File:Freedom, by Thomas Crawford.jpg

Identifier: arttreasuresofwa00hend (find matches)
Title: The art treasures of Washington : an account of the Corcoran Gallery of Art and of the National Gallery and Museum, with descriptions and criticisms of their contents; including, also, an account of the works of art in the Capitol, and in the Library of Congress, and of the most important statuary in the city
Year: 1912 (1910s)
Authors: Henderson, Helen Weston, 1874-
Subjects: Art museums Art Art
Publisher: Boston : L. C. Page & Company
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image:
tional Museum. The bronze statue of Freedom was cast in ClarkMills foundry near Bladensburg, Maryland, inr86o, and the fragments were lifted one by oneand put together on that aery height, to the boom-ing of cannon and the shouts of Soldier Crawford gave his Freedom a simple, concen-trated pose, and the rude, blocked in modelling ap-parent on the plaster model, come- nut effectivelywhen viewed, a- intended, from a vast height. The sword and shield not only support the hands inturn, but contribute their Straight line- to the ar-chitectural mavs and effectiveness Of the silhou-ette. The fortunes of the Vmerican Indians furnish a theme which constantly recurs throughout the dec-orations of the Capitol The marbles and bronzes of the rotunda portico arc suggestive of the first contact of the white race with the red. The mar-ble group in the pediment of the Senate portico issignificant of what the coming of the new race wasto mean for the old. The subject Contrasts the proLrre^ of civiliza-
Text Appearing After Image:
FREEDOMBy Thomas Crawford Ube (Capitol: sculptural Decoration 813 tion, in America, with the attendant decadence of the aborigine. The central figure of the group is that of America. On the righl of this figure arc the element- of Strength n which the country re-ptile Soldier, the Merchant, the Schoolmas ter, Youth, and Mechanic-, ending with a wheat .shear and anchor, as emblems of prosperity andstability. On the left of America are the forerunners ofcivilization: the Pioneer, the Hunter, the IndianWarrior, a Mother and Child, and, finally, an In-dian grave. The sculpture is in full relief, mariem Crawfords models in shops on the Capitolgrounds, by skilled Italian artisans, and placed in1860-64. Crawford attempted too much and too literally.He crams the space with detached incident, heldther by no unity of feeling or of idea. Of lightand -hade in sculpture, he was apparently ignorant;figures though robust present lean masses tothe eye; certain accessories, like the stump, the

Note About Images