藝術家Horatio GREENOUGH (1805-1852) 生平簡歷

出生地： Boston

死亡地点： Somerville, MA

地址： Florence, Italy

职业： Sculptor, writer

教育： began carving and modeling figures from an early age; as a young man in Boston, learned modeling from J.B. Binon and Solomon Willard, and stone carving from Alpheus Cary; graduated from Harvard Univ., 1825; Bertel Thorwaldsen, Rome, 1825-27; Bartolini, Florence

会员： NAD (hon. member)

工作： BMFA; Yale Univ. Art Gal.; Boston Athenaeum; NYHS. Sculpture, George Washington, originally in the Capitol Rotunda, was eventually removed (because of its weight) and placed outside on the Capitol grounds, now in the entrance hall of the Am. Hist. Mus., Wash., DC; The Rescue group, originally at the Capitol's east entrance, removed and placed in storage in 1959

评论： The first American Neoclassical sculptor. He had a strong classical education and while at Harvard met Washington Allston who became his artistic mentor. After graduating from college in 1825, he went to Italy for two years, sharing an apartment with painter Robert Weir (see entry), studying, executing portrait busts, and producing one ideal work (The Dead Abel"). Returning to the U.S. in 1827 because of illness, he spent the next several years in Boston, Baltimore, and Washington, DC, making portrait busts of American leaders such as John Adams (Boston Athen. and NYHS) and Boston Mayor Josiah Quincy. Greenough returned to Italy in 1829, settling in Florence, where he lived for the next two decades as part of the American colony of artists and writers gathered together in that city. His first major commission came from author James Fenimore Cooper (who was also living in Florence), who asked for a pair of singing cherubs in the spirit of the ones seen in Raphael's "Madonna del Baldacchino." The resulting "Chanting Cherubs" (1829, now lost) toured the U.S. and was praised by Washington Allston but criticized by visitors who were uncomfortable with the pair's nudity and were disappointed that the infants did not sing (they expected mechanical figures). Other sculpture created by Greenough in this period included his bust of Lafayette (1831-34, BMFA); his full-length, romantic "Medora" (inspired by Byron's poem "The Corsair"); and "Cupid Bound" (BMFA). In 1832, the sculptor received his most important commission, from the U.S. Government, to produce a full-length statue of George Washington for placement in the Capitol Rotunda. Inspired by reconstructions and literary descriptions of Phidias' Olympian Zeus, Greenough modelled his Washington on a heroic scale, showing him seated on a throne, bare-chested with drapery across his lap, holding a sword in his left hand, his right arm raised as if ready to speak. When the work was placed in the Rotunda in December 1841, it drew derision from critics and the public who could not reconcile their image of Washington with this colossal, classical one. Despite his disappointment with the reaction, Greenough continued to produce portraits and ideal works, including "Castor and Pollux" (c. 1847-51, BMFA) . What occuppied him for most of the rest of his life, however, was "The Rescue," commissioned by the U.S. Government for the Capitol's east entrance (as a counterpart to Luigio Persico's "The Discovery"). Begun in 1839 but not assembled until the sculptor's death, the sculptural group depicts a struggle between a white settler and an American Indian. Greenough left Italy for the U.S. in 1851, hoping to gain a commission for an equestrian George Washington. The following year he was stricken with "brain fever" and died in Somerville (MA). Two of his brothers, John and Richard S. Greenough, also were professional artists (see entries on each).

来源： G&W; Greenough was also a prolific essayist, writing extensively on aesthetics: a collection of his writings (including his "Stonecutter's Creed" was published in 1852 under the title Travels, Observations, and Experiences of a Yankee Stonecutter (originally under the pseudonym "Horace Bender"); Frances Boott Greenough, ed., Letters of Horatio Greenough to His Brother, Henry Greenough; and Tuckerman, Memoir of Horatio Greenough (1853). See also DAB; Gardner, Yankee Stonecutters; Fairman, Art and Artists of the Capitol; Taft, History of American Sculpture; Tuckerman, Book of the Artists; Dunlap; Swan, BA; Rutledge, PA; Cowdrey, AA &AAU; Cowdrey, NAD; Rutledge, MHS; Lee, Familiar Sketches of Sculpture and Sculptors, 130-140; Wynne and Newhall, "Horatio Greenough: Herald of Functionalism;" Wright, "Horatio Greenough, Boston Sculptor" and Horatio Greenough, The First American Sculptor. More recently, see Craven, Sculpture in America, 100-10; Baigell, Dictionary.