Camera Work: A Photographic Quarterly (1908 (Heft 21))

Howdid this change come about? Oh, it is a simplestory, he could not
do the work the people wanted from him. As time slipped by orders became
He had nothing in common with the aim of the profession. The
Renaissance that is said to have taken place in American sculpture is largely
limited to decorative work executed by foreigners, Italians and Viennese, who
own nothing of classic culture but hand-books from which they can plagiarize.
He had long cherished the ideaof creating some colossal ideal statue, not
platitudes like our statue of “ Liberty” and the “Germania” on the Nieder-
wald—that are large in size only—but one carrying out his ideals of Greek
perfection. As theme he had chosen Milton’s “Spirit,” who “from the first
was present and with mighty wings outspread, dove-like sat brooding on the
vast abyss and made it pregnant.”
marble, pregnant with the ideal human form, has become a myth. There is
no demand for ideal figure work, hardly for portrait busts, and the bric-a-
brac statuary is mostly imported. The majority of the statues for our public
buildings are solemn infamies in the barrenness of their ideas and incom-
petence of technical faculties. Sculpture is shamelessly mercenary, a lobbyism
in the antechambers of organizations, of committees and contractors. Of
course there was St. Gaudens, and a few other serious workers, but even their
aims were vastly divergent from those of Donoghue. Donoghue was sadly
out of place in our time. He should have lived in those palmy days, when
art, philosophy, and literature had lifted up that wonderful little people of
the Hellenic peninsula to the heights which have scarce ever since been
reached. He no doubt would have found no difficulty in satisfying the idio-
syncrasies of a Cleon, but he lacked the “scheming” and “hustling” gifts to
get along with our New York art-promoters. He still believed in the days
of patronage, and patiently waited for the great commission.
Finally the opportunity came for the realization of his scheme. The
management of the Chicago World's Fair had agreed to place it on the
shores of Lake Michigan. He at once set out for Italy and hired the Baths
of Diocletian as studio. It was the work of several years, as the figure in a
sitting position was thirty feet high. The face, radiating some of the seduc-
tive charm of full moon, was uplifted to celestial regions, while the eyes
Why it never reached Chicago has remained more or less a mystery.
It seems that in the winter of 1892 the U. S. ship “ Constitution” was
specially sent to Rome to convey the colossal statue to these shores, but
of Diocletian as studio. It was the work of several years, as the figure in a
sitting position was thirty feet high. The face, radiating some of the seduc-
tive charm of full moon, was uplifted to celestial regions, while the eyes
looked downward into the abyss, and their beaming glances seemed to glide
along the edges of the mighty wings that sweep forward and downward in a
bold and vigorous curve. Such was the conception as he has told me in his
own words.
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It seems that in the winter of 1892 the U. S. ship “ Constitution” was
specially sent to Rome to convey the colossal statue to these shores, but

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