ing that it is the date th at is irreleva nt and not the a rtist 's name-as was true of the Gu ido p ainting-we are free ro associate Giu li ano with such principal Rimi nese painters of the second qua rter of the trecento as Baronzio, Pietro da Rimini a nd others. We know that Giu li a no was active in the 1320's (the Erem itan i altarpiece) a nd we know tha t he was dead in 1346. Mo re than like ly, he was ac tive in the 1330's a nd 1340's and the Gardner picture may no t, then , be an isolated, somewhat inexplicable phenomenon dating to the beginning of the century as has been supposed . Curiously , its supposed ea rliness ought ro have garnered for the picture som e sort of ad mira tion as a pioneering effort of an as yet unformed schoo l of painting but this never was the case.

26 Vo lpe, Pittura riminese , figs. 198-204. 27 Srubblebine, Guido da Siena , Princeton, 1964, 35-4 1; see also J. Ga rdner, "Guido da Siena , 122 l and To m m aso da Modena," Burlingto n Magaz ine, CXX I, 1979, 107- 108. 28 H e ndy re nde red rhe i nsc ri pr io n (European and A111e rican Paintings, 1974, I I I ) a nd see be low.

29 Analyses co ndu cred co da re co nf irm ch a r in rhe resred a rea rhe whire insc riptio n is a lace r edi tio n. At chis po int in rhe tech nica l exa min at io n o f rhe pane l co nclu sive evidence is lacking co dem o nsrra re wirh ce rrainty eithe r ch a t the le tte rs a nd numera ls reproduce o r stre ngthen a n ea rlie r inscr iption or, instead,

th at they were inte nded co aire r its wording and inte ntio n. The museum pl a ns to co ntinue rhe technical a nalys is o f rhe pa nel.

Stubblebine / An Alra rpiece by Giuli a no da Rimini

25


W itho ut the res trictio n of t he 1307 date , we will be be tte r able to search fo r o ther wo rks th at m ig ht be re lated to Gi uli ano. O ne example is the fr esco se ries o f the St. N icho las Chape l in the ca thedra l at Tole ntino, the Ma rches . These co ns titute o ne o f the m ajo r land m a rks of t he Rimi nese schoo l and have ge ne rall y bee n g ive n to P iet ro da Rimini a fte r t he midd le of the century. 3째 Pa rticul a rl y the Life of St. Nicholas, a cycle o n the lower wa lls of the chape l, is m arked ly diffe re nt fr om the s tyle perce ived in t he vaults above.l 1 Fo r o ne thing, the St. Ni cho las sce nes are co nce ived in a vivacious, po pul ar ve in and re nde red in a brig h t, hard , linea r fas hio n . They have nothing in commo n with the d ra m ati c, express ive sty le in the va ults tha t ide ntifies the arti st of the va ults as Pi e t ro da Rimini .32 The lowe r fr escoes resemble the Gardne r picture and he lp us to foc us o n its style. In the fresco, Th e Child Nich olas Listens to an Augustinian Preach (fi g ure 11), we red iscover th at nea t, so mew ha t d ry fig ure style, the white co mplexi o ns a nd da rk p upils of t he eyes, the slig htl y st iff postu res and turn o f the heads. In all o f this, the re is an ide ntica l, rat he r cha rmi ng air. It is illuminating th at t he cos m atesque decora tio n o n G iuli ano's th ro ne in t he Gardne r picture-he ld up as a n exa mple of its backwa rdness-is fo und at To le n tino, mos t co nspicuous ly o n the a rchitecture in the Presentation of th e Virgin. The fact th at it was Pie t ro da Rimini with who m G iuli ano p ainted the E re mi ta ni a ltarpiece a lready establishes a link between the two. The fa irly we ll ag reed upo n be lie f that Pie t ro wo rked o n the To le ntino frescoes e ncourages us to speculate that Gi uli ano m ay h ave been the re too.

26

Stubblebine / An Altarp iece by Giuli ano da Rimini

If the re li abil ity of the inscriptio n on the G iuli ano p a ne l is called into ques tio n, the n the 1307 date ca n h ardly be a secure g uide to the da ting o f. the St. Fra ncis Legend at Ass is i o r, for th at m atter, of the St. Nicho las Chape l in the lowe r church . G iuli ano was sure ly in Assisi, no doubt copying va rious fig ures fro m the St. Fra ncis cycle in the upper church and the Magdale n Ch ape l in the lo wer chu rc h. And he must have admired the fr escoes in the St. Nicho las Chapel, probably o nl y rece ntl y comple ted. Yet all of thi s m ay h ave t ra nspired several decades late r th an the 1307 date had led us to be lie ve. But if we lose a date, we m ay have ga ined the proper perspective on a p a inting tha t reflects the flowe ring of the Riminese schoo l.

Postscript : The Finches

On e ithe r arm of the Virg in 's throne pe rches a finch , wo nderfully rende red in fo rm and co lo ring. They are in facin g p rofil es, ra the r hera ldic in as pect, and this re inforces the ir sy mbo lic impo rta nce.33 W e are used to see ing the Child clutch a fin ch in his hand ; this is o ne of o nl y two examples I know where the birds a re pos itio ned so fo rm ally.34 As we recall , the red at the fin ch's throat re minded the fa ithful of Christ's p ass ion and dea th . The bird h ad, according to the o ld sto ry , swooped do wn to pluck a thorn fro m Chri st's brow as he ca rried the cross. Furthe rmo re, the finch , o r o ther s m all bird, h as immemo ri ally conveyed the no tio n of the soul fr ee to fly heave nwa rd a nd se rves , the refore, as a ready symbo l of resurrectio n. 35


figure 11 Rimi nese School, The Child Nicholas Listens to a11 A11g11s1i11ian Preach, Sc. Nicholas Chapel , Cathedral, To lentino.

30

J. White, Art

and Architecture in Italy I 250 to 1400, Ba lt im ore, 1966, 274; Vo lpe, Pittura riminese, 46-48, 85, ca t. no. 92 , a nd numerous ill ustratio ns.

31 Ibid., fi gs . 264-69.

32 Zeri , o n the oche r h a nd , believed th e St. Nicho las Legend o n the lower wall o f th e Ch apel ro be by Pie rro in his gu ise as young associate o f Giu li a no (" Un a 路oepos izio ne路 ," 99).

33 H . Fr iedm a nn , Th e Symbolic Goldfinch, W as hington , D.C., 1946, 7- 10.

34

In the context of Giuliano's altarpiece, it is relevant that the Chapel of San Giova nni Decollato for which the altarpiece had been made was located at the edge of the Franciscan cemetery in Urbania. And in fact , the earlier name of the Chape l had been Cappella delle Morre-Ch apel of the Dead. Thus , Giu liano's altarpiece stood on an altar of a cJ:iapel whose principal function may have been the service fo r the dead . The prominent location o f the two finches and their alert poses must have keen ly reminded those ga thered before the picture of Christ's ow n death and the prom ise of resurrection . The third inscription of the Gardner pictu re, the one alo ng the bottom edge, is co ntemporary to the one along the top, that is, white letters stand forth from the black band. While it too must be later

than the picture itself, the tenor of its message must always have been relevant, speaking for the kneeling, worshipfu l women:

The o ther, also in Urbania (Biblio teca Co mu nale ) a nd ve ry possibly inspi red by the Giu lia no pa ne l, is a la te 14 th century fresco fragment o f a do ve pe rched o n the co rne r o f a th ro neback (G . Ma rchini , "Anco ra primi z ie sul Ghiberri ," in Lorenzo Gh iberti nel rno tempo, Atti de/ Con -

vegno internazionaie, H HIC . EST . VERA FRATERNITAS . QUE .

Flore nce, 1978, 89-94 a nd fi g . 4 ).

VIC . MUD! . CRIM . MARIA . SECUT A . E . ICLIT A . TEN ES . REG . CELESTIA .

"This is a true fraternity that conquers the sins of the world. Following the g lorious Mary, you will obta in the kingdom of heave n." It would not be difficult to im agine the good works and services the members of such a society of Poo r Clares must have performed in the Cappella delle Morre at Urbani a.

James H. Stubblebine Rutgers University

35 A Crucifixion panel , o nce in a priva te co llectio n in Switzerland, variously attributed to Baro nzio a nd Fra ncesco da Rimini (M ostra giottesca, 5 77, no . 187 ) is pai nted o n its back with a desig n o f fin ches, re m a rkably simi la r co G iulia no's, pluck ing a t double-petaled, swee t viole ts. This is a n ext re me ly ra re ins tance o f such birds no r he ld by the Child and sugges ts a funerary use fo r the pane l.

27


Figure l Giusto Sutcermans, Portrait of a Young Com mander, ide ntified here as Alfonso d'Este, oi l on ca nvas, 89.5 x 74.5 cm., Inv . No. P 2ls2, Dutch Roo m, Isabella Stewart Ga rdner Museum .

28


Surtermans' Young Commander Identified

The Gardner Museum 's Portrait of a Young Commander by Giusto Suttermans was purchased by Isabella Stewart Gardner from the antiques dealer Vincenzo Favenza in Venice during the summer of 1892 (figure 1). 1 The p ai nting depicts a youth with da rk eyes and dark, curly , shou lder- length hair, facing three quarters to the left with his left hand o n his hip and the plan of a fortress in his right hand . He wears scarlet with a white sh irt, a breast plate and a blue sash ; a sword hangs from his belt. There is a green curtain a nd a column in the background. The painting's attribution to Suttermans has been accepted correctl y in a ll of the Ga rdner Museum's catalogues and guides for the work represents a fine examp le of the Fleming's po rtrait style around the middle of the seventeenth century. Although the painting is not mentio ned ei ther in Bautier's mo nograph about the Medici's portraitist 2 or in Lavalleye's entry on Suttermans in Thieme-Becker's Lexikon,l even a rapid comparison with autograph works like the Portrait of th e Marquess Geri dell Rena in the Corsini Gallery in Florence (figure 2) can leave few doubts regarding its attribution .

1

M. Carter, Isabella Stewart Gardner and Fenway Court, Cambridge, 1925, 132-134.

Figure 2 Surcermans, Portrait of the Marquess Geri delta Rena, o il on canvas , I 06 x 85 cm., Ga lleria Corsini , Florence. (Photo: Alinari )

2 P. Baurier,]uste Sutter-

mans, peintre des Me'dicis, Brussels and Paris , 1912.

3 ]. Lava lleye, ad vocem Surrermans, in

U.Thieme-F. Becker, Allegemeines Lexikon der Bildenden Kttnstler, etc., XXXII , Leipzig, 1938, 322-325

29


Figure 5 aft er Sutterm ans, Par路 trait of Y oung Alfo nso d 'Est e, o il o n canvas, N annini co llection, Mode na.

The identificat io n of the sitter in the Estense Gallery's p o rtrait as Alfonso IV d'Este, which first appeared in Ricci's 1925 cat alogue of the museum,10 has been accep ted in all subsequent pertinent studies . The hypot hes is seems quite reasonable when o ne co mpares the sitter's features w ith those of the young Alfonso in the sa me museum' s p ai nting of Franceso I d 'Est e with his Wife and T wo Chifd. ren 11 which is mentio ned in several ancie nt inve ntor ies of the Pa lace of Sas路 suo lo.12 Bes ides, the cut of the clothes in the Modenese po rtrait indicates a date in the 1650's when Alfonso d'Este would have been between s ixteen and twentys ix yea rs o ld , ro ughl y the age that the sitte r ap pears to be.13 There is a no ther arg ument in favour of identifying the Y o1mg Commander at Fenway Court as Alfonso d'Este. It is provided by a portrait attributed to the same painter in the co llectio n of Marco Cesare N annini in Modena (figure 5). Th e ow ner himself recognized its sitter as Alfonso IV in a n article published in 1956.14 At fir st glance, the photograph rep rod uced by N a nnini reve als that his painting is a faithful copy o f the Boston po rt ra it . It is interesting to no te that without ever hav ing seen Mrs . Gardner's Alfonso d'Est e , N a nnin i was willing to co ncede that the p o rtrait in his possession might be a replica painted by Suttermans ' nephew Giovanni van Ghelder ra ther than an o rigin al work. 15

32

Stoppato / Sutter m a ns' Young Commander Identified


F igure 3 Sutte rm ans, Portrait of Young Cosimo de'Medici in A rm or, oi l on ca nvas,

65 x 50 cm., G all er ia Corsini , Ro me. (Photo : Alinati )

4 P. Hendy, The Isa bella Stewa rt Gardner Museum, Catalogue of th e Exh ibited Paintings and Drawings, Boston, l93 l, 350.

A letter written by A.M. Radice to the di rector dated August 24, l 972, quo ted by P. H endy, European and A merica.n Paint ings in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Mus eum , Boston, 1974, 245-247.

6 K Langedijk , ?'he Portrait s of the Medici, I 5th - I 8th Centuries, I, Flo rence, l 98 l.

30

While the autho rship of the Portrait of a Young Commander has caused art hi stori ans few problems , the ide ntificatio n of its s itte r h as been the obj ect of much specul atio n. The pa inting was co ns ide red a portra it of the Duke of Mo nmou th , the illeg itim ate so n of Cha rles II of Eng la nd when Mrs. Gard ne r p urchased it. 4 This identificatio n was di smi ssed by Hendy in his first cata logue of p a intings in the co llectio n. Mo re rece ntl y it has bee n proposed th at the sitte r mig ht be Cos imo III de'Med ici. 5 H oweve r, as H e nd y po ints o ut in the seco nd ed itio n of his ca talogue, the young m an 's clo thes , whi ch seem far less somber th an the fash io ns preva iling at the Medici court, suggest a date a rou nd 165 0-165 5. Ar tha t time Cos i:no, who

Sto ppato / Sutrermans ' Y oung Commander Identified

was bo rn in 1642, was o nly e ig ht ro thirteen yea rs o ld , whi le the you th in Sutterm ans' portrait is at least five years o lde r. Althoug h Hendy does no r feel rhat the appeara nce o f the sitte r in the Fen way Court painting is "incompatible" with th at o f the Young Cosimo de'Mediet in Armor by Suttermans in the Corsini Ga lle ry in Ro me (fig ure 3), he prudently e ntitles Mrs. Ga rdner's po rtrait A Yo1111g Commander. It is inte resting ro nore that K a rl a La nged ijk does nor include the Bos to n pa inting amo ng rhe po rt ra its of Cos imo III in her recent, ex haustive cata logue of Med ici ico nogra phy.6 In my opin io n the si tter in the Gardner Mu seum 's portrait sho ws little or no


Fig ure 4 Suttermans, Port rait of Alfonso IV d'Est e, o il o n ca nv as, 96 x 77 cm ., Ga lleri a Es tense, Modena.

like ness to the im ages of Cos imo III . Ins tead, I detect a ve ry close rese mbla nce betwee n this youth and Alfo nso d'Es te as he appea rs in Sutte rma ns' por t ra it of him in the Estense Ga lle ry in Mode na (fi g ure 4). In fac t, the simila rity is so str iking that one is d raw n to the concl us io n th at the two paintings both represe nt Duke Fra ncesco J' s e ldes t so n. Bo rn in 1634, he beca me Duke with the title Al fo nso IV upon his fa the r's dea th in 1658. H e hi mself died soo n aft e r that in 1662.

1

At this point a br ief pa re nthes is o n the Modenese Portrait of Alfonso I V by Sutterma ns seem s ad visable. The p ainting depicts a slig htl y o lde r Alfo nso fac ing three quarters to the rig ht w ith hi s head turned to the left ; his h air is lo ng and

curly. His rig ht ha nd lea ns o n his hip while the left o ne is p laced near the po m me l of the sword which h angs fro m his wa ist. Alfo nso wears full armo r w ith a blue sas h a nd a sm all white co lla r. In the backgro und t he re is d rape ry a nd a co lumn as in the Bosto n painting. Acco rd ing to P allucchini , the Es te nse Ga llery's Port rait of A lf onso IV was bo ug h t fr om Mrs. Clime ne Mo ntanari of Sa lsom aggio re.7 U nfo rtunate ly, he does no t specify the date of pu rchase. H ow eve r, o ne deduces that the pa inting e nte red the co llectio n so metime dur ing the e nd of t he ni ne tee nth century o r the beg inning o f the twe ntie th , s ince it is no t me ntio ned in Ve ntur i's 1882 vo lume o n t he Mode nese Ga llery 8 but it is di scussed by Baut ier in 1912.9

7 R. Pallucchini, I Dipinti de/la Galleria Es tense di Modena, Ro me, 1945 , 243, n.6 1. 8 A . Ventu ri, La R. Galle-

ria Estense di Modena, Mode na, 1882.

9 See Bautier, 19 12, 71 and h is "Co nt ribu tio n a J'erude du peint re Su tte r mans," Monatshefte fu r Kunstwissenschaft, V, 19 12, 378, pl. 82, fig.

II.

Stoppato / Sutte rm ans ' Y oung Commander Ident ifi ed

31


The fact t hat G iusto Sut ter m ans wo rked in Modena fo r the Es tes h as been well known to art historians s ince t he seventeenth century. H is first biograph er , Fil ippo Baldinucci, ment io ns t wo sojourns by the Flem ing at the Modenese court.16 After discuss ing the p ainte r's vis it to Rome in 1645, Baldinucci wri tes:

Torno di nuovo a Parma: qttindi si porto a Modena, e in quella cit ta f ece i ritratti di tutti i serenissimi, parte de 'quali ritratti furon mandati a Firenze al granduca. . .1 1

IThen after me ntio n ing vis its by the Medici's court painte r to Fe r rara , M ilan and Genoa, the sam e autho r re fe rs to another period in the se rvice of the D uke of Modena:

I

Intanto, perchi a cagione de 'continovi divertimenti e de 'si lunghi viaggi, egli aveva lasciati ea Modena ea Parma assai lavori imperfet ti, comparvero let tere de! granduca, colle quali venivagli ordinato il tornare a dar loro it desiderata fine; onde egli subito messosi in viaggio, si porto in Lombardia. Fecevi di nuovo i ritratti di tutti i serenis simi principi e principesse, per quella e per l'altezze di T oscana.1s 1

In short, Baldinucci claims that Sutter mans made two series of p o rtraits of all I the "Serene Hig hnesses" o f Mode na o n two separate occas io ns. So me of these wo rks we re sent to Flo rence as g ifts. Modern research o n the Fle mis h p ort ra it painter has revealed th at he actually made several visits to the court o f Este ' and has supplied mo re det ailed informa-

10 S. Ricci, La R. Galleria Es1e11se di Mode na, I, La Pi11aco1eca, Mode na, 1925, 157. 11 Ve nturi , 1882, p l. 68. Thi s painting, a ttr ibuted to Sutte rma ns by tradi tio n a nd by ma ny rece nt studi es , ca nnot be co nsidered an aurograph wo rk fo r a ll the s tylis tic a nd ch rono logic reaso n me nti o ned by Ve nturi , 209-2 11. 12 See A. Gh id ig li a Qu intava lle, A r1is1i al/a co rl e di Francesco I d'Es1e, Modena , 1963, 26, 27, n.5. 13 Criti cs accept almos t u na ni mo us ly the Ita li a n ga llery 's Alfonso IV as a n aurog raph wo rk by Suttermans. Only Baut ie r, afte r a ttributing the pai nting ro the Fl em ing in his mo nogra ph , expressed do ubts about the a ttributio n in a la te r article o n the subj ect (Bau tie r, ]11sle S1111 ermans . . ., 19 12, 7 1; Bauc ier, Mona/ she/l e. ., 19 12, 378). H owever, h is reasons fo r doubting Su tte rm ans ' autho rship a re based o n a fund a mental e rror. Bautier excludes him as the ponrait's autho r beca use he fee ls th at it was painted la ter th a n 1656, the yea r he mistaken ly da tes the painter's last sojourn in Modena. As a ma tte r o f fact , Sutterm a ns worked in th at ci ty for the las t time in 1659 as docu me nts fou nd by Ve nturi p rove (Ve nturi , 1882,

267) . Th e style o f the Modenese Por1 rail of Alfonso I V d'Es1e bea rs o ut its a ttribu tion to th e Fl em ish a rti st. 14 M. C. N a nnini , " I R itratti di Al fo nso IV ed Almer ico d'Este," A11i e

Me111 orie de/la Dep11ta zio11e di S1o ria Pa1 ria per le A Ill iche Pro 1路in c1e Modenesi, se ri es VIII , VIII , 1956, 13 1- 133. N a nnini also re prod uces a nd discusses a po rtra it o f Alfo nso's you nger bro the r Alme rico in hi s possess io n. 15 Thi s seco nd rate pai nter , employed p rima rily as a copy ist a nd a po rtra itist by Fra ncesco I a nd Al fo nso IV d 'Este, wo rked in Modena from 165 1 to 1675 as is clear fro m documents publis hed by G. Campo ri ,

Gli Artisli i1aliani e stranie ri negli stuti

esl ensi. Ca1alogo s1orico correda1 0 di doc11111 e111i i11edi1i, Moden a, 1855, 477-480. Va n Ghe lde r himself cl aimed ro have pai nted a copy from a po rtrai t o f Al fon so d' Este in 1653 . See the pa inte r's " li st o f paint ings " wh ich is publi shed by Ve nturi , 1882 , 249, document n.l. 16

F. Baldinucci , N olizie dei prof esso ri de/ diseg no da Cimab11e in qua. elc., Flo rence, 168 l , ed . F. Ra nalli , Florence, 1846, IV, 473-5 11. 17

Ibid., 498, 499 18

Ibid., 499.

Scoppaco / Sunerma ns' Young Commander Identified

33


19 Ventu ri, 1882, 212-2 15, 266-268. 20 A. Be rro loni, A rtist i in rela zione coi Gonzaga Signori di Man/ova. Ricerche e rtudi negli archivi mantovani , Modena, 1885, 67, 68.

21 B. Bere nso n, "// racrificio d Abra1no ca mbiato con un q uadro de ! Co rreggio," II Marzocco, XX V, n. 39, 28 September, 1930, 4. 1

22 A. M. Crinb, "Contr iburo allo studi o de ll"att ivir'a di Giusto Sutte rman;路 Rivista d'Arte , XXX , 1955, 2 17-228.

23 S. Masca lchi , "'Anrici pazio ni sul mecen at ismo de! Ca rd ina le Giova n Ca rlo de' Med ici e suo co n rr iburo alle co llezio ni deg li Uffi zi ," Gli Vffizi: quatt ro secoli di una galleria. Con vegno inte rnaz ionale di studi, Fon ti e docrtmenti , Flo rence, 1982, 41 -82. 24 These docume nts and rhe informa cio n they conta i n co nce rni ng Sucre r ma ns'

trips co and acr iviries in Modena will be discussed in a futu re art icle by rhe au tho r. 25 Flo rence, Stare Archives,

Mediceo 53 15, c. 173, see Mascalchi, 1982, 76, 77 . The letter is dared J uly 30, 1649. 26 Mode na, Stare Archi ves, see Ventu ri , 1882 , 215 . The letters are dared Octobe r 17, 23, 3 1, November 11 a nd Dece mbe r 29, 1654. 27 Modena, Stare Archives, see Ve nturi, 1882, 267. The letters are dared J une 6, 10, 25 and Augus t 17, 1659. 28 Modena ( ?) , Archivio Mu raro ri ano, q uoted by Ventu ri , 1882, 307, 308.

34

tion about his activities there. The first major contribution on the subject was made by Ve nturi in 1882 with his book on the Estense Gallery. 19 Quoting letters and documents he found in the Modenese State Archives, this remarkable scholar sketched a thorough outline of Suttermans ' activities in Modena that has formed the backbone of all subsequent studies on the same subject. In 1855 Bertolotti published a letter to the Duke of Mantua written by Suttermans from Modena in 165 3.2掳 Then in 1930 Berenson quoted a letter that Tommaso Guidoni wrote in 1649 tO Cardinal Giovan Carlo de'Medici about the exchange of paintings by Andrea del Sarto and Correggio between the house of Este and the Medici . This letter from Modena also mentions the presence of "Giusti Pit tore. "21 In 1955 Crino made a substantial contribution tO our knowledge of the subject by publishing various letters about or by Suttermans that she found in the State Archives in Florence. 22 Recently , Mascalchi transcribed an important letter about the works that the portraitist painted in 1649 for Duke Francesco I d'Este.2l These documents indicate th at Suttermans wo rked at the Este court at least eight times .24 He first stayed in Modena fro m late June through July 1649 before going tO Genoa. Around the thirteenth of N ovember of the same year he was back again and probably rem ained unti l the end of June 1650. In May 1653 the painter returned tO the Emilian city, where we find him again at the end of August after a trip to Ferrar a. This sojourn in Modena p robably lasted until the end of September 165 3. Sutter mans also visited the Este court in the fall of 1654. In May

Stoppato / Surtermans' Y oung Commander Identified

1656 he was in Modena once again but 1r had been called to Parma. The portraitist came back to work' for the Este family in 1rn October of the same year before leaving : re for Mantua and Innsbruck. From June through October 1659 he again sojourned 11n in Modena, probably for the last time. ,N G

The documents reviewed above mention at least three different portraits of i JI Alfonso d'Este by Suttermans. He G painted the heir apparent once in 1649 according tO Tommaso Guidoni's letter to 1 1 Cardinal Giovan Carlo de'Medici which 1 c I refers tO "l'effigie naturale de! Signor 1n Duca e signor Principe Alfonso " by the portraitist.2 5 Then in 1654, letters from Nicco lo Molza to the Duke of Modena inform us that the Fleming painted another standing portrait of the prince.26 Suttermans painted Alfonso once again in 1659 according to letters by Andrea Garimberti that Venturi found in the Modenese archives .27 The fact that in 165 3 Giovanni van Ghelder painted a half-length copy of a portrait of Alfonso might suggest the existence of a fourth portrait of the prince made by the Medici's court painter at that time. Then again, van Ghelder could easily have copied his uncle's 1649 portrait of prince Alfonso at the later date. One is tempted tO try tO identify rhe orig路 inal portraits of Alfonso d'Este in Boston and in Modena as one or another of the images mentioned in the documents by arbitrari ly assigning a precise age tO the sitter in the two works. Since judging the age of a sitter is a delicate and at best imprecise art, any conclusions must be drawn very cautiously. In Mrs. Gardner's portrait Alfonso cou ld be as young as fif-


29 Sprm wne de/le P11111re de/ D Palazzo dt Su>Juolo, 159, quoted by mpori , 1855, ~51, ~52 30 Arch1vio PalJt1no, ulu logo de1 quudrt nel pur1 1 menlo

reen years of age and a old a rwenry . Thus, her painring could be Jny on of rhe images of rhe princ painred by urr, rermans between 16·19 and 165·1. The 1659 dare can probably b xcluded fo r chis work . errainly, if rh anva in rhe Nannini co llecrion i rhe co py made by Giovanni van Gheld r in 1653 then ir prototype in Bo con would have ro dar ar or before char rime. Jn rhe E ten e Gallery's painring rhe prin e i cl a rly a few years older, aged roughly tw nry ro r· rwenry-five. Although ir might be afe ro conclude char the portra it in Moden a i nor one char urrerman painred in 16·19, ir would be rash ro identify ir p cifically as rhe image made in 1654 o r a rhe o n painred in 1659.

.1

Jr is nor unlikely char rhe portrait of Alfonso d'Esre discussed in chi article belonged ro rhe ducal family ir elf. An inventory of the ducal palace in Mode na which dares from rhe beginning of rhe eighteenth century menrions one po rrra ir of Alfonso IV . Here is Venruri 's rran criprion of rhe relevant pas age:

th r portrait of " Prince of rhe erene Hou e" by urrerm an appear 1n an an i nr c.le ripri on of rhe Palace of a uolo quorec.l by '. ampo ri in 1855:

.. .Molli Ri1ral/1 di Pnn c1p1 deLla se renJS 1mc1 asa, e di afire Famif!, lie l?eg 11a1111 adere1111 a/la 111 edes 1111a, h11on 1111111 ero de 'q11a/1 so 110 di Gwsto F1" m 111 1ngo. n

31 Ir measured 3 hruceta by 2 hracetu and 5 once, roug hly 190 x 153 cm since rhe Modenese brae eto measured 63 3 cm ee H Dou rsrher, Dw1 on · 11'..111·£ 11mr t·rul dl:I pf11dI t.'I mt:Jurer

Th r i al o a port ra it of Alfon o JV by 'i\l ons1I 111st1 " in rhe Ii r of painring b lo nging ro e are Ignazio c.l'E re in 1685 wh r he i mi rnken ly ca ll d Alfon o 11. 10 nfortun arely the 1nvenrory give rhe fr ame' mea ur menr rarher rhan rho e of rh ca nva ir elf, rhu fru rraring any arrempr ro identify are painring a on f rhe po rt rait we know roday H Ir i nor urpri ing char painring o rigina lly in rhe po e ion of rhe M dene e ducal family ended upon in va riou Itali an private co ll crion , con idering rhe grad ua l proce of di per ion uffered by France co ]' ga ll ery afte r hi on Alfon o' dearh in 1662.11

di· Passasi aLl'altra stanza. . .chiamata questa la Cam era de'Spechi. Q11i so no i Ritratti di tutti i Ouchi e di tutti i cardinali deLla Ser. ma Casa d'Est e, di tutti i duchi, cioe da Borsa p.o duca di Ferrara sino ad Alfonso I Vo , inclMivamente frateLlo def ser.mo ig.r Duca v1vente: Tutti i Ritratti sono quattordici, de'quali dieci sono in piedi interi e quattro sono mezze figure e piii def naturale e tutti di mano def f amosis simo Monsieur Guisto e part e di Fla minio Torre, aLlievo de'migliori def Sig.r Guido Reni . . .2s

dt:I Ser mo r r Prtn

etpe Ceru re, 16 g1ugno 1685, published by G ampon, Ruccolta dt cutu lo1!,h1 ed mi·enturi 1ned1t1 du/ recolo XV ul recolo X I X, Modena, 1870, 318

Thu rhe a rdner Mu um ' Yo11ng Commander by urte rm an can be idenrifi d a young Alfon o d'E re and dared between 1649 and 165 . Thi identificatio n make rhe Fenway ou rt porrrair an impo rtanr key ro ou r under rand ing of rhe Flemi h painrer' ac rivirie in Modena during rhe sixth decade of rhe evenreenrh cenrury.

Lisa Goldenberg toppato

anc1tnr

ti

modcmtf, Brussels, 1840, repnmed Amsrerdam, 1976, 72

\2 Vemun ( 1882, 291-372> rraces rhe vici rnudes of rhe Este·s co llernon nder rhe Duke France co II the Ducal Gallery pJinung were scauered w che vanou residence o f rhe family 1n assuo lo, andiano, Quauro To m, Confomno and R1valra During rhe Wars of ucce ion, Modena was invaded rhree "mes, 1n 1702, in 173-l and in !7l~ On the e occasion rhe JJl!ery was d1smanded Jnd HS painungs were enher hidden in rhe local alesian convene or sent co Bologna and Ferrara fo r safekeeping Then 1n 17·16 Francesco Ill d'Esre sold one hundred of rhe colleccion ' finest works co Augu t Ill , rhe king of Poland and Elector o f axony, 1n o rder co pay his deb r The Gallery o f rhe Esre fami ly suffered " coup de g ra ce under apoleo n apo leon himself demanded rwem y o f rhe collewon's pain "ng as pa n o f rhe ransom for the safery o f rhe Este's sta te a nd borh Josephine Bo napa ne a nd rhe city's French commi sarie plundered rhe Gallery before selling much o f whar remained.

35


Dodge Macknig h t in 1906. ( Phoco: Sa ndwich Public Library).

36


D

odge Macknight -painting the town red and violet ...

Asingle ga llery ar Fenway

ourr bea r the name of o ne o f Mrs. ardne r' contemporaries and thar i rhe r om named fo r Dodge Mac kni ght ( 1 60-1950) . Relatively lirtle is remembe red of the m a n and his career today, a lth ugh hi work was much soug ht af te r at rhe curn of rhe century. It was natural fo r Mackn ight and Mrs. Gardner to become fr ie nd : h e wa a popular and amusing fi gu re who loved to promote his work and wa quite ucces ful at it. His letters to Mr . Ga rdn e r, wri tten over a period o f rwe nty yea r and now preserved in rhe Mu seum' a rchive , not on ly reveal his charm but o ffe r insights into his work a nd his a mbiti n. Macknight is a n a rrist whose w rk is di fficul t to define stylistically. Throug hou r his painti ng ca reer, which spanned the 1880's rhrough rhe 1920's, he never fit nea tly into any label given him. He cho e not ro all y h im self wirh a pa rricul a r movement and although he is m os r o fren called an American Impressio nist, when compared ro contemporaries like Edmund T arbe ll and Frank Be nson, o ne can see how ve ry different his sryle was . He chose ro work in wa rerco lo r rather than oil as they did, and preferr~d pure, brighr co lors ra rher rhan rhe muted p astel palerre rypical o f the America n

Impre ioni c . In read o f rheir characrer i ric daub of broken col r, Macknig ht' lifelo ng fa cina rion wirh unlighr on la nd apes led him ro experiment with rran p a rent wa he f color rhar became m re brilli a nt a nd le murky a hi ryle marured .

H wa born in Providence, Rh de I la nd in I 60, rhe a m year rh ar I abe lla rewa rr came ro Bo ron ro m a rry John L. Gard ner. At rhe age o f ixreen he chose to w rk for a profe io nal cene a nd ign painter rarher rh a n pur ue a higher edu carion . Fo llow ing thi ap prentice hip Mackni ghr decided ro move ro ew Bedfo rd . The re hi fir r imp rranr job wa ro paint rhe drop curra in and cene ry f r rhe re nova ri n f rh e New Bed ford Opera H ouse. o n a fr e r he was o ffered em ploy m e nt wi rh rhe T abe r Arr Company which s pecia li zed in sma ll la ndscape p ai nrings a nd phorogra ph ic rerouchings . Mackni g hr's job was ro p aint a fa nciful sce ne in warercolor which a rea m o f yo ung wo men would co py and m ass p roduce as " p a rl o r p ai nrings," o fren o n sarin fabric. Ir did nor rake lo ng for rhe a rri sr ro rire o f chis method o f pa inting and in 1883 whe n a friend o ffered him money enough ro pay for seve ral years study in P aris he seized rhe o pporruniry.

37


hgurc I

Dodge M Jlkni~hi. Lrn, (,ir/ of /Ju11r.irt1, 11 ,

188'), pJ~1tl, 1(1 x \ 1cm Inv o Pl 1~29, M,c. kn1Ah1 R1x1m, hahtlla 'i1ewJr1 (,ardner

Museum

bckn1ghr eg,tn h1 rr,11n1n, Jr rhe relier ormon, J tu<l10 "1rl1 J ,rrong bur t n enJ!l\e repurJuon H 1 cr.11nang con~ 1~1eJ IJrgel •o f JrJ\~ 1ng from plJ rer CJ c .tn<l 1n rh1 he 1mpre e<l h1, ceJther , ormon, "1rh h1~ cJrdul JrJ r~ ­ mJn hip HL quid.I p1d.eJ up French , ofren ,en 1ng J. rrJn~IJror or rhe mher ·oung meritJlh 'ruJ ang "1rl1 him mong h1, uin1emporJrie' JI che J tel1er v.ere 1JU >u1n, Toulou e-LJurret JnJ \ Jn (,ogh \/Jn (,ugh , 1n .1 lercer w h1 brorher Thc:o , 'J1<l of !Jtlrn1gh1 " Ht " J YJnkee JnJ probJbl J1nc much berrer 1hJn mo,1 YJnkc:L Jo, bur J YJnket Jll cht ~Jmt · !Jn 11111<:, <luring cht our l of h" tv.o tJr ,,,rJ, ormon ht JnJ h1~ fru.. nJ cinduJ1ng \Jn .ogh l rrJ'elleJ on u.rLnJL"d p.11n11ng rrip l>Ut\IU<.: PJri, to rk . hinr' 1dk .tnJ loruJnJ 11 " J \ probJbl rhc:,e forJ 'ro rl1L councr chJt fin.di u>m 1nceJ him of h" neL"<l 10 pJanr J1rc:t1l) frnm nJrurt Tl' (ruuf'hlt I II• n r./ I llllc.111 IJll (,,_, ·J II l;U

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38

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In 18 6 1Jckn1ght rnJde thl' J1ff1culr deu\lon w leJ\e the Jl<:l1er 1n order rn rrJ\ el Jrtd pJ1nt on h" ov. n H1 , 't le broJ<lenL"d J\ he e perimemed "Hh long, loll!.e bru h~rroke, ,tnJ brighr "J he~ o co lor (b • I 8 he hJJ g " en up u,1ng bl.1ck Jlrogethe r ) I le grJJuJll gJ111eJ conf1Jente 1n ha, Jbd1r1e J J w.trercolor 1 r anJ, except for J ~n1Jll number of pJ rel Jone an che 80·, JnJ eJrl 90\, WJtercolor wJ\ che me<l1um he tho e ro work 1n for rhe re'r of h1~ career Although ha~ fr1enJ h.1J only lent him

Haas Dodge M ackn1gh1 -

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money enough fo r fou r yea r of cudy, ·f.1ckn1gh1 cho e noc co retu rn co che n1ceJ rare and penc che nexc cwelve eJr an FrJn e, pain and orrh Africa Hop ing co earn a l1van from rhe ale of ha paanC1ng h be Jn ending works bJck m >II rnJ Ri hard JJll q• an Bos· he had rhe fir r of more tl1Jn cwenc). neJrly Jnnua l xhibmon held rhere over rhe cou r e o f hi areer B o~ron 1an eJgerly flocked ro ee che e l>C1c JnJ bnll 1Jnrly colo r d painc1ng bur cr111 gJ ' e rhem mi d re ie~ One 1ra1e cr111c <le cribed rhe dazz ling wacerolor J .. !J kn1ghrmar ". anJ anorher wrore w rhe Bnrton Port: Th e face rhar Mr Macknighc rerms him If an impre io ni r inclines ne c acce pc Bonnac ' definicion char "i c i a ma n who know n chin eekin ro make ochers believe he know meching." meb y ay che e picrure musr be "Ii ed wich." I rhink a week or cwo f uch compan ion hip would end m h pele ly in ane ro omerille or el e c rhe blind a ylum, ~ irh my eye burned our by color.1 ( rher . rhough, -J, him a J rrue pioneer J n<l J r.tl nc d arci rand appare ntly Ir (1 ar<lner wa >n o f rh m. In I 90. more rh.1n a <le Jde before ch rwo mer, he b >ug hr her fir -r wo rk by Macknigh t, J pa · rel o f a lirrl Fre nch p a anc irl (figure I).


Haas / Dodge Macknight - painting the town red and violet . . .

39


In rh ar sa me year while all rhe hubbub surrou nding rhe ex hib irio ns of hi work1 was raking pl ace in Bo ro n, Macknighr was living in Brirrany and painr ing rhe sun -was hed landsca pes rhar were hi mos r po pul ar ub jecrs. There he mer Louise Quey rel, a young wo man from rhe row n of Valse rres in rhe French Alps, who m he married in 1889. The rown of Orihuela, where rhey ser ried for rhe nearl y rwo yea rs fo llow ing rheir marri age, was a favo ri re p lace and a sire char Macknig hr re rurned ro painr larer in h1 ca ree r. The re, roo, in 1893, rh ei r only child was born -a so n, John . Fo r Macknig hr rh e mid- l 890' were y<:ar• of se lf-doubr and inrros pecrion. H i wo rks were no r selling we ll in Bo ron and he and his small fa mil y we re having a difficulr rime li ving o n his meager earnings. He felr misunde rsrood and malig ned by rhe crirics and se riou ly con side red g iving up pai nr ing alrogerher. During rhi s pe riod rhe arris r desrroyed many of his wo rks in his fr usrrarion and rhere was a ga p of fi ve yea rs (1892-l8r1 befo re he exhibired agai n ar Doll and Richards Ga llery. Happi ly, his predom1 nanrl y red and violer wa re rco lor done 1n Valse rres in 1895 showed new confidence and maruriry of sryle (figu re 2) and rh<: works do ne on hi rerurn ro pain rhe foll ow ing yea r we re berrer received Th<: public's eye had become acclimared ro rhe co lorful palerres of rh e Fre nch lmpre sio nis rs and rhei r Ame rican counrerpam, and Mackn ighr' pu re wa hes of color we re no longe r rhe objecrs of deri ion and had los r rheir shock value. 40

Haas / Dodge Macknight -painting th e town red and v iolet ...


\

Before the outbreak o f the Sp anis h America n W ar Macknig ht and h is fa mil y moved ro the United Stares . The ir first two years we re spent in Mys tic, Co nnecticut where the a rtist h ad hi s first exp erie nce painting foggy, N ew E ng land beaches and snow sce nes, a subj ect th at would become a p ass io n for him late r in his career. Ar the rum o f the ce ntury he serried in the sm all tow n o f Sa ndwich o n Cape Cod and li ved the re until his dea th in 195 0. Nor long after mo ving to Massachuse tts Macknight must have been introdu ced to Isabella Stewart Ga rdne r. His first le tte r to Mrs. Ga rdner is d ared J a nua ry 17, 1901. Even though it atte mpts to be a rather form al tha nk you no te, it a lready suggests much o f the wa rmth and humo r

th at ch aracte ri zed the ir co rresponde nce. Ir was very kin d indeed of you ro show me yo ur arr t reas ures las t Sun day and I w ish to th a nk yo u aga in for you r ge neros ity. May I hope to see it aga in so m e time in the future ' You have such a tre m e ndo us collecti o n o ne could ve ry we ll s pe nd a yea r go ing th roug h it W e re I T iti an o r Ve lasquez I would in v ite you to m y stud io and allow yo u to pick up a pa int brush (the kings and quee ns used ro amuse the m se lves th us , d id they not? ) As it is, the bes t I can do is to o ffer to sk ur ry up fro m t he de pths of Cape Cod if eve r there co mes to you a des ire to look at the things I m ake.4

F ig ure 2

Almond T rees. Valserres, 1894- 5, wate rco lo r, 37 x 55 cm., Inv. No. PI ls6, Macknig ht Roo m, Isa be lla Stewart Gard ne r Museum .

4 Th is a nd all subseque nt letters fro m Macknig ht ro Mrs. Ga rdn e r are in the Mu se um 's a rch ives .

H aas / D o dge M ack nig h t -painting the town red and violet. . .

41


You know I would never have any kind of a blow-out without trying to get you to start it off.

Figure 3 Postca rd from Macknig ht co Mrs. Ga rd ner, 31 December 19 11 , on wh ich he wro te: "H appy New Yea r, chere amie, and will you please lee me use your wa ll in che manner indica ted on the ocher s ide' I am willing co pay, of cou rseWe all se nd our bes t wishes-OM."

42

In his first few years in the United States Macknight not only became a close friend of Mrs. Gardner and other Bostonians such as Charles Martin Loeffler, John Singer Sargent, Denman Ross and Desmond Fitzgerald, but he also discovered that he had become an extremely popular artist. His success was due, at least in part, to his engaging character and goodnatured efforts at self-promotion (figure 3). His exhibitions at Doll and Richards were legendary : his work was so highly sought after that barricades had to be put up at the entrance of the gallery to hold people back until the opening. Often they were nearly sold out in an hour. He frequently sought Mrs . Gardner's advice on the hanging of his shows and always profferred invitations to his exhibitions-"I am painting the town red and violet-and I know you like those colors." In 1903 he wrote, tongue in cheek, explaining why he wanted her to attend an opening:

Haas / D odge Macknig ht -

painting the town red and violet ...

If I could get you to stand before the staircase and receive people as you did in your music room ... I should have a tremendous artistic and financial success and incidentally they would jam in and smash Doll & Richards 's to pieces. And this by antithesis brings me round to what I wanted to say in the first place-will you please, if you can, come in incognito or incognita some time Thursday afternoon and see my pictures as I am hanging them? And in the following year : I haven't had the privilege of seeing you for a long time. The only glimpse I have had this winter was at the opening night of the Whistler exhibition when people all about me madly scrambled on benches and up each other's backs to get a peep at you.

IC

It

I


Can't I see you at a little closer range? Won't you do me the honor to run in to Doll & Richards 's this week Thursday afternoon the 3 lst when I am hanging my pictures ? You don't know me very well, but I hope it is well enough to be aware that I am not trying to drag you in there to buy my pictures by the bushel to start a Macknight room at Fenway Court. Eleven years later in 1915 that is exactly what she did. By that time Mrs. Gardner had acquired, through gifts or by purchase, eleven of Macknight's works. She turned a first floor guest room into a small gallery and there she hung the watercolors among works by other contemporary artists. She called it the Macknight Room and opened it to the public.

While travelling, Macknight bought Mrs. Gardner interesting pieces to add to her collection. He shipped her hundreds of brightly colo red seventeenth-century tiles from a ruined church in Mexico which she used to decorate the walls of the Spanish Cloister, and gave her a walnut panetiere, a French bread cupboard, which she placed in the Dutch Room (figure 4). Of the altar cloth now in the Spanish Chapel he wrote : I also send you by this mail a large piece of Spanish drawn workprobably for an altar and evidently done in a monastery at some time or other-I've been keeping it in a drawer-thought I would unload it on a museum some time or other ; but I would rather give it to you than sell it to any one elseI hope you will like it, if not you can exchange it any time for anything I carry in stock.

Mrs. Gardner and Macknight shared an interest in music and he and his son, John, would often come to Boston to attend the Symphony or the Opera with her. This time you can't escape us, and John and I will be there at the Kneisel concert surely , unless snowstorms earthquakes or derailments prevent .. . . Figure 4

These concerts are public, aren't they, and no evening dress is required I suppose and hope. I wish flannel shirts were obligatory at all times.

Panetiere or bread cup boa rd, Aries , XVIJI century, H . 104.2 cm., Inv. N o. F2 l n20, Dutch Roo m, Isabella Stewart Ga rdner Museum.

Haas / Dodge Macknight -painting the town red and violet...

43


Fig ure 5

Th e Road to Cordoba, Mexico, 1907 , watercolor, 37 x 55 cm., In v. No . PI ls3 0, Mackn ight Roo m, Isa bell a Stew art Ga rd ne r Museum.

44

H aas / D odge Mackn ight -pain,ting th e town red and v iolet .. .

Macknig ht co ntinued to t ra vel well into the 1920's in sea rch of new motifs, sometimes re turning to old haunts in Spain a nd F ra nce, but, m o re oft e n trying new pl aces. The list reads like a t ra velogueMexico, N e wfo undl and , Gra nd Manan, J a m aica, Morocco a nd the G rand Ca nyon. But no m atte r the di stance, his co rrespo nde nce with Mrs. Ga rdne r never fl agged. H e w ro te, for exa mple, from Mexico in 1908 describing hi s effons to capture the effects o f inte nse t ropica l sunlig ht while stav ing off bo th bugs and sunburn.


What a fool a man is to try to p ai nt la Nature! I believe I wou ld laugh Ha! Ha! if the joke wasn't on me. Curse the man who invented greens! How can you paint a green that is full of orange and red and violet and blue? . .. I'm in the Tropics , the banana leaves wave over me as I walk in the deep blue shadows; the hibiscus and the bougainvillea and vines with flowers of many hues make a tangle all about the native hutswell I'm glad I can see it anyway. And in the meanwhile Nature's Cusrom House in the shape of a billion bugs of all kinds chews and bites day and nightBut the hardships proved worthwhile and a month and a half later, enthusiastic about his Mexican watercolors he wrote, "I think I shall have a lot of stuff to show you-AND IT WILL BE P-R-R-RISMATIC, by thunder!" (figure 5).

ga llery, sti ll I have got so mething out of it-If it goes comp letely and no more comes by Monday I suppos~ I must take to the Open Road aga m , hang it . And from Portland, Maine he wrote: The Wandering Chump (DM) salutes you and begs to state (from the 16th sto ry o f the Lafayette H otel) that he has got thus far in search of snow and finds some in the gutters but that it is not quite white enough . T omorrow morning he is going to beat your record by one minute and arise at 5.29 and take a train th ro' Maine and New H ampshire, So fascinated was he by the play of light on snow and the beauty of a snowfall that Macknight built himself a small, portable hut warmed by a kerose ne heater to protect him from inclement weather while he worked (figure 6) .

Figure 6 Macknig ht a nd h is war ming hut, 1909 ( Photo : Museum a rchives).

Warm, sunny countries, though, were not the only places in which Macknight chose to work and after 1908 he often travelled W Maine and New Hampshire during the winter to paint shadowy, snow-filled fo rests and frozen pools. This search for snow kept him always on the move and his letters to Mrs. Gardner are filled with laments of early thaws and melting snow. ~ had. fully decided to go into the

interior for a month, as we had had no snow here at all, but las t Saturday it snowed about an inch so I have been painting this we~k-lt is pretty thin snow; it reminds me of the hair on the bald-headed men you commented upon from the H aas / Dodge Mac knig ht -painting the town red and violet . . .

45


Figure 7 Towering Castles, Grand Canyon, 1914, watercolor, 45 x 53 cm., Inv. No. Plle7, Macknight Room, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.

46

Haas / Dodge Macknig ht -p[linting the town red and violet ...


In 1923 Macknight enjoyed his greatest success. The public eagerly bought the watercolors done on his trips to the White Mountains , the Grand Canyon (figure 7), and Morocco. That same year he was honored by an invitation to exhibit sixty-three of his works in Paris at the Exposition d'Art Americain along with Winslow Homer, John Singer Sargent and the sculptor, Paul Manship.

whether I wish it or notpicturesqueness of design together with brilliant color, but no one ever spoke of it except you, or even seemed to notice it. My complimentsMrs. Gardner's death was followed in 1928 by the death of his son, of wounds incurred during World War I. Macknight gave up painting soon after that. In a letter to Mrs . Gardner seventeen years earlier he had written :

With Mrs . Gardner's death in 1924 Macknight suffered the loss of more than simply a devoted p atron. As their correspondence demonstrates , they shared a love of music and travel and a passion for art. Their twenty year friendship was based on the mutual respect and understanding evident in a letter from the artist in 1909:

I'm more eccentric than you are. I've been painting pictures!! And if there are any fools any darnder than those who paint pictures, write books and compose music, I don't know where they are or who they are.

A bas !es arts! Let's dig in the garden.

Without wishing to throw you any bouquets I must say that you make remarks now and then that startle me by the profound insight they show.

That is, in fact , just what he did. Macknight spent the last twenty years of his life happily tending his fruit trees and vegetable garden and died at age ninety at his home in Sandwich.

The other day you spoke of the Monet-Japanesque quality of my work-or something in that vein. That is exactly what I'm after,

'路

Karen E. Haas

----::::.-----

c-路

47


Mrs . Gardner as Matchmaker

Seldo m h as an orphan been so well p rovided for. Upon the death of William C. Whitney in 1904, his sixteen-year-o ld daughter, Dorothy, inherited seve n mil lio n dollars with the prospect o f substa n tial capital appreciat io n during the fiveyea r guardianship of her eldest b ro ther, H arry. Long before her debut in New Yo rk society, therefore, it was evident th at Miss Whitney would test the hunting rit uals of Edwardian courtship-and possibly enlarge upo n them. For she was pert and pretty, too-w ith a graceful demeanor that suggested a vulnerability more appare nt than real. Poachers soon found her remarkably elusive, and to complicate matters still further for potential suitors , she was guarded by two gamekeepers-the Bends. These we re Mrs. George Bend and her redoubtable daughter Bea trice, family friends in somew h at reduced circumsta nces, who took the role assig ned them by the Whitney testament ve ry ser iously indeed and who tended to regard every creatu re wea ring trousers as a fortu ne- hunter.

48

By the year 1909, severa l sui rors , including me n with impeccable Long Isl and crede nti als, had taken aim at Miss Wh itney and missed. Interested bystanders within the highly viscous Eastern seaboard society of the time began increasingly to wonder who mig ht catch her? Among these was Mrs. Gard ner, a longstanding friend o f her father, and who, thoug h o nly a renegade New Yorker, kept herse lf abreast, directly or indirectly, of go ings-o n amo ng the Four Hundred. Thus, when Pi att Andrew relayed news of a brief encounter with Miss Whitney in Washington that February, she was ar o nce intrig ued . Wh y nqt try ro lu re Miss Whitney to Andrew 's house in Gloucester for a week-end sojourn ? The problem, o f course, was ro avoid the Bends. But what if Mrs. Gardner herself would offe r co se rve as chaperone ' "A llrig htski !" she wrote Andrew on April 6, 1909-"The note to D.W. has go ne .... 路路 This was a letter duly found among the papers o f its recipient after her death, at 81, in England in 1968. It reads :


Isabell a Stew art Gardner and A. Pia tt Andrew a t Red Roof, G louces ter, 19 10

Gray / M rs . Ga rdner as March maker

49


Picnic ar Co ffin ' Beach : Ernsr H anfsraengl , Doro thy Wh irney, I abella tewarr Ga rdner, Henry leeper , Richard Ha ll , Weymer Mill s (in fo reg round); A. Pidrt Andrew i seared next to Mrs. Ga rdner in rhe cenrer pho rogra ph

My de a r 0 ro rhy , F r y u were D r rhy ro me wh n yo u pl ayed ra b hind rhe rap rri 1n ew Yo rk , do you remember ? I hea r rh ar yo u a re co ming ro lou e rer for rhe l 7rh l rh . A I a m a l o r be rhere I end rhi no re ro ay how gl ad I h all be ro renew my acqu ainrance wirh you , & perhap begin a friend hip- We mu r be ure ro g do wn in rhe ame rra in , & rhere is a lirrle pl a n o n f r u ro mor r up o n Mo nday rhe l 9 rh & c me here for a n ho ur- & I suppose lunch rogerher somewhere. May rhe wearher be good . And ro seal off a ny rema ining ave nue of

SO

Gray / Mrs. Gardner as Ma tchma ke r

e ca pe, Mr . Ga rd ner cou ld nor resisr adding: " You & I musr be firm rhar the pl a n doe nor fa ll rhrough ." The week -end in G lou'ces rer proved a rriking success-rep lere wirh a picnic at Coffin ' Beach, a cosrume parry, a boat race, and a fond fa rewell ar Fenway C urr. Miss Whirney 's rh ank -you nore w Mrs. Gard ner "wa rmed rhe cockles of my hea rr ," he wrore in prompr repl y.

If Andrew h ad pressed his pursuir, he mighr h ave rracked Miss Whirney down rhen a nd rhere. Bur he himself was on rhe rhreshold o f a presidenrial appoint路 menr as Oirecro r o f rhe Minr, and had his


1

hands otherwise full editing the publ ications of rhe N atio nal Mo netary Co mm ission. His quest thus lacked the sing lemindedness that quarry of that quality usually requires and , in fact , Miss Whit ney soon departed the ga me prese rve entirely by embarking, with the Be nds, upon a round -the-world tour. This brought her in due course to Peking and to an encounter with Willard Stra ig ht, then on the the po int o f abando ning his diplomatic ca reer to become local representative of a Mo rga n-spo nso red N ew York bank co nso rtium seeking to open the doors of Chinese fin ance to the inte rnational bond market.

Stra ig ht jo ined the hunt at once, and soon added his name to the li st of those w ho had p ro posed ma rri age to Mi ss Whitney. Iro nica lly, he and And rew we re o n hig hly co rdi al pe rso nal te rms and th ro ug hout 19 10 ne it he r suspected the ri va lry. At thirty, Stra ig ht was in many res pects the more like ly sui to r, fo r Andrew was seven yea rs his se nior and mo re deeply acclimated to bac helo rdo m. T o Mi ss Whitney, Stra ight was soo n "Will ard-Boy," whereas she cou ld not bring herse lf to use A ndrew's nickname, "Doc." Soon after he r return to N ew Yo rk s he and Andrew atte nded a perfo rm ance of Tannhaus er toge ther- dul y chapero ned by Mrs. Be nd.

Gray / Mrs. Ga rdne r as Matchmaker

51


Meanwhile, Miss Whitney's brothers and sisters h ad gotten wind of Straight and forthwith raised a hullabaloo. It was not merely the absence of private means . Stra ight, they felt , was too far fro m Lo ng Island, in every sense. Nor were they likely to have thought more highly of Andrew, who now, at Mrs. Gardner's prodding, baited yet another trap for the hes itant lady . Notifying Andrew of George Proctor's impending engagement ("It is very nice as far as she the fiancee goes. There are no parents but alas also no money ."), she added, "When does your time come?'' It was high time, both concluded, for another week-end trois in Red Roof, Andrew's harbors ide cottage at Gloucester. Bue this time , the attendant festivities would be fo llowed by an excursion together up the James River on the Treasury yacht Apache, with Henry Sleeper completing the party as a suitable fourth. Andrew had become seco nd-in-command at the Treasury and

a

Parry at Red Roof, G lo ucester, April 1909: Edgar Rust, H enry Sleepe r, Isabe ll a Stewart Gard ner, Ernst Hanfsraeng l, Dorothy Whitney, Richard H all , and Weymer Mills.

althoug h not o n an especially cordial footing with his superio r, Secretary Franklin MacVeag h, was confident Mrs. Gardner's fri endship with him wou ld p roc ure asse nt to use the yacht, as indeed it d id. The house party was aga in a huge success-thoug h with one substantial fl aw. The Boston Transcript of April 3, 1911 told the story: Whi le in G loucester o n Sunday, Mrs. John L. Ga rdner, who was the guest of H on. A. Piatt Andrew , Jr. , assistant sec retary o f the Treasury, became suddenly ill and a physician was called to attend her. She h ad gone to Gloucester to ass ist Mr. Andrew, as did others, at a reception given for about fifty master m ariners of G louces ter, where the ass ista nt secretary has a summer res idence on Eas tern Po int. Mrs. Ga rdner's illness was not of a serious character and she is aga in at Fenway Court, the art ga lleries of which were opened today to the public. Miss Whitney , in turn , relayed an account o f these doings to Willard Straight in Peking, add ing a bit coquettishly: I could fee l Mr. Andrew 's attitude towa rd me changing all the rime, and the las t mo rning when we walked together to the sration-(Peking! ) I knew that we were o n a very different footing ... Still, fr o m the tone of her corresponde nce with Straight at the time, it seems clear she was implicitly committed to him , and mos t probably used Andrew,

52

Gray / Mrs. Gard ne r as Matchm ake r


and the excurs io n o n the J a mes, to bring marrers ro a co nclus io n he r fa mil y could not longer dispute. If a nyo ne could have altered the fin a l o utco me, it wo uld have been Mrs. Ga rdne r, who, at close s hipboard quarters, wo uld have bee n a fo rmidable, even aweso m e ad voca te fo r Andre w. Bur the incide nt in G lo uces te r forerold the no te she was o bliged soo n after t0 send Andrew : The docto r wo n' t let me go o n o ur enchanting trip o n the Poto m ac & o n the James . 1 could cry. I suppose he is right for I rea ll y do no r pull m yse lf rogether as fa s t as I should . He says that kind o f journey in rhar p an o f the world (which he doesn 't think o ve r healthy ) mu st no r be . And so, in lieu of Mrs . Ga rdner, Beatrice Bend chaperoned Miss Whitney o n the Apache. On the third day o f the cruise, in the environs of Richmo nd, Andrew finally proposed-a nd received a graceful but firm rejection . He unde rlined the word "sad" three rimes in his pocket diary entry for rhe day, and when rhe party got back to Washington on April 25, 1911 , could no r resist a last, desperate and rather hapless bid for her ha nd in writing, a document the recipient also duly saved across rhe yea rs. Ir co nta ined a prescript reading "With S at my elbow as I wrire"-rhis being Henry Sleeper-a nd closed with this peroration : I long for rhe cha nce to be with youto tell you rhe things rhar come into my life, ro share rhe things you care for-to work for you and care for you,-and to live for you and love you always. Can it nor be?

N o, it could n 't- and rhe admitted prese nce o f "S" during thi s miss ive's co mpoirio n could no r have aug m e nted its impact. This rime, a t all eve nts, rhe refu sa 1 s ruck. Andre w was soo n reconciled a nd saw Miss Whitney o n severa l occas io ns before he r e ngage me nt to Willa rd Straig ht was fo rm a ll y a nno unced rha r summe r. She and St ra ig ht we re ma rr ied rhar autumn in Ge neva . "Ca lled o n the Straights," Andrew no ted in h is pocket dia ry fo r Se pte mbe r 15, 1912. Ed ward ia ns te nded to re ti cence in such matte rs. No do ub t Andre w a nd Mrs. Ga rdne r ofte n chuckled toge ther, in late r yea rs, about the ir mu tu a l hunt, and the ir e mpty bag at its close.

Andrew Gray

A. Pi att Andrew's pape rs are in the author' s possession. The correspondence of Doro thy Whitney (Dorothy Straig ht Elmhirst}, preserved in the Cornell University Library , is quoted th rough the courtesy of Michae l St ra ight.

53



The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Incorporated Fifty-eighth Annual Report for the Year Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Two


Report of the President

P eo ple so m e t imes ask whe ther the Ga rd ner Muse um has a ny p roble m s. Se lfp ree ning is a da nge ro us pastime , but it is true th at th e Ga rdn e r h as been re m a rk ably immune fr o m the infectio ns th at see m ro swee p th ro ug h museums fr o m rime ro time- prima do nn as at the he lm , budge ts o ur o f co nt ro l, staff jea lousies , wa rring fac tio ns in the Boa rd , dubi ous acqui s itio ns , cl a ndes tine deaccess io ns, e re. Of course, this immunity does n' t jus t happe n, it is du e ro the qu ality o f the d irecro r a nd the o the r m e mbe rs o f the sta ff.

1945- 1955 it was 96,000. In the lase cen yea rs we have bee n running around 150 ,000, w ith a bi ce nte nni al hig h of 198,000 a nd a low o f 125,000 foll ow ing the sugges ted do natio n at the doo r Increased atte nda nce mea ns employin1mo re g ua rds, a nd this need is un fortuna tel y agg ravated by curre nt cri me stJrn tics, which require increased securit) Be ing a n equ a l o ppo rtunity employer, wt engage wo me n g ua rd s as we ll a mtn, a nd they require separa te faci lirie . In sum , the s pace and fac ilities for guards have beco me inadequ ate.

I wo uld like ro be able ro say th at o ur Trustees mee t mo nthl y fo r a de licio us lunch at whi ch they lay pl a ns fo r so m e de lig htful occas io n at the Mu seum and the n go ho me. The lunch is ve ry good indeed , but the re a re things we have ro wo rry abo ut. One is rh e space p roble m .

At the sa m e rime acri viries within che Museum have ex pa nded. The re are mort peo ple th an eve r wo rking o n the prc: ~er vari o n and re pa ir o f ta pes tries, paincini;. prints and d ra wings , statu ary and ocher o bj ects, a nd they require more space th Jn e ve r. The re is now a n excellen t in house print sho p and the phorogra phic depart路 me nt has bee n e nl arged . It is hard co set how we eve r did witho ut our new cafe, but it takes up space a nd needs mo re. Our rece ntl y esta bli shed me mbe rsh ip p rog ram - so impo rtant to the present and futur e hea lth o f th e Mu seum requires added sta ff and equipment rn m a inta in co mmuni ca tio ns and arra nge fo r spec ial eve nts a nd serv ices . We need new o ffi ce fo r that. Fo r ho rticu lture, we need a s m all new g ree nhouse that would at o nce fr ee up space e lsew he re and pro路

By 19 3 1 it had beco me appa re nt t hat Mrs . Ga rd ne r's o rig in al palace could no r be o pera ted p ro pe rl y as a public m useu m w itho ut pro pe r s pace fo r the d irecto r and o the r me mbe rs o f the sta ff. An o ffi ce w ing wa s added . Since the n so mu ch h as ha ppe ned tha t we are aga in faced wi th o ve rcro wdi ng. Fo r o ne th ing the numbe r o f v isiro rs h as increased by 100 % . Fro m 19 25- 1945 the average atte nd a nce was 70,000, fr o m

56


vide a proper nursery for those m ag nifi ce nt waterfalls of nasturtiums tha t hang fro m the balco nies in the spring. The directo r a nd the Trustees have pored ove r pl ans for new facilities as children mig ht ove r a Chri stmas li st. But we have had to be tough with o urse lves and say tha t we ca nnot affo rd to deplete our e ndow ment for bricks and mo rta r. What we need will be built when e noug h new mo ney is ava il able. We are ve ry much aware that in the mea ntime this imposes hards hips o n the staff a nd makes for less efficient o peratio ns, a nd this is o ne of the things we worry abo ut. Please no te th at I say "when eno ugh new mo ne y is ava ilable" not "w hen and if. " I trul y be lieve th at our friend s will respo nd to the need for new facilities . The Gardner Museum is a natio nal treas ure which the Bosto n community surel y wi ll wish to cherish a nd protect. T o ensure the future welfare of the Museum we look more a nd mo re to our gro wing company of members . The Trus tees are most gratefu l for their support and hope they will partake of the Museum 's many benefits as often as they poss ibly can .

Malcolm D. Perkins

Repo rt of the President

57


Report of the Director

PerformJnce of Ohert o, ' ptember 29, 1982.

I n 1980 I wrore in rh1 pace "Jn rh1 de:cade ( 1970- 1980) of inr n inflar1on, rhe Mus um ha been able ro in rea e v1 iring hour and profes ional raff and ha iniriared new program . Thi ha happened wirhour endangering rhe endowmenr." ow rhe rime ha come ro make accommodarion for rhe xpan ion of rhe 70' o a ro be prepared for rhe 80' . The lasr major change were made in 1972 when rhe vi iring hour were increa ed by fifry percenr, rhe greenhou e builr on newly-acquired land adjacenr ro rhe Mu eum and all rhe offi e were renovar d. ince rhen rhere ha be n rhe addirion of rhe cafe cau ing a laborarory robe moved, and remporary pace found for rhe membership office. enerally speaking everyone i in need of exrra

room and rhere 1 none lefc The .. oluc1on mu r be ro creare new pJce ~ nh rh1 1n mind, an Jrch1reu fJmd1.1r w1rh rhe lu eum wa~ en Jged ro aJ, 1 t u on rhe efficienr u e of rhe but!Jin • ome of hi ugge (IOn cJn be Jb.,orbt:d in rh annual budgec che WJ)' cllJt thl new l1ghring 1n rhe gallenc: Jnd 'iltUru equipmenr were bud ered over tht PJ'C rwo year For rhe re r, mJ1nl ne" fi<K1r pace, addir1onal cap1rJI will be ne{(:"JI) and char e rru r will come from cht increa ed upporr of rhe 1u ('Um., member Th(' acrual progrJm will bt available in rhe nexr rwel e month Jr ir will b rarred a l.oon a rhere '' .1 clear ignal of upporr


The membe rship o ff ice prese nted an exciting prog ram this yea r including a ve rsion of Ve rd i's fi rs t o pera, Oberto, several lectures o n as pects o f the co llectio n and o ne o n the Britis h architect Sir John Soane, who crea ted h is o wn museu m. A Lauro de' Bos is Lecture o n Andrea Ga brie li was g ive n in the T apestry Roo m by Tillma n Me rritt, Fa nn y Maso n P rofessor E me ritus at H arva rd Uni ve rsity, with the compose r's music perfo rmed by the Bosto n Ca merara. For Mrs. Ga rdne r's bi r thday, me mbe rs were treated to a co nce rt by the E mpi re Brass Quinter. The numbe r of me mbe rs in a ll o f the higher catego ries has increased with o nl y a slight decline in the Individu al/ Family g roup . N ext yea r we ho pe to make a new appea l to p ros pective members, o ur first in three years . Once again we are pleased to ackn ow ledge the volunteer services o f Judith Me lze r and Mary Anne Dig nan in the m e mbers hi p office. Amo ng the g ifts m ade to the Museum this yea r was o ne in m e m o ry o f Giovanna Cine lli (Mrs. P aul ) Bowe rs, of Cambridge. The ca fe co ntinues to o pe ra te in the bl ack as we anticipated and like the sa les desk has added ne w ite m s to te mpt the vi sitor. The latter received in D ecembe r the Shorewood Press editio n , Museums Discovered, a book of a hundred colo r photographs representing the bes t in the co llection. Included in the book was a picture of the court, almos t a necess ity for any publica tio n o n the Museum because of the fam o us wo rk o f the ga rdening sra ff. One photograph ca nno t do justice to rhe rich d ispl ay of fl o wers, bur

vis ito rs who view it fr o m every ang le conti nue to pra ise the horticulture here as o ne o f t he best ex h ibit ions in town . T his was a year in wh ich we added significa ntl y to our security program . T he offi ce e nt ra nce was changed, all entra nces we re wi red a nd additio nal e lectro nic de tectio n equ ipm ent and new interco ms we re added w ithin the building. An offi ce a nd wa tchdesk we re des ig ned for t he wa tch room to ta ke adva ntage of t he space m ade larger by re locati ng t he vau lt. O utside, new lig hting was added alo ng t he Evansway .

Trevor Fairbrother who spoke co members on John Singer Sargent 's portraits of Mrs. Gardner and Mme Gautreau.

The concert series of almos t 130 conce rts h as bo th young and esta bl is hed mus icia ns fro m across the count ry a nd abroad. Outsta nding ta le nt amo ng the concerts prese nted this yea r we re three w in ners of rhe N aumbe rg Cha mber Mus ic Awa rd coveted by yo ung mus icians: T homas Riebe l, vio la; Nad ia Sa le rno-Son nenberg, vio lin ; and Pe ter O rth , p iano. T he Apple Hill Cham ber P layers gave t heir us ual bes t to some un usual a nd seldom hea rd cha mbe r music. Three concerts were g ive n by yo ung F re nch mus icians flow n to America by the ir governme nt. Included in t hi s we re Oli vier Charlier, solo vio li n; the E nse mble Clement Janequin , a n ea rl y mus ic group ; and a brass q uinte t, Q uinter T affenel. Report of the Direccor

59


The Intermezz i E nsemb le from Londo n presented N oe l Coward 's music, an unusual concert for the Mu seum - made especia lly interesting since the group read from Coward's letters between songs. A specia l childre n' s co ncert was presented using slides and life-sized puppets ; the music was Strav in sky 's Firebird and Strauss ' 'Till ÂŁ11/ens piegel. The Soc iety of St. John the Evange li st celebrated a memori al Ma ss on Apri l 14th , fo llowing the instructi ons in Mrs. Gardner's will . Music was provided by the choir fr om All Saints ' Church , Do rchester. Attend ance for thi s year was 14 5,867, up about 3,000 fr o m last year. Speci al visits during closed hours were made by a number o f orga nizati ons . The fo llow ing had attend ance of one hund red o r mo re: Art Library Sociery o f Nort h America,

The New E ng land Roentge n R ay Society , Co nco rd Antiqu arian Museum , Dante U ni vers ity o f America Foundation, E mm anuel Co ll ege, Class o f 1962, N o. American Begg Soc iety o f Orthodontists, M.I.T. Alumni Association, Class of 1922, Soc iety o f Rea l Esta te App ra ise rs, America n Soc iety for Microbio logy, M.G. H . Dept. of De rm aro logy and Academy o f Neurological Su rgeo ns. Increases in the dem ands upon the sta ff and Trustees ca used by our exp ansio n and new act ivit ies have been met with good grace and exa mples of true devotio n. It is a pleasure ro thank the m for the ir suppo rt and guid ance in the year just com pleted , and to th ank all the supporters of the Museum for their sustained interes t ove r the pas t few years .

Rollin van N . Hadley

Staff changes

Staff ch anges include the retirement o f William Evans, watch, Tho mas Little, mai ntenance, and P asquale D ' Aless io, Francis Gillis , John H olland, Herbert Kenney, Pearse MacC urtain, D aniel O'Connell, John Ribner and Jeremiah R ya n, gua rds. Resig nations were accepted from J onath an Randolph, printer , Rika Smith, conse rvation assis tant, Don ald Feeney, maintenance, Mi ria m Hitchcock and Walter Stanul, watch, Anthony Biancucci, Theresa Burns, Susan Cohn and Jillaine

60

Report of the Directo r

Jo nes, guards, Jill Charvat and Kathleen McKitchen, cafe supervisors, and Rosemary Padua and Marie Crandall, cafe ass istants . Engaged for regular duties were Mary K ate Hudson-Kennedy , printer, John Cannata, maintenance, John Bigelow, J ames Hartman and James Piper, watch, William Allen, Theresa Babineau, Lucienne Barefield, Thomas Fahey , Frank H ayes Jr., Andrea Lane, Katherine McCollum, Eileen Murphy, Anthony Stewart and David Tidball, guards, Lois


McKitchen, cafe supervisor, Suzanne La 1 Rocca, assistant cafe supervisor, and Jonathan Brown, cook.

1 1

Employed in restricted schedules were Amy Eshoo, administration, Barbara Russell, archives , Alexa Trefonides , catering, Barbara Lindstrom, sales desk, Deborah Amundson , Roberta Boylen, Otis Chandler, Santi Contrusceri, Catherine Dick, Kyle Gallup, Irene Good, Herman Hildebrand, Rosemarie Jaszka, Randall Knox, Paul Phillips , Geoffrey Pitcher, Philip Walsh and Graham

White, guards and Michael Conroy, Bruce Ferguson, Sarah Hadley, Nancy Krusch, Kathleen McKitchen , Karen O'Neil, Andrew Padua, Diana Pernice, Anthony Rinaldo, Mary Beth Scannel, Anne Scatto, William Schroen, Nancy Jo Shallman, Michael Shashoua, Siobhan Shea, Joseph Surette, Mark Tinder , Adam Trefonides, Timothy Watkins and Patricia Wells, cafe. Employed on a work study program from Boston University is John Demick who assists the staff photographer.

Report of the Direcrn r

61


Report of the Curator

DoJg,

kn1ghr ne pa re l and eig ht o f rhe water o lo r char Mr . a rdne r acquired we re di played with photograph and lerrer rhat ill u!>t rare<l the long randing friend hip between arti t and patron. K aren H aa , who o r anized the exhibifltln, <l1 u eel Macknight' work at a member' lun heon in D ecember and contributed an arri le o n the arri r to rh1s 1 ue of Fu111u_J 0111'! .

lf,Jt l 111~} I

1'f111c..r1c.i11

U .ifc. rcolo nfl

"h1th u~ne<l "K:pc~mbt:r I. 19 2

T ht: 'PL't1JI e h1b1r1on' JrJ\\ n rom ou r o " n u>llc:n1on JnJ Jrd11 ' <: rhJr ''ere 1nll1Jt<:J J fc:,, t:Jr' Jgo JnJ organ1Lc<l occJ,1onJll '1ntt thc:n h.1\l prml'J w be 'o populJr due chL JrL no" pJrt of our rLgulJr' heJuk PortrJlf• I J Joh n \111. •• r .rrgu11 .11 I u11 .J) 1111rt, the fir t e h1b1 11on o d1L LJr, 1ntluJc:J pJinung,, "Jtercolor' JnJ rJp1J penul ,l..etthe. . ·e1ng thcm !llAt:tht:r, '1 uor could .1pprLt1J!L tht rJnAL of, .1rgent' ''orl.. 1n 1h1, h1, mo,1 populJr gt 11r, JnJ h1 <:J e ''1th J 'Jnc:t of meJ1J The portrJI! "i.:r<: JttompJnieJ b lercer, from the lu,eum Jrthl\t:\ 111 wh1th JrAent Jer1bc<l w Ir (,arJncr tht fru,trJtllln of h1, ''orl.. - .1nJ the quirk o f h1 fJmou' 'llter' Thi c h1b1llon wJ plJnni.:<l co nHnc1<li.: "1d1 J leuure on .irgi.:nc ·~ portrJ1t' of Ir (,,1r<lner anJ 1me 1JutrcJu g l\en by Tre or b1rbrorher, Re,e.ird1 Felio'' .It the l u eum of Fine Art The cur.Hor Jho poke co member on the Je, elopmenr of .irgenr' JpproJch tO portraiture , u 1ng ex.1mple, from the collecr 1011 A econ<l exh1b1!lon focu eel on the work of rhe Amenc;:in pJ1nrer, oJge MJ c-

62

In addition co a sisring in preparing the abo e exhibition , the archivist continued her o rk o f o rdering and cataloguing the Mu eum' holdings and aiding scholars in their re earch. In rhe course of rhe year, reque t were received co examine materi a l a di er e as achaniel H awrhorne letter , mu ical core by Ferruccio Bu o ni and the corre pondence of F. Mar1 n ra ford . The Museum purcha ed fourreen lerrer from Mrs . Gardner ro dmund . H ill, di cu ed in rhe followin note, and a letter from Mrs. Gardner t Mr . A. P. Rockne!! of Beverly. Two ener u donation were made co rhe archi e : eight lerrer from Mrs . Gardner ro Kojiro Tomita (Curacor of rhe D parrment of A iaric /\rt, Museum of FineArr 19 l-1962 ),a gifrofMrs. T o mita and four letters from Mrs. ardner ro Car line inkier, the gift of Mr . Dunbar Lockwood . We were also f rrunare ro receive a significant addition co the colleetion of aucographs : a letter i ned by eorge Washingron co "The honorable John Lowell E quire," dated prember 30 1789. The letter was the gift o f John L. Gardner; it had belonged co Mr . Gardner' hu band, John Lowell ard ner, who willed it ro his nephew who, in turn, bequeathed it ro Mr. ardner.


The conserv ation staff no t only monitored conditio ns in the galleries and attended to routine maintenance, but undertook major treatments of specific objects. The conserv ator o f paper inspected and , when necess ary, cleaned all leather book bindings in the collection ; she was assisted in this by an intern , Elizabeth Coo mbs. Two watercolo rs by John Singer Sargent, Ponte delta Canon ica and A T ent in the Rockies, were among the individual works treated. James McNeill Whistler's N octurne, Blue and Silver. Batt ersea Reach was cleaned and restored . The portrait of To mmaso Inghirami was x-rayed, examined under infra-red light and then cleaned and restored. This work was undertaken in order to coincide with the exhibitions and symposia planned in 1983 to celebrate the

路I

five hundredth anniversa ry of Raphael' s birth. As a result of the examination and resto ra tion scho lars may be better able to evalu ate the rel ationship between this portrait and another version in the Pitti Palace , Florence. With the help o f his assistant, the chief conservator reviewed the condition of the frames in the co llection, cleaning and repairing those th at required it. At the sa me time, a g raduate intern, Irene Soriano, inventoried the frames . Most notable among the treatment of objects is that of the sixteenth-century, Umbri an relief o f Ch rist as the Man of Sorrows. Repairs made to this terracotta in the nineteenth century had become perilously brittle. They were removed, the position of the fragments readjusted and losses were filled and inpainted.

Queen Tomyris Learns that her Son Spargapises Har Been Taken Capt ive by Cyrus, Flemish , Brussels, 153 5- 50, woo l warps (6 ya rns per cm.) woo l and s ilk wefts, 40 1.8 x 460.6 cm., In v. No. T! 9e36-s. Trea ted in 1982.

Repo rt of t he Curator

63


Chi ldre n participat ing in the Black Ach ievers' program ar th e Museum, Ju ly, 1982.

Ofte n, an obj ect requi res the attention of mo re th an o ne conservato r. Thi s was the case with fo ur eightee nt h-ce ntury chairs in the H epplew h i'te style. T he ir po lych ro med fr ames were s tabili zed by the chief conservator and his ass ista nt and then the chairs were moved to the text ile wo rkroo m where old webbing and stu ffing we re rep laced and the sea ts re upho ls tered . T he text ile co nse rvatio n staff co nt inue to pre pare pieces for cata loguing and photogra phy, ta king adva ntage of thi s oppo rtuni ty ro im prove the d isp lay cond itio ns of those tex tiles in the ga lleries and ro reorga nize the pieces in srorage. The wo rk begun las t year o n the sixteenth ce ntury Flem ish tapes try, Queen Tomy ris Learns that her Son Spargapises Has Been Taken Captive by Cyrus, was com p leted. After be ing was hed, the tapes try, one of a ser ies illustrating the life of Cyrus the G rea t, was re lined and old slits we re repaired. The condit ion of all large hang ings in the collectio n be nefitted

64

Repor t o f the Curator

fro m the effo rts of Catherine Desjardins w ho se rved as an intern this sum mer, vacu uming large tex tiles in situ. Wh il.e the fr uits of their labo r are certa in ly evide nt in the galle ries, the actual wo rk of the co nse rvaro rs is o ften considered somew hat m ys terious. Ou r staff makes a special effo rt ro explain their methods and areas of research to stude nts as we ll as other interes ted visito rs. The conse rvato r of p aper spoke to a class fr o m Wheaton College and the chief conse rvato r prese nted a paper on the techniques of late gothic polyc h ro med wood scu lpture to members. The entire staff ta kes pride in presenting the co llectio n to the public and expl aining the nature of our wo rk ; this is particularl y true when we can introduce children to the Museum. This summer we jo ined with the Bl ack Achievers, a group of ad ults o rgani zed under the auspices of the G rea ter Bosto n YMCA, to plan a progra m of special visits to the Ga rdner


1

for young black and Hispanic children from the Fenway neighborhood. A group of six children , aged nine to twelve and acco mpanied by a Black Achiever, mer at the Museum once a week in July . Their activities included nor o nly a tour of the collection, bur a visit to the g reenhouses, a session in the photography studio and a demonstration o f gilding and paper making by the conservators. The program was such a success that it was repeated for another group in August. All the children, their fami lies and the Black Achiever chaperones were invited to a special evening o n September 14. Ann Hobson Pilo t o f the Boston Symphony Orchestra gave a demonstration o n the harp; this was followed by a party with the Museum staff. While programs such as this require considerable planning, they are an integral-and mos t rewarding-part of our effort to m ake the Museum more access ible to all visitors.

annu al New Eng land Museum Associatio n meeting and, with the curator, a o neday semi nar o n volunteers, sponsored by the New Eng land Museum Association . The chief conservator attended a conference on "Science and Technology in the Service of Conservation," held in Washingron, D.C.; the textile co nservator and her ass istant also travelled ro Washingron for a symposium on "The Mounting of Museum Textiles." During the fall semester the curaror gave a course on Impressionism at the H arvard University Extension. Each year the work of this Museum is advanced through the generous help of volunteers. This year, in addition to those mentioned above who worked on special projects, Charlotte Christofferson, Catherine Dick, Abigail Rhines and Dana Wills assisted both the administrative and curatorial staff.

Deborah Gribbon The curatorial assis tant attended the

~ Report of the Curato r

65


A Recent Acquisition

Works. The Archives already preserved five letters from Hill to Mrs. Gardner and it is clear from these that they shared an enthusiasm for horticulture. In 1922 Hill wrote requesting permission to name a new variety of dahlia after Mrs. Gardner. The dahlia subsequently took first prize in a competition and in one of the letters Mrs. Gardner expresses her delight: I ~ m overcome with pleasure at what has happened about the dahlia, and I thank you a thousand times for having named such a beautiful creature after me.

"/ am never photographed, unless by some Kodak fiend . .. "

A

collection of fourteen letters from Isabella Stewart Gardner to Edmund C. Hill (1855-1936) of Trenton, New Jersey, was acquired for the Museum Archives this year. The letters to Hill, a real estate developer and city councilor best remembered in Trenton for creating its park system, were written between 1913 and 1923. We do not know when Mrs. Gardner met Hill; they may have been introduced by their mutual friend, Henry C. Mercer, founder of the Moravian Pottery and Tile

66

In the most interesting of these letters, Mrs . Gardner comment.s on the motivation for her "life work," Fenway Court, the only written testimony we have of her intentions. Though the Museum itself attests to Mrs . Gardner's absorbing determination to share the aesthetic environment she created, she confides to Hill in 1917 the feelings that inspired Fenway Court and an explanation of the sparer lifestyle she assumed after the incorporation of the Museum. Years ago I decided that the greatest need in our Country was Art. We were largely developing the other sides. We


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were a ve ry yo ung count ry & had ve ry few oppo rtunit ies o f see ing bea uti fu l things, wo rks of art , e tc. So I de te rmined to m ake it m y life wo rk if I could . The refo re, eve r since m y pa rents died I h ave sp e nt eve ry ce nt I inherited (fo r th at was my mo ney ) in bring ing abo ut the o bj ect of m y life. So, you see fo r m y pe rso nal needs I cannot p ossibly sell any wo rk o f a rt. I economize as much as poss ible w ith my income of Mr. Ga rdne r's mo ney left to me. The principal I sha ll never touch. I eco no mize with the inco me because wh at I save goes to the upkeep of my ideal p ro ject. Fo rg ive all this. In some of the le tte rs Mrs. Ga rdner touches o n lig hte r subjects. She must have disliked be ing pho togra phed ; the Archives has m a ny ca ndid s napsho ts o f her but in most o f the m s he has cove red her face , lo wered he r head o r turned he r back. Her respo nse in 19 15 to Mr. Hill' s request for a picture co nfirms he r ave rsion to pho togra phs: I am never photog raphed , unless by some Kodak fi e nd , who does it o n the sly, & witho ut m y pe rmi ss io n. In the rem a ining letters to Hill, Mrs. Gardner expresses her desp a ir o ve r the

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wa r, g rie f at the dea th of he r personal m a id a nd fri e nd , and the a nxiety she exp e rie nces o n public days at the Museum fu r fea r that a vis ito r m ig ht de libe rate ly o r ca re less ly damage the collection , as occas io na ll y happened . Tho ug h the A rchives has six tho usa nd le tte rs to M rs. Gard ne r it does no t have ma ny w ritte n by he r a nd few of them are as re vea ling as these to Edmu nd Hill.

Susan Sinclair A Recenr Acquisition

67


Membership Events

Ir is not surprising th at an unusual museum created by a singu lar woman should evoke affection and loyalty from those who have come to admire its specia l qualities. Often members express a personal commitment to the support of the Museum that is encouraging to the Trustees and staff as they study p lans for the future . These friends will be at the heart of the Museum's effort to m aintai n the quality of its work, as well as its financial equilibrium. Las t year the Museum would have faced a deficit were it no t for income from the membership . Trustees and staff are grateful to members for that and for their genera l encouragement and support. JANUARY 14 Idols in Black Gowns, Trevor Fairbrother, Research Fellow, Paintings Dept., Museum of Fine Arts , Boston. JANUARY 19 A winter garden tour, Robert M. MacKenzie, Head Gardener. For Benefactors, Patrons and Contributing Members.

68

FEBRUARY 1AND 4 Chinese and Japanese Art at Fenway Court, Lois Starkey, Staff Lecturer. Another lecture in the series o n the Museum and its founder . FEBRUARY 15 Tour of the collection and greenhouses , followed by the film "Isabella Stewart Gardner / Boston" and a reception , for new members. FEBRUARY 25 AND MARCH 16 Lunch for Benefactors, Patrons and Contributing Members . Ga llery talk on Sargent portraits in the co llection by Debora h A. Gribbon, Curator.


MARCH 16 AND 18 Images of Antiquity at Fenway Court , Judith Hanhisalo, Staff Lecturer. Third in a series of lectures about the collection scheduled for 1981-82. APRIL 7 Founder's Day Concert and Receptio n : Empire Brass Quintet. APRIL 14 Memorial Service followed by a tour o f 1 the collection with the director.

i MAY 3 / Coffee and tour of the Museum and greenhouses for new members.

I MAY 11

AND NOVEMBER 17 Imitation and Illusion: the Techniques of Lite Gothic Polychrome Wood Sculpture, Jack Soultanian, Chief Conservator. A lecture and demonstration. SEPTEMBER 29 Oberto, New England premier of an abridged version of Verdi 's opera: The Boston Lyric Opera. OCTOBER 6 Sir John Soane, Architect and Collector: An Introduction to His Museum, Giles Waterfield, Director, Dulwich Gallery, London. OCTOBER 14 Andrea Gabrieli: Musician of Venice . Parr of the Harvard University Lauro de Basis lecture series. Lecture by Tilmann Merritt, Fanny Maso n Professor Emeritus, Harvard University ; musical illustrations by The Boston Camerata under the direction of Joel Cohen.

NOVEMBER 1 Coffee and tour of the collection for new members. DECEMBER 6 Holiday luncheo n. Gallery talk on "Dodge MacKnight : American Watercolorist, 1869-1950" by Karen H aas, Curatorial Assistant. DECEMBER 14 Holiday reception with tree trimming and Wassail bowl in the Dutch Room . Concert by the Youth Orchestra.

For information on membership please write the Museum office, 2 Palace Road, Boston, Massachusetts 02115. Membership Categories: Corporate Benefactor Patron Contributing Family or Double Individual

$3,000 1,000 500 100 50 30

Membership Evenrs

69


Membership BEN EFA CTOR Dr. Leo L. Bera nek and Mrs. Leo L. Be ra ne k• Mr. Richa rd F. Fleischmann Mr. Nicolas Jo hnson Miss Christel McRae N oe Laine Mr. Ja mes E. Robi nson , Ill Mrs. Jane Sibley Ano nymous ( ! ) PATRON Mr. Wi ll ia m G. Bullock Mr. a nd Mrs. Edwin J . Fices to ne Mr. a nd Mrs. Jo hn L. Ga rdner Miss Elizabeth H . Jones Mr. a nd Mrs. Malco lm Pe rk ins Mr. a nd Mrs. Do na ld L. Sau nde rs Mrs. Robe rt Lee Wo lff Ano nymous ( I ) CON TRIB UTI NG Mr. a nd Mrs . C. F. Ada ms Mr. and Mrs. Charlton H . Ames Mr. and Mrs. Paul Bernat Mrs. Ra lph Bradley Mr. a nd Mrs. W. S. Brines Miss Doro th y A. Bro wn Mr. a nd Mrs. Sta n fo rd Calde r wood Mr. a nd Mrs. Edw in D. Ca mpbe ll Mr. a nd Mrs. Bertra m M. Cohen Mr. a nd Mrs. Sid ney H . Cohen Mrs. Ga rdne r Cox Mr. Fello wes Davis Mrs. Frederick H . Deknatel Mr. and Mrs. Tho m as Dig na n, Jr. Mr. Pau l Doguereau Mrs. Jo hn Mo rse Ell ioc Mrs. Wa lte r Fei nberg a nd Mr. W alter Fe inberg • Mr. and Mrs. Richa rd Floor Mr. a nd Mrs. Ellioc Focbes Mr. and Mrs. F. Mu r ray Fo rbes, Jr. Mrs. Lee D. Gi lles pie Mr. and Mrs. Dan iel M. G ribbon Mr. Gra ha m Gund Mr. and Mrs. Ernest J. H aas Mr Robe rt L. H alfya rd Mr. and Mrs. Maso n H a mmo nd Mr. a nd Mrs. Fred H a nhisa lo Mr. and Mrs. Francis W . H atch The Rev. and Mrs. A. L. Heme nway Mr. Phi lip Ho fe r Mr. a nd Mrs. Geo rge C. Ho m ans D r. and Mrs. F. H a m burger Mr. a nd Mrs. W ill ia m White H owells Mr. Da vid G. Ingra m Mr. and Mrs. James Lawre nce Mr. and Mrs. Ca leb Loring , Jr. D r. a nd Mrs. H en ry J. Mankin Mr. a nd Mrs. Joseph Maybank, Ill Mrs. John McA ndrew Mr. a nd Mrs. Louis McMille n Mr. a nd Mrs. Roberc M. Me lzer Dr. a nd Mrs. R. G. Mo n roe Dr. Josephi ne L. Murray Newto n out h H ig h Schoo l

70

Mr. a nd Mrs. Albert L. Nic ke rso n Mrs. R icha rd C. Pa ine Mr. a nd Mrs. Ste phe n D. Pa ine M iss Ameli a Pea body Mrs. Ca rmen Aya la D e Perez Mrs. Cha nd le r Ro bbins, II Mr. a nd Mrs. H enry B. Ro be r ts Mrs. Benj a min Ro w la nd Mrs. Geo rge R. Ro wla nd Mr. A. H e rbe rt Sandwe n D r. a nd Mrs. D a nie l S. Sax Mr. a nd Mrs . Fran cis P. Sears Mr. a nd Mrs. D. B. Si ncl a ir M r. a nd Mrs. Robe rt A. Sincl a ir M rs. D avid W . Skinne r D r. a nd Mrs. Ar thur K. So lo m o n Mr. and Mrs. D o na ld R. Sta nto n Mr. a nd Mrs. Ezra Stevens Dr. a nd Mrs. So mers H . Sturg is Mrs. Ed w in S. S. Su nderla nd Dr. and Mrs. Irvi n T au be Mr. a nd Mrs. J a mes L. T e rr y Mr. a nd Mrs. W . N icho las T ho rnd ike Mrs. Geo rge H . T im m ins Mrs. Cha rles F. T oppa n Mr. a nd Mrs. Corneli us Vermeu le Mr. a nd Mrs. W es ley A. W ag ne r Mr. a nd M rs. Sam uel D. W arre n Mrs. J a mes W . W in co n Ms. Cy n th ia W o lfe r t Ano nymous (2)

FA MILY O R DO UBL E Dr. a nd Mrs. Nile Albright Mr. Russe ll W . Am bach Mr. a nd Mrs. Ja m es B. Ames Mr. a nd Mrs. And rew Ande rson -Be ll Mr. a nd Mrs. Rodney Armst ro ng Ms. Smoki Bacon and Mr. Rich a rd F. Co nca nno n Mrs. J . L. Be thune Mr. a nd Mrs. Gera rdo Bilo tto Mr. a nd Mrs. M. W . Bouwe nsch M rs. Pau l Sachs Bo we rs • Mr. a nd Mrs. Geo rge B. Bullock, Jr. Mr. Louis W . Cabo t Dr. a nd Mrs. Bradfo rd Ca nno n Mr. Myro n Ca rl isle Mr. a nd Mrs. Lau rence M. Ch an ning Mr. a nd Mrs. Cha rles Chacfield D r. a nd Mrs. F. Sarge nt Cheeve r Ms. Jo Ann Citro n a nd Ms. D e lia Sherm an Ms. Fe licia Clark and Mr. T odd Lee D r. and Mrs. W alter H ousro n Cla rk Mr. a nd Mrs. J o h n W . Co bb Mr. a nd Mrs. I. W . Co lbu rn T he Rev. C. Blayney Co lmo re Ms. Ca ro l A. Co ndo n Dr. a nd Mrs. Jo hn D . Con stable Mr. a nd Mrs. H a mil ro n Coolidge Mr. a nd Mrs. H a ro ld J. Coo lidge M r. a nd Mrs . H enry P. Coo lidge Mr. a nd Mrs. Law rence Coolidge

Mr. a nd Mrs. Cla re Cotto n Mr. William P. Coues Mr. a nd Mrs. W illia m G . Coug hlin Mrs. Jesse X. Co us ins Mr. Pau l Curtis Mr. a nd Mrs. Fra nk P. D avidso n Mr. a nd Mrs. Pa rker J . Dex ce r D r. Les lie D o rn fe ld Ms. Suza n ne R. D wo rs ky Mr. a nd Mrs. O tto Ecks te in Mr. a nd M rs . Will ia m S. Edgerl y Mr. a nd Mrs. Wi llia m Ehrl ich Drs. Leo n a nd Ca rola Eise nbe rg Ms. Do ris E. Eps tein Mr. a nd Mrs . DeCou rsey Fa les, J r. Ms. Je a n Fulle r Fa rr ing to n Mr. a nd Mrs. Geo rge M. Feno llosa Mr. a nd Mrs. P. W . Fink Mr. a nd Mrs. T. Fo llett P ro f. a nd Mrs. Sydney J . Freedberg Mr. J o hn Freely Dr. a nd Mrs. Pau l Fre mo nt -Smi th Mr. a nd Mrs. Edwa rd B. G a lliga n Mrs. Ains lie Ga rdne r Mr. Berna rd Ge nro n Mrs. Pa m e la G ig lia M r. a nd Mrs. Ste phe n Gi lma n Dr. and Mrs. Phil ip L. Go lds m ith Mr. a nd Mrs. Edwa rd G re aves Mr. a nd Mrs. J a mes H . G rew P rof. and Mrs. Stephe n A. G reyse r Mrs. S. Elio t G uild The Rev. and Mrs. Lyle G . H a ll P ro f. and Mrs. Do na ld R. F. H a rle m a n M r. A ll a n I. H at fie ld Mrs. Robe rt G . H e nderson Dr. a nd Mrs. H o wa rd H ia tt Ms. Eliza bet h H o dg ma n a nd Ms. Sara E. Co rne ll M r. W ill ia m F. H o lst Mr . and Mrs. Pe ter H o pk inso n Mr. a nd Mrs. Law re nce H ug hes Mr. and Mrs. J a mes F. H u nnewell Mr. a nd Mrs. Fritz R. Huntsi nge r Mr. a nd Mrs. Chris to phe r W . H urd Mr. a nd Mrs. K enneth L. Isaacs Dr. and Mrs. J a mes H . J ackso n Ms. Caro l R . J ohnson Mr. a nd Mrs. EJwa rd C. J o h nso n , Ill Mr. and Mrs. H o ward W . J o h nso n Mr. a nd Mrs. Michae l] . A. H . J o ll iffe M r. a nd Mrs. Migue l C. Ju nge r Dr. a nd Mrs. Ernest Kahn P ro f. an d Mrs. Ma nfred K arn ovsky M r. a nd Mrs. J . R. Kill ia n Dr. a nd Mrs. E. T. K irkpat rick Mr. and Mrs. Stephen T. Ku n ian Mrs. J a mes Ladd Mr. D o na ld La ng bein Mr. and Mrs. Jo hn Lintner Mr. a nd M rs. H e rbert Lipke Dr. a nd Mrs. D o n R. Lipsitt Mr. a nd Mrs. Laurence Locke

a nd Mrs. Berna rd 1.o~n a nd Mrs Charles p Lrman Robert Lynch a nd Mrs. Ernest A Lynion a nd Mrs. Geo rge Macomber Konrad A. Mark and Ms Sha ro n Re ynolds Dr. a nd Mrs. Stuart Marshall Mr. Rodge r A. Marc lage and Ms Patricia A. Bri nk man Mr. a nd Mrs. Joseph Ma)'bank .111 Mr. a nd Mrs . Richard McAd Mr. a nd Mrs. Robert McCormick Mr. David Cha rles McGilr•l'. r D r. a nd Mrs. Jost J Michelsen Mr. a nd Mrs . John E MdIrr Mr. a nd Mrs. John R. Moo< Mr. a nd Mrs. Da niel Morll')' Mr. H a ro ld N . Murphy Mr. Jo hn J. Murphy Dr. a nd Mrs. Theodorr J On 1tr Mr. and Mrs. William B O ~ Mr. and Mrs. G Kinne;r P.. h Mr . Ferna ndo Perp1iia Rnben D r. and Mrs. Vincen< F Pm nt Mr. and Mrs. DJv1d P1tkman Dr. a nd Mrs. Art hur ' p., Mr. and Mrs. Ronald J Plork in Mr. a nd Mrs. James R Po ~ Ms. Linda L. Powell Mr. a nd Mrs. He rberi IX Pr ti Mr. and Mrs. Joh n W Pwr M r. Joseph 0 PrOCter M r. Irving W Rabb M r. a nd Mrs. Pe rry T RJ1hb<:m Dr. Freda Rebelski• Mr. a nd Mrs. John Reed Dr. and Mrs. E. P Richar n.Jr D r. and Mrs. Paul Rumll Dr. a nd Mrs. John B Se.r' Mr. a nd Mrs. Louis R Shindl<r Mr. and Mrs. William A hurr fl D r. a nd Mrs. Ri chard I. S1dm•n Mrs. Ma ry W yllie inglewn Ms. Fra nces H ayward m11h Mr. and Mrs S. Abba< Sm11h Mr. artd Mrs. Joseph J nidn Ms. Michaela tanfdl Dr. a nd Mrs. George W B ' "''" Mr. a nd Mrs. Rowland(, H Stu rges Mr. a nd Mrs. Arth ur Thomp' ' Mrs. Richard H T hompson Mr. Constantine T saousi< ,nd M: Ca rroll Fenton Wale> Mr. a nd Mrs. Al va n Tucker Mr. Jo hn Urban Mrs. Jo hn P. Valen une Ms. o nia Vall ia nos Mr. and Mrs. Arth ur E Ve rshbow Mr. a nd Mrs. William A W aldron Mr. a nd Mrs. Donald F H W a llach Mrs. Stephen Wheatland D r. Mr. Mr. Mr. Mr. Dr.


Mr. and Mrs. Robe rt J . Whitehead Dr. and Mrs. Jeremy B. Whitney Mr. and Mrs. Pe ter Wick Mrs. Kat herine B. Winte r Ms. Elizabeth V. W ood Drs. Dorothy a nd N o rman Zinberg Anonymous ( l )

I N DIVID UA L Mr. John L. Allen Ms. Debra Ankles Ms. Renee M. Arb Mrs. Frederick A. Archiba ld , Jr. Ms. Joan Austin Ms. Cynthia Baco n Dr. Beverl y Bade r Mr. Gage Bai ley . Jr. Ms. Sandra M. Baker Mr. Harris I. Basem a n Mrs. E. Maura n Beals Ms. Michele L. Bechtell Dr. Susanna Bedell Mr. G. d' Andelo t Bel in Mrs. Richa rd M. Bennett Mr. William Be ntinck-Smith Dr. Anna I. S. Binkiewicz Mr. Robert Birch Miss Hollis A. Bodman Mrs. Willia m Branch Ms. Josephine Brayto n Mr. Roy Brooks, Jr. Ms. Colleen Brown Mr. Douglas W . Brya nt Mrs. Sylvia K. Burack Mr. Ph ili p E. Burnham, Jr. Mrs. Pauline H o Bynum Ms. Caroline D ixwe ll Cabo t Ms. Marilee A. Ca liendo Ms. Marie Cargill Dr. Liana Che ney Mr. R. Mo rro n Claflin Ms. A. Clark-Heider Mr. Lando n T. Clay Colleen Ms. Jill A. Colpak Mr. Tho mas F. Connolly Mrs. W. G. Co nstable Mr. Daniel J . Coolidge Dr. Manuel J. Correia- Branco Ms. Marie T. Cotte r Ms. Margaret R. Courtney Miss Suza nne Courtright Mr. John A. Crandall Ms. Janette Merrill Cressy Mr. John Da ne , Jr. Mrs. R. Clement D a rling Mrs. Fran k A. D ay Ms. Bettha Ann Deleon Mrs. Susan Delo ng Mr. Ray De Vo ll Mr. Levo Di Bo na Mrs. Ann You ng Doak

Mr. Ja mes E. D oa n Ms. Ne var r Do ha nia n Miss D orothy East m an Mrs. Mary A. Edwards Mrs. Jo hn F. Ellio tt Mrs. Alex a nde r Ellis, Jr. Ms. K a re Faga n Mrs . Ellen McKe nne y Fahey Mrs. Harris Fa hnestock Mrs. Will iam Rodman Fay Mr. Fra nklin Fe rg uso n Mrs. Ma r y C. Ferris Ms. Sheri Flagler Mr. Ro na ld Lee Fle m ing Mrs. M. Jea n Foley The H o n. Paul Willi a m Garber, S. Ms. Freida Garcia Ms. Rebecca B. Ga rdner Ms . Rebecca C. Ga rland Mr. Ro n Gerson Mrs. Myro n Gi lmo re Dr. Guido Goldma n Mrs. H . Shippen Good hue Mrs. Milto n F. Go rdo n Ms. Helen Go rini Mrs. W . Phillips Graves, Jr. Ms . Joe n Greenwood Ms. Ja ne Gross Mrs. Trygve G unde rse n Mrs. Ruth F. H a mlen Mr. John D. Hatch Mrs. Vincent H . H aza rd Mr. Gregory Henderso n Ms . Jenn ifer Lyn Hiltz Mrs. Elizabeth H odde r Mrs. Richa rd H o lden Mr. Samuel H orowi tz Mrs. Mylo H o usen Mr. Pau l Wilson H owa rd Ms. Abby H owa rd -Smith Mr. Henry S. H o we Mr. Ja mes Hulse Mr. Willia m P. Hunnewell Mrs. Roge r B. Hunt Mrs . Benj a min Jeffries Ms . lrmrraud T. Jo hnson Mrs. Marj o rie Jo nes Mrs. Jessie M. Jo nes-Cobb Mrs. Richard Knight Ms. Heid i Kost-Gross Ms. K a ren Kozlo wski Ms . Barba ra Krakow Mrs. Louis K ro nenberger Mr. Corby S. Kummer Mrs. E. A. Kurten Ms. Ja nice R. Lane Mrs. Jo hn Las rav ica Mr. Arthur Lee Mr. Henry B. Leonard Mr. Reggie Levine Mrs. W alter Levison Ms. Arlene J. Levy Mrs. Boa rdma n Lloyd Mr. J. Anthony Lloyd

Mr. Robert Londe rgan Mr. Willi am T . Loomi s Miss Susan G . Lo ring Mrs. Thomas B. Lo rin g Ms . Ca therine Luchini Mrs. J. Pete r Lyons Miss G ladys F. MacDo na ld Ms. Debra Macle ll an Ms. N a ncy MacPhee Dr. Peter R. Maggs Mrs . William Ma lamud Mrs. Helen P. Ma nsfield Mrs. Henry L. Mason Mr. Mor ris McCa in Mr. Jose ph L. McDo na ld Mrs. Ross A. Mc Fa rland Mrs. Helen Meag her Mrs. J. H owa rd Mean s Mrs. Ma ry C. Me hlman Mrs. Joa n Mendelsohn Mr. Robe rt Moelle r, Ill Mrs. Pete r Mo ney Mrs. Alan R. Morse Mrs. Ri cha rd P. Mo rse Mr. Abraha m Moskow Mr. Ri cha rd L. Mullin Mrs. Larry Nathanson Dr. Robe rt A. N o velline Miss Agnes I. Nunes Mr. a nd Mrs . Oliver Oldma n Mrs. Andrew Oliver Mr. Stanley Olso n Ms . K a rin S. Ozudogru Mr. Mo rga n Pa lme r Mr. Tho mas W . Pa rke r Ms. Ba rbara Perery Mrs . Whitma rsh Phillips Ms. Ange la M. Pierg rossi Mr. William W . Plumme r Ms . Li a G. Poorvu Miss Frances L. Pres to n Ms. N atha lie S. Rahv Ms. Eli zabeth Ra nnefeld Mr. Emery Rice Mrs . Will ia m M. Riegel Ms. Aliso n R ighte r Mrs. Peter P. Ro bbins Mr. Sidney Ro bbins Mr. Matthe w Ro be rts Mrs. Dwig ht Robinson Mrs. Jo hn Ex Rodgers Mrs. G reta B. Rosen Mr. Alford P. Rudnick Mrs. Robert Saltonstall Mr. D avid Scheff Pro f. Dr. Annema rie Sch im me l Ms. H e len C. Secrist Dr. Richard H . Seder Mrs. W . Ellery Sedgwick Mrs. Stephanie N . Se lde n Mr. Jose p L. Serr• Ms. Jud y Shaben Ms. N anvy E. Sheehan Ms. N a ncy E. Sheehan

Mrs . Geo rge B. Sherman Mrs. Joseph D. Shiffe r Mr. Ma rrin H . Slobodkin Mrs. Anne Blake Smith Mrs. Christophe r E. Smit h Mrs. Nancy A. Smith Mr. David Solo Mrs. Ralph So renso n Mrs. Lama r Sau tter Mrs. Thomas J . G. Spa ng Mr. Lio nel Spiro Mrs. Burgess P. Sta ndley Mrs. Judith F. Srock Mr. Peter H . Stone Ms. Constance H . St rohecker Mrs. Edward F. Sullivan , Jr . Ms. Louise Sullivan Mrs. Allan W . Sydney Ms. Ma rga ret W . T aft Miss Prisci lla M. T arro Ms. Me lissa J a ne T ay lo r Ms. K at he rine A. Terzi Mrs. R. Amory Tho rnd ike Ms. Nancy Tieken Mr. Chrisropher R. Tunna rd Mrs. Adam H . B. Ula m Mrs. Joa n S. Van Dorn Ms. Ma ry Crawfo rd Vo lk Mr. Theodore Voss Mrs. Margare t W a lker Mr. W illiam K. W alte rs Mrs. Ri cha rd W a rre n Mr . Ca rl A. We ye rhaeuse r Mrs. E. G. W eye rhaeuser Ms. N a ncy Wheelock Mrs. M. L. Wilding -White Mr. A. W . Will ia m s Mrs. Leonard W olsky Mr. Milton Wuilleu m ier Mrs. Alfred Zighera Ano n ymous ( 2)

FOUNDATION/ TRUST The Boston G lobe Founda-

cion, Inc. Church Family Charitable Trust Ga rdner Cha ritable Trust The G. G . Monks Foundation The Paine Cha ritable Trust

CORPORATE American Research and Development H aemonerics Research Insriru ce

Frank B. H all and Co . o f Mass .. Inc. H ough ro n Mifflin Co. Millipore Corpo ration The Mitre Co rpora tio n Standex Co rporation Stewa rt Title Zayre Co rporation • deceased

Members h ip

71


Publications

e~

M

G 111de to t he Collect1011 . An illu traced u1de f r i icor , wich a brief kecch of che founder Revi ed 2nd edicion ; 116 pp. Paperbou nd 3 00; Po cage and packing 1 0 (dome cic ) 1.50 (incernacional )

Pub Ii aCI n

ffre11ms Dt.rco1 ired· Th£' l r.ibL·ll.i

le u·.irt

ca

Orient.ii .ind ff/<11111c Art 111 the lr.ibel/a Ste" .irt G.irdin r t\111re11m, by Ya uko Horioka, lar lin Rh1e and alcer B. Denny, 1975. A full dlu craced cacalogue; chi mall collecri on include culpcure, paincing , ceramics, lacquer ware, miniacure and carvings ; 136 pp, 11 .~ bl a k and whire illu crarion Paperbound 5.00; Po ra e and packing I 0 (d m c1c) 1.50 (incernarional) . c11/p111r£' 111 th£' /r<1bell.i teu·urt G.irdner 1\l ffru1111, b o rneliu ermeule, III , Walcer ahn and Rolli n van Hadley, 19 . A JCJIO ue of rhe culprure collecrion, which 1n lude example fro m rhe cla ical and med1e al p ri d rhr u h rhe Ren ai ance co che modern era ; I pp., 264 black and 1>.h1ce dlu rracion Paperbound 12.00, I rhbound 1 .00; Po rage and packing I 25 (dome cic) 2.00 (inrernarional). Tiu l r<1hl'll" ILU '<1rt G.irdner tlf11re11m, 19 A hand mely illu rrared book concain1 n e ay n rhe fou nder and che collecc1on b)' che dire ro r, curaror and prominenr holar-, 0 pp., 2-l color place . Clorhbound l.2 (domesI 00; Po ra e and packin cic ) 2 00 (inrernario nal). T:11mpe.i11 .ind A111e,.,c.i11 P.ii11ti11gs in th e l r<1bell.i teu·.irt G.irdner tlf11se11m , by Philip Hendy, 197 . A de criprive caralogue, wirh biog raphie of rhe arri r and reproducrions of all painring ; 316 pp., 2 2 black and whice illu rrari n , 3 color place . Clothbound 25. 00; Po rage and packing 2.50 (do me ric ) 3. 00 (inrernarional ).

72


0 111 1.\ f' \ I. 111 111 l"I \\ II(' \ ltl

~

LJ

Drawings/ Isabella St ewart Gardner Museum , edited by Rollin van N. H adl ey , 1968. A small group of no table d raw ings ranging in date fr om the late fift ee nth to the early twentieth century; 67 pp., 38 ill ustrations, fr o ntispiece in colo r. Pape rbo und $2.00; Postage and packing $1.00 (do mes ti c) Sl.5 0 (internati o nal). Isabella Stewart Gardner Mus eum . A Selection of Paintings, Drawings and W at ercolors , The Universit y o f Chicago Press , 1976. A microfiche with 167 colo r illust ra tio ns, captions, and biog raphical ske tch of Mrs. Gardner. Paperbound $ 19.50; Pos tage and packing$ .75 (domes ti c) $1.50 (internatio na l) . Isabella Stewart Gardn er and Fenway Court , by Morris Carter. A biog raphy o f Isabella Stew art Gardner and a his to ry of the form ation of her collectio n by the firs t direcror of the museum ; forew o rd by G. Peabody Gardner; 265 pp., illus trated ; third editio n. Cloth bound $ 12.00; Pos ttage and p acking Sl.25 (do mestic) $2.00 (internat io nal).

A Ch ecklist of the Co rrespondence of Isabella St ewart Gardner at th e Gardn er Museum . Lette rs w ritte n bet wee n 1860 and 1924 fr om wri te rs, co m posers, pe rfo rmers, po lit icia ns, h istoria ns and fri e nds . The checkl ist co mpr ises ove r 1000 names and includes a g uid e to t he locat io ns o f collected let te rs in the Museum ; 12 pp . Pa mp hlet $ .50; Postage and packing $ .20 (do mestic) $ .40 (inte rn at io nal). Fen way Court . Ill us trated articles o n th e collecti o n a nd a rchi ves , incl uding a two- p art essay o n Titi an's Rap e of Eztropa, art icles devoted to rare books in the collecti on , no tes o n the Spa ni sh pai nt ings in the Museu m a nd a se lectio n of texti les at Fe nway Cou rt. Annual Repo rts for 1973, 1975 , 1977, 19798 1 a re ava ilable. Paperbo und $3. 50; Postage a nd p ac king $ .80 (do mes ti c) $ LOO (inte rn ati o nal).

A list of slides is avai lable on request.

Li bra ries and othe r educational institutions are offe red a 40 % discount on mos t items. Mail orders wi ll be shipped 4th class, book rate (domes tic) or surface rates (internat ional). Please make check paya ble to the Isabell a Stewart Gardne r Museum. Manuscripts on subjects related to the co ll ection will be co nsidered fo r pub lication. Please se nd p ro posals to the curator.

Publicat io ns

73


Report of th Treasurer

路T

19 2

T

19 1

1l

r

5,2 6,3 7

,2 6,127 in I

5,720,834

2 7,9 9,832

Tora! 1n'

rmenc~.

llo ance ( r unr alized (Jppr

h n -cerm

in '

13,7 10,666

3r markec

( 1,3 05,239 )

1ar1on )

e cmenc , :u o r \\ h1 h appro 1mac

marker

Tocal 1n'e rmenc . ac co r

TAX

79,3 9 33, l 2 (2 ,601 )

( ore I )

7,9 0

1n land f lu eum buddin

land

36 ' 00 . ,015,000 560,50 I ,O路l9

366, 00 ,015,000 60,507 26, 05

,955,956

ec

J

,269,05

ec

BALA ore 3) AD

PR

IA T I

(

ocel)

323,640 16,200,51 1,026,911 17 551,069

The accompa11y 111f!. not es are an i111 ef!. ral part of th ese fi11an ci11/ st11t eme11ts .

.f


STATEMENTS OF CASH RECEIPTS AND DISBURSEMENTS FOR THE YEARS ENDED DECEMBER 31, 1982 AND 1981 OPERATING RECEIPTS : Investment inco me : interest dividends Sale of publications Grants Total operating receipts OPERATING DISBURSEMENTS : Maintenance and security Administration Care o f collections and paintings Gardening and grounds Music Shorewood Publication Publicatio n Pension (Note 2) Professional services Federal income taxes (Note 1) Insurance Miscellaneous expense Unemployment payment to Commonwealth of Mass. Boston plan membership Catalogue expense Kodak Print Processor Security Equipment Total operating disbursements NET OPERATING RECEIPTS (DISBURSEMENTS) NONOPERATING RECEIPTS : Visitors' contributions Membership appeal Other receipts and contributions Net Cafe receipts (disbursements) Total nonoperating receipts NONOPERATING DISBURSEMENTS : Renovations to Museum building Membership appeal Total nonoperating disbursements TOTAL CASH RECEIPTS IN EXCESS OF DISBURSEMENTS

1982

1981

$

65 3,582 413,232 57,298 18,000 $ 1,142, 11 2

$

$

457,636 362,266 91 ,110 73,472 56,885 25,086 462 36,529 37,288 21,538 22,665 1,922 4,049 5,000 633 10,967 20,963 $ 1,228,471 $ (86,359)

$

$

105,743 53 ,185 18,997 7,238 185, 163

$

63,945 15,329 79,274 19,530

$

$ $ $ $

REALIZED AND UNREALIZED GAIN (Loss ) ON INVESTMENTS (Note 1) $ 11,517,548 Proceeds from sale of investments ( 10,805,150) Cost of investments sold $ 712 ,398 (13,939) Tax on realized gains (Note 1) 698,459 $ Net realized gain on investments Unrealized appreciation (depreciation ) : $ 1,305,239 Beginning of period 2,3 56,671 End of period $ 1,051 ,432 Increase (decrease) in unrealized appreciation $ 1,749,891 NET REALIZED AND UNREALIZED GAIN (Loss ) ON INVESTMENTS

628,036 367,345 48,182 5,000 $ 1,048,563 404,773 319,402 76,582 68,599 50,408 2,384 10,504 41,475 49, 169 19,476 21,496 580 5,000 288

$ 1,070, 136 $ (21,5 73 )

$

$ $

100,667 26,838 44,773 (2,690) 169,588 54,297 4,379 58,676 89,339

$ 12,656,090 ( 12,486,679) 169,411 (3,388) 166,023 $

$

$ 2,514,485 1,305,239

$ (1,209,246) $ ( 1,043,223)

The accompanying notes are an integral part of th ese financial statements.

Report of the Treasurer

75


STATEMENTS OF FUND BALANCES FOR THE YEARS ENDED DECEMBER 31, 1982 AND 1981

0Eerating BALANCE, December 31, 1980

$

Total cash receipts in excess o f disbursements

180,004

General

Maintenance and DeEreciation

Total

$ 16,034,495

$ 1,081 ,208

$17,295,707 89,339

89,339

Maintenance and depreciation allocation BALANCE, December 31, 1981

(54,297)

54,297 $

323,640

T o tal cash receipts in excess o f disbursements

$ 16,200,518

$17,551,069

$ 1,026,9 11

19,530

19,530

698,459

698,459

Net realized gain o n investments Maintenance and depreciation allocation BALANCE, December 31, 1982

166,023

166,023

Net realized gain on investments

(63,945)

63,945 $

407,115

$ 16,898,977

$

$ 18,269,058

962 ,966

STATEMENTS OF CHANGES IN NET ASSETS FOR THE YEARS ENDED DECEMBER 31, 1982 AND 1981

1982

1981

$ 1,142,112 698,459 185, 163

$ 1,048,563 166,023 169,588

$ 2,025 ,734

$ 1,384,174

$ 1,228,471 79,274

$ 1,070,136 路58,676

$ 1,3 07,745

$ 1,128,812

$

717,989

$

255,362

$

749,960

$

245,802 (7,270) 23,832 2,908 (9,910)

$

255,362

NET ASSETS WERE RECEIVED FROM : Operating receipts Net realized gain on investments Nonoperating receipts

NET ASSETS WERE USED FOR : Operating disbursements Nonoperating disbursements

TOTAL INCREASE IN NET ASSETS THE INCREASE IN NET ASSETS WAS REPRESENTED Investments Cash Prepaid expenses Accrued income taxes Museum property

BY

CHANGES IN:

(7, 182) ( 12 , 033~

(12,756) $

717,989

The accompanying notes are an integral part of these fin ancial statements.

76

Report of the Treas urer


NOTES TO FINANCIA L STATEMENTS DECEMBER 31, 1982 1. Summary of Accounting Policies

The Isabell a Gardner Museu m , Incor porated (Mu se um Co rporation ), the so le trustee under the will of Isabella Stewart Ga rdner, is the owner of the p roperty which is loca ted at 2 Palace Road, Bosto n, MA ., and Mrs. Ga rdne r's art co llectio n contai ned therei n. The mo re sig nifi ca nt account ing policies of the Mu seum Corpo ration not covered elsewhere in this report include the fo llow ing: A. Bas is o f Prese ntati o n- The Mu seu m Co rporatio n pre pares its fin ancial stateme nts on a mod ified cas h bas is of accounti ng. Under this method, income and expe nses are recognized when cas h is rece ived and paid rat her th an when ea rned o r incurred, exce pt fo r federa l inco me taxes which are recogn ized when incurred. B. Investments-The Museu m Corporatio n ca rries investments at quoted ma rket pri ces, less an all owa nce for unreali zed apprec iation (depreciati o n). N o cha nge in unrealized app reciatio n (depreciatio n) is recog nized fo r fin ancial stateme nt purposes. However, thi s info rm atio n has been included below the Statement of Cash Receipts and Di sbursements fo r disclosu re purposes. C. Mu seu m Property- Museum property is sta ted at appraised values esta blished on December 24, 1936. Additio ns made subseque ntl y are stated at cost. The Museu m Co rporation has co nsis tently followed the practice of chargi ng renovati ons ta ex pense ra ther tha n providing fo r depreci ation of Muse um property, excep t for the new ly co nstructed cafe , which is being depreciated ove r its es timated useful life begi nning in 1979. Allocati ons ta the Maintenance and Depreciati on Fund are credited thereta whe n auth ori zed by the Trustees. D. Federal In co me T axes-U nder th e Inte rn al Reve nue Code , the Mu seum Co rpo ration is cl assified as a private ope rating fou nd atio n and, acco rding ly, required to pay a tax of 2 % of "net investment income," as defined. The Mu seum has received a favorable dete rmi nation letter fro m the Inte rn al Reve nue Service ta qualify as a public foundation if ce rtain cond itions are met ove r a five yea r period beg inning in 1982. If at the end of the fi ve year period the Museum qualifies, income tax pay ments will no lo nge r be required and any taxes paid during the five years will be refunded . 2. Employee Benefit Plans The Museum Corporation has a pe nsion pl an which covers, subst anti ally, all fu ll -time employees who meet certain age and employment requirements. The Museum Corporation's policy is to fund pension cos ts accrued. Cos ts charged to operations in 1982 and 1981 were $22,158 and $18,702, respectively. The pension expense includes amortizatio n of pas t se rvice cos ts ove r 15 years . The actuaria l prese nt value of accumulated plan benefits as of Ja nuary 1, 1982 was $207,643 for vested emp loyees and $6,510 for no nvested employees.

As o f J anu a ry 1, 198 1 the ac tu ari al prese nt va lue of accumu lated pl an benefits was $219,869 for vested emp loyees and $10,453 for no nvested emp loyees. The net asse ts avail able fo r pl an benefits were $383,056 as of Ja nuary 1, 1982 a nd $349,713 as a t January 1, 1981. The weighted average assumed rate of return used in dete rmin ing th e actu arial present value of accu mulated pl an be nefits was 6.5% for 1982 a nd 1981. The Museum Corporation also has a deferred compe nsatio n plan fo r key Mu seu m em ployees and makes annuity pay ments ta for mer emp loyees not included in th e above pension pl an. Costs charged co opera ti ons in 1982 and 198 1 for these item s we re $14,371 and $22,773, respecti ve ly.

3. Rest riction on Op erating Surplus The Trustees are directed under the will of Isabell a Stewart Gardner to pay to certain designated hos pitals any surplus of inco me whi ch, in the opinion of the Directo r and Trustees, wi ll not be needed fo r the proper and reasonab le maintenance of the Museum. These amounts, if any, are payable at the end of successive five-ye ar peri ods , the next of which ends December 31, 1984.

To the Trustees of Th e Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, In corporated, Trustee Under the Will of Isabella St ewart Gardner: We have examined the statements of net assets of THE ISABELLA ST EWA RT GA RDN ER MUSEU M, INCORPORATED (a Massachusetts co rpo ratio n, noc fo r profit), TRUSTEE UN DER THE WILL OF ISA BELLA STEWART G ARDN ER as o f December 31, 1982 a nd 1981 , and che related stateme nts o f cas h receipts a nd disbursements , fund balances and changes in nee assets fo r che yea rs chen ended. Our exa min ati ons were made in accordance wit h ge nerally accepted auditing sta ndards and, accordingly, included such rests of the accounting reco rd s and such ocher aud iting procedures as we co nsidered necessary in the circums tances, includ ing co nfirmati on of secu rities ow ned ac Decem ber 31, 1982 a nd 1981 by co rrespondence wi ch the custodian. As described in No te l , the Mu seu m Corporatio n's fin a ncial stateme nts a re prepared o n a modified cas h bas is of accounting. Unde r thi s method, income and expenses are recog nized whe n received o r paid rathe r th an when earned or incurred, except for federal inco me taxes which are recognized when incurred. Acco rd ing ly, che accompanyi ng fin anci al stateme nts are not intended co prese nt financi al pos iti o n, results of o pe ratio ns a nd changes in nee assets in confo rmity with genera lly acce pted accounting principles. In our opinion, the financial sta tements referred ta above prese nt fairly the net assets of The Isabella Stewart Ga rdne r Museu m, In co rpora ted, Trustee Under the Wi ll of Isabe ll a Stewart Gardner as of Dece mber 31, 1982 and 198 1, and the cas h rece ipts and disburse ments, and changes in its net assets for the yea rs then ended, on the bas is of accounting described in N ote 1, applied on a consistent bas is . ARTHUR ANDERSEN & CO.

March 11, 1983.

Report of the Treasurer

77


Trustees

The Isabell a Stewarr Ga rd ner Museum, Inco rpo rated, So le Trustee unde r the w ill of Isabella Stewarr Ga rdne r

President Malcolm D . Perki ns Vice-President and Treasurer Jo hn L. Ga rdner Secretary James L. Te rry Ell io t Fo rbes Maso n H ammo nd Franc is W . H atch , J r. J ames Lawre nce

Staff•

ADMINISTRATION

CONSERVATION

GU ARDS

Director Ro llin van N . H adley

Chief Conservator Jack Soultanian

A ssistant Direct or Linda V. Hewitt

Conservator of Paintings Gabrielle Ko pelman

Curat or De bora h G ribbo n

Conservator of Paper Caroline Graboys

Direct or of Music Jo ha nna G iwos ky

Conservator of Textiles Marjorie R. Bullock

Archivist/ Administrative A ssistant Susa n Sinclair

Assistants, Textiles Betsy Gould Robin Berg man

Adm inistrative Assistant H o pe Mel. Coolidge

MAINTENANCE

Curatorial Assistant K are n E. H aas

Sttpervisor of Buildings John F. Niland

Membership Coordinator Ada Logan

Maintenance Foreman Alfred J. Smith

Ph otographer Greg Heins

Shop Technician Michae l Finnerry

Tho mas Abraham Maurice Ahern William Allen The resa Babineau He nry Barry Lucienne Barefield Peter Clapper Tho mas Dirrane Edward Downs Tho mas Fahey Dennis Fitzgera ld Francis Gavin Fra nk H ayes, Jr. Alfred H azoury Stephen J anus Kenneth Kelly John King Andrea Lane John Lo nergan Katherine McCollum Daniel McLaughlin Charles McStrav ick Eileen Murphy Joseph Rajunas Michael Shea Antho ny Stewarr D avid T idball Louis Yachetta

Docents Marie L. Diamond Judith E. H anhisa lo Ada Logan Lois Starkey

Elizabeth Bing Patrick Burns Jo hn Ca nnata Jo hn Colleran Yvo nne Mercer

Sales Clerk Loren L. Benson

SECURITY

Printer Mary K ate Hudson-Kennedy

Chief of Sewrity Lyle Grindle Semrity Forem en Charles H eidorn Brian Po rrer

Opposite : Michael Finnerry removi ng whitewas h from the skylig ht over the coµrt ya rd ; the whitewash , applied each spring and removed in the fa ll, p rotects the plants in the courr and keeps the Museum cooler.

G ARDENING

Head Gardener Roberr 'M. MacKenzie Gardeners Stanley Kozak Charles P. H ealy, Jr. Jose ph F. Kiarsis

CAFE Cafe Supervisor Lois McKitchen

WATCH

Roberr Anderson John Bigelow Roberr French J ames H arrman James Piper Pieter Vanderbeck Tho mas Zucker-Scharff

A ssistant Cafi Supervisor Su za nne LaRocca Cook Jo nathan Brown •on regttlar duty 31 December 1982



MUSEUM OFFICE

2 Palace Road Bos ton, Massachusetts 02115




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