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Cornucopia: Experiencing the Memorial Art GAllery
Experiencing The Memorial Art Gallery, December 6, 2023
By Kate Chamberlin
The Visionaries and The Visionary Women were warmly welcomed to the Memorial Art Gallery of Rochester by several staff and volunteers, led by Susie Daiss.
We divided into small focus groups and went to various stations that awaited us.
Susie placed my gloved hand on the marble base of a statue and stood back. I felt a relatively small, smoot foot with perfect toenails and followed up the multiple folds of fabric carved into the marble.
Imagine my surprise when my hand discovered a single, small breast of a nubile female. She held a stick, broken off at the top, in her right hand. The base of the stick was tangled in her skirt.
I was puzzled to find her left arm was raised and crossed over her body to her right ear. I wondered why the girl had her cupped hand facing behind her.
Continuing up, I felt her smooth facial features. When I reached the top of her head, I couldn’t tell if she had wavy hair or wore some kind of hat. Then, continued down her left side to her left foot. The heel was raised, her toes on the ground. She appeared to be fleeing something in fear and listening to hear if it was catching up to her.
Susie asked me to go back to the statue’s face and describe her eyes. When I said her eyes are closed. It dawned on me that this girl is blind! I gasped. My throat closed. I choked up and tears welled up in my own blind eyes. I was surprised at my visceral reaction, knowing the fear and panic this blind girl must have experienced.
I’m in awe that a chunk of pure white marble, carved centuries ago, could convey such a powerful emotion in me.
The statue I was exploring entitle “Nydia, The Blind Flower Girl of Pompeii”, had been modeled in 1855–56 and carved in 1858 by Randolph Rogers (an American artist, born in Waterloo, NY, 1825–1892).
Inscribed on the base is: “Rome 1858”. Its Dimensions are 130.8 × 64.1 × 91.4 cm (51 1/2 × 25 1/4 × 36 in.)
Susie explained that This statue is based on a character from Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s popular 1834 novel “The Last Days of Pompeii”. In the episode depicted here, Nydia and her two companions attempt to flee the city after the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. The three become separated, however, and Randolph Rogers captured Nydia as she gropes her way through the burning city. The broken Corinthian column at her feet symbolizes fallen Pompeii, and Nydia’s clinging garments, entangled in her staff, indicate her chaotic surroundings. Because of its narrative quality, sentimental presentation, and classical features and proportions, this sculpture was extremely popular with the American public upon its first being exhibited.
So of course, when I returned home, I downloaded “The Last Days of Pompeii” by Edward George Earl Bulwer-Lytton to put Nydia into the rest of the story.
This visit to the Memorial Art Gallery of Rochester, NY, was not the first time experiencing the precious relics in its collection. The members of our groups, The Visionaries and The Visionary Women, all have low vision. I’m the only totally blind person. During this visit, Susie, Senior Associate, Memorial Art Gallery and Department of Health Humanities and Bioethics, School of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Rochester, NY; and her colleagues: Colleen Kaiser, Sydney Greaves, and Adam Koneman. did a wonderful job of presenting paintings and artifacts to us to feel, smell, hear, and to immerse ourselves in history, as each of our small groups rotated from station to station.
You can be sure we’ll talk about our visit for a long time, telling our children and grandchildren about it; possibly insuring the future of the Memorial Art Gallery of Rochester, NY.
About the sculptor:
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Randolph Rogers.
• Sculptor.org information
• World Wide Arts Resources information
• Randolph Rogers from University of Michigan Museum of Art
Rogers was born in Waterloo, New York, and his family moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan when he was a child.[1][2]
He developed an interest in wood cuts and wood engraving, and moved to New York City about 1847, but was unsuccessful in finding employment as an engraver. While working as a clerk in a dry-goods store, his employers discovered his native talent as a sculptor and provided funds for him to travel to Italy. He began study in Florence in 1848, where he studied briefly under Lorenzo Bartolini.[3] He then opened a studio in Rome in 1851. He resided in that city until his death in 1892.[4]
He began his career carving statues of children and portrait busts of tourists. He was not happy working with marble consequently all his marble statues were copied in his studio by Italian artisans under his supervision, from an original produced by him in another material. This also enabled him to profit from his popular works. His first large-scale work was Ruth Gleaning (1853), based on a figure in the Old Testament. It proved extremely popular, and up to 20 marble replicas were produced by his studio. His next large-scale work was Nydia, the Blind Flower Girl of Pompeii (1853–54), based on a character in Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s best-selling 1834 novel, The Last Days of Pompeii. It proved even more popular, and his studio produced at least 77 marble replicas.[4]
In 1855 he received his first major commission in the United States: great bronze doors for the East Front of the United States Capitol. He chose to depict scenes from the life of Christopher Columbus. The Columbus Doors were modeled in Rome, cast in Munich, and installed in Washington, DC in 1871.[5]
In 1854, Rogers along with William Wetmore Story, Richard Greenough, and Thomas Crawford were each commissioned by Mount Auburn Cemetery to create statues of famous Bostonians to be displayed in the cemetery’s chapel.[6] Rogers was commissioned to create a statue of President John Adams.[7] In September 1857, Rogers shipped the completed marble sculpture from Rome, but the ship was lost at sea before its arrival.[8] Rogers was then commissioned to create another copy of his sculpture of “John Adams” and was contracted to create a marble version of Thomas Crawford’s plaster sculpture “James Otis” after Crawfords died suddenly.[9] (All of the sculptures were transferred to the Harvard Art Museums in 1935)
Following the 1857 death of sculptor Thomas Crawford, Rogers completed the sculpture program of the Washington Monument at the State Capitol in Richmond.
He designed four major American Civil War monuments: the Soldiers’ National Monument (1865–1869) at Gettysburg National Cemetery; the Rhode Island Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument (1866–1871) in Providence; the Michigan Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument (1867–1872) in Detroit; and the Soldiers’ Monument (1871–1874) in Worcester, Massachusetts.
He modeled The Genius of Connecticut (1877–1878), a bronze goddess that adorned the dome of the Connecticut State Capitol in Hartford. It was damaged in a 1938 hurricane,[10] removed, and melted down for scrap metal during World War II. A plaster cast of the statue is now exhibited within the building.[4]
In 1873 he became the first American to be elected to Italy’s Accademia di San Luca, and he was knighted in 1884 by King Umberto I.[4]
Rogers suffered a stroke in 1882 and was never able to work again.[11] He left his papers and plaster casts of his sculptures to the University of Michigan, where there is also a Nydia replica.[12][13][14][15]
From NLS/BARD/LOC:
The last days of Pompeii DB17605
Lytton, Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron Reading time: 14 hours, 22 minutes.
Jonathan Farwell National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, Library of Congress.
Historical Fiction
First published in 1834, this novel recreates the life of the vibrant Roman city that was buried alive by the sudden eruption of Vesuvius in 79 A.D. The fictional characters are based on known prototypes, and the author relied on the best archaeological evidence available to him.
From the Project Gutenberg:
titled The Last Days of Pompeii: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1565/1565-h/1565-h.htm
About the Author:
Edward George Earl Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton (1803–1873) was a novelist, playwright, and politician. He was a popular writer of his day, who coined such phrases as “the great unwashed”, “pursuit of the almighty dollar” and “the pen is mightier than the sword”
Born in London, England, in 1803, Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer Lytton, 1 st Baron Lytton, was the third child of General William Earle Bulwer and Elizabeth Barbara Lytton. His father died when Edward was four, and his education fell to his mother, who had already taught Edward to read.
Memorial Art Gallery of Rochester, NY
500 University Ave, Rochester, NY 14607
(585) 276-8900