Framing History

Photo: Stetson University/ Ciara Ocasio

For more than a century, a portrait of Stetson’s past has traveled from the famed Pitti Palace in Italy to campus and now on the office wall of the university’s newest dean.

If a picture, as the saying goes, is worth a thousand words, what about a frame?

This is no ordinary frame, either. As detailed by Robert C. Dean, MD, in a December 2018 email to the President’s Office at Stetson, this frame represents a university tale across centuries.

Dean, of nearby New Smyrna Beach, emailed to assess the interest of President Wendy B. Libby, PhD, in his “donation of a piece of art with strong historical connections” to Stetson.

Libby subsequently accepted the donation on behalf of the university, and the framed painting now can be seen on campus.

Yet, that’s not the real story. Not the story that dates back to the 1880s.

George Prentice Carson, LL.D., professor and dean at Stetson.

As Dean tells it, that’s when George Prentice Carson, LL.D., his grandfather, was a professor of history and the dean at Stetson, positions he held from the 1880s to the late 1930s. He was Dean of Men from 1922 to 1934, and Stetson awarded him an honorary doctorate in 1951.

The story: While on a vacation tour of Italy in 1908, Carson — later described by a local newspaper as a “beloved educator for 50 years” — met Santi Corsi, an artist, at the Pitti Palace in Florence. Corsi is well-known today for his own paintings of the interior rooms of that famed palace, as well as for paintings of the classics displayed there.

One such Corsi painting was a remake of Raphael’s Madonna della Seggiola, depicting Mary embracing the child Christ, while the young John the Baptist devoutly watches. Raphael (1483-1520) was considered among the greatest painters of his time. He had painted various Madonnas, with the two most famous being Madonna della Seggiola and Sistine Madonna, which was painted in the Sistine Chapel in Rome.

Carson, initially hesitant, purchased the painting from Corsi.

Mostly, Carson was struck by the Florentine frame, composed of gold leaf over gesso on linden wood and river pebbles. At the time, it was more than 500 years old and measured roughly 45 inches by 55 inches. Subsequently, the framed painting was delivered directly to Stetson. There, it was ceremoniously unpacked by the university’s director of grounds and displayed for decades on a wall in Carson’s office and, later, at his home. In a 1945 newspaper article celebrating his 81st birthday, Carson cited that the painting was “the most valuable single piece that I own or possess. It is more valuable than my automobile.” According to that same article, Carson paid $900 for the painting, a reduced price offered by Corsi, and $200 for the frame. The story continues. In 1962, after the death of Carson’s wife — Robert C. Dean’s grandmother — ownership of the painting passed from the Carson estate to Stetson, where it was mounted on a wall in Elizabeth Hall for more years.

Then in 1999, when Dean visited the Pitti Palace and viewed Raphael’s original there, his childhood interest in his grandfather’s painting was rekindled. Upon learning from Stetson’s art department that the painting was in disrepair and being stored, Dean reacquired and repaired the painting. And for nearly the past two decades, it hung in his New Smyrna Beach residence — until Dean sent that email to the President’s Office in hopes of returning the painting to its “original home as desired by my grandfather,” he wrote. Today, all these years later, the painting now is showcased in the office of Stetson’s newest dean, Elizabeth Skomp, PhD, head of the College of Arts and Sciences and a professor of world languages and cultures (Russian).

“The Santi Corsi painting provides a visual link to Stetson’s past and former Dean George Prentice Carson, who first acquired the painting,” commented Skomp, who arrived on campus last July. “Carson’s 50-year Stetson career included contributions to the liberal arts and sciences alike: Originally appointed as a professor of natural sciences, Carson was also a longtime professor of history. Given its provenance, the painting signals Stetson’s enduring commitment to arts and sciences. It is a striking addition to the Dean’s Office suite, not least because of the ornate Florentine frame.”

Fittingly, President Libby frames an ending to the story.

“The painting and its frame are simply gorgeous,” she said. “We are so grateful for Dr. Robert Dean’s gift and that he so thoughtfully considered Stetson as the perfect place for this artwork.”

A Note to the President: Remembering Madonna della Seggiola The Madonna and Child (with John the Baptist) was on the back wall of the Lee Chapel in Elizabeth Hall when I arrived in 1969. …

I found it interesting that Baptist Stetson had a Madonna hanging in its chapel, since it seemed a very Catholic painting. Baptists who I knew preferred images of Jesus being baptized or sermonizing on the mount. Having a young John the Baptist at Jesus’ shoulder might have made it OK for its position at Stetson. I often wondered about how it came to hang there. Upon returning to campus years later and taking my wife into the chapel to see the room and the painting, I was surprised to find it missing and wondered where it had gone. … In high school, I had done a paper on the “Geometry of Art” for my 12thgrade trigonometry class, and the original Raphael painting was one of the pieces I used as an example for the paper — a triangle in a circle. … At Stetson, I was an art major, completing my degree at Florida State University and then entering a career in advertising design after graduation. I continue my art pursuits now that I have retired. … The painting was important to me because of my relationship with art, but also for its mathematical meaning for me. My freshman math professor at Stetson was determined that I not escape her classroom in Elizabeth Hall without learning some higher math. … I would often duck into the quiet of the chapel and sit near the painting. My prayer time with Mary, Jesus and John may also have had an equal impact on my math experience in the building.

I was happy to learn that the artwork has finally returned.

— Henry Bryant ’73, email received Jan. 29, 2020