DOI Artikel:
Raguin, Virginia Chieffo: Old imagery for a new century
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.51154#0022
21
In Boston these judgments were propagated through
a passionate and cultivated set that included the patrons
of the windows at Harvard and Trinity Church. One of
the chief figures in this intersection of art, culture and re-
ligion was Charles Eliot Norton, from 1874 through 1899
first professor of the history of art at Harvard.26 In 1855
he had begun a long and productive friendship with John
Ruskin, the extraordinarily prolific writer on Roman-
tic painting, architecture, and religious feeling.27 Ruskin
did not create the importance of the Amiens Christ, but
he made it an ineluctable part of any cultivated Chris-
tians artistic awareness. His Bible of Amiens describes
the sculpture as the true keystone of both art and faith.
Ruskin hearkens back to another authority, citing Viollet-
-le-Ducs analysis of the Beau Dieu of Amiens.28 Few have
come close to the eloquence of Ruskin’s description of the
sculpture, the center of the portal, the center of the build-
ing, and the center of religion itself. A small indication
of the impact of these thoughts twenty years later is seen
upon opening Frederic W. Farrars popular book The Life
of Christ as Represented in Art. Its frontispiece [Fig. 13] is
the Christ of Amiens and Farrar’s description within the
text repeats Ruskin’s evaluation.29 La Farge assimilated the
form and power of the sculpture and communicated it to
an audience already receptive to the issues behind the se-
lection of model.30
In 1888, La Farge’s Beau Dieu was followed by the Pre-
sentation of the Virgin in the Temple [Fig. 14] a memorial
26 For Eliots influence see K. McClintock, ‘The Classroom and
the Courtyard: Medievalism in American Highbrow Culture’, in
E.B. Smith et al., Medieval Art in America: Patterns of Collecting
1800-1940, exh. cat., Palmer Museum of Art, The Pennsylvania
State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, 1996, pp. 41-54;
M. Green, The Problem of Boston: Some Readings in Cultural His-
tory, New York, 1966, pp. 122-141.
27 Ruskin is probably best known today as the author of The Stones
of Venice, 3 vols, London, 1851-1853, and The Seven Lamps of Ar-
chitecture, London, 1849.
28 E. Viollet-le-Duc, Dictionnaire raisonné de l’architecture fran-
çaise, Paris, 1869, vol. 3, pp. 216-218. The article is on the subject
“Christ” where the sculpture at Amiens is illustrated in full and in
a detail of the head. The author compares the head to Greek stat-
uary, describing the High Gothic image as the supreme accom-
plishment of the type from the eleventh through the sixteenth
centuries.
29 Esp. 488: ‘Mr. Ruskin selects as the noblest ideal of Christ known
to him a sculptured figure of the thirteenth century on the west
front of Amiens Cathedral. ...Into this figure the artist has put
a world of true and noble thought. Christ is standing at the central
point of all History, and of all Revelation: the Christ, or Prophe-
sied Messiah of all Past, the King and Redeemer of Future Time...’.
30 See, for a discussion of La Farge’s complex sources and deliber-
ate references to Palma Vecchio, Raphael, Giotto, Giovanni Pi-
sano, and Cimabue, H.B. Weinberg, ‘La Farge’s Eclectic Ideal-
ism in Three New York City Churches’, Winterthur Portfolio, 10,
1975, pp. 199-228.
14. John La Farge, Presentation of the Virgin, 1888, after Titian,
Boston, Trinity Church, south nave. Photo: M.M. Raguin
to Julia Appleton McKim dedicated by her husband,
Charles Folien McKim, and her sister Alice.31 McKim was
a partner of McKim, Mead, and White, the architects of
the Boston Public Library. He selected the artist and also
31 The window was installed in 1888 and is inscribed ‘PLACED IN
LOVING MEMORY OF JULIA APPLETON / 1859-1887 / BY
HER HUSBAND CHARLES F MCKIM AND HER SISTER AL-
ICE’.
In Boston these judgments were propagated through
a passionate and cultivated set that included the patrons
of the windows at Harvard and Trinity Church. One of
the chief figures in this intersection of art, culture and re-
ligion was Charles Eliot Norton, from 1874 through 1899
first professor of the history of art at Harvard.26 In 1855
he had begun a long and productive friendship with John
Ruskin, the extraordinarily prolific writer on Roman-
tic painting, architecture, and religious feeling.27 Ruskin
did not create the importance of the Amiens Christ, but
he made it an ineluctable part of any cultivated Chris-
tians artistic awareness. His Bible of Amiens describes
the sculpture as the true keystone of both art and faith.
Ruskin hearkens back to another authority, citing Viollet-
-le-Ducs analysis of the Beau Dieu of Amiens.28 Few have
come close to the eloquence of Ruskin’s description of the
sculpture, the center of the portal, the center of the build-
ing, and the center of religion itself. A small indication
of the impact of these thoughts twenty years later is seen
upon opening Frederic W. Farrars popular book The Life
of Christ as Represented in Art. Its frontispiece [Fig. 13] is
the Christ of Amiens and Farrar’s description within the
text repeats Ruskin’s evaluation.29 La Farge assimilated the
form and power of the sculpture and communicated it to
an audience already receptive to the issues behind the se-
lection of model.30
In 1888, La Farge’s Beau Dieu was followed by the Pre-
sentation of the Virgin in the Temple [Fig. 14] a memorial
26 For Eliots influence see K. McClintock, ‘The Classroom and
the Courtyard: Medievalism in American Highbrow Culture’, in
E.B. Smith et al., Medieval Art in America: Patterns of Collecting
1800-1940, exh. cat., Palmer Museum of Art, The Pennsylvania
State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, 1996, pp. 41-54;
M. Green, The Problem of Boston: Some Readings in Cultural His-
tory, New York, 1966, pp. 122-141.
27 Ruskin is probably best known today as the author of The Stones
of Venice, 3 vols, London, 1851-1853, and The Seven Lamps of Ar-
chitecture, London, 1849.
28 E. Viollet-le-Duc, Dictionnaire raisonné de l’architecture fran-
çaise, Paris, 1869, vol. 3, pp. 216-218. The article is on the subject
“Christ” where the sculpture at Amiens is illustrated in full and in
a detail of the head. The author compares the head to Greek stat-
uary, describing the High Gothic image as the supreme accom-
plishment of the type from the eleventh through the sixteenth
centuries.
29 Esp. 488: ‘Mr. Ruskin selects as the noblest ideal of Christ known
to him a sculptured figure of the thirteenth century on the west
front of Amiens Cathedral. ...Into this figure the artist has put
a world of true and noble thought. Christ is standing at the central
point of all History, and of all Revelation: the Christ, or Prophe-
sied Messiah of all Past, the King and Redeemer of Future Time...’.
30 See, for a discussion of La Farge’s complex sources and deliber-
ate references to Palma Vecchio, Raphael, Giotto, Giovanni Pi-
sano, and Cimabue, H.B. Weinberg, ‘La Farge’s Eclectic Ideal-
ism in Three New York City Churches’, Winterthur Portfolio, 10,
1975, pp. 199-228.
14. John La Farge, Presentation of the Virgin, 1888, after Titian,
Boston, Trinity Church, south nave. Photo: M.M. Raguin
to Julia Appleton McKim dedicated by her husband,
Charles Folien McKim, and her sister Alice.31 McKim was
a partner of McKim, Mead, and White, the architects of
the Boston Public Library. He selected the artist and also
31 The window was installed in 1888 and is inscribed ‘PLACED IN
LOVING MEMORY OF JULIA APPLETON / 1859-1887 / BY
HER HUSBAND CHARLES F MCKIM AND HER SISTER AL-
ICE’.