Fenway Court: 1978

Report of the Treasurer STATEMENT OF NET ASSETS DECEMBER 31, 1978 AND 1977

NET ASSETS

1977

INVESTMENTS (Note 1): Bonds, at quoted market price (cost $4,542,834 in 1978 and $4,745,896 in 1977)

$ 4,245,139

$ 4,782,153

5,790,812

5,894,693

$10,035,951

$10,676,846

Stocks at quoted market price (cost $5,674,340 in 1978 and $5,849'394 in 1977) Total investments, at market Allowance for unrealized (appreciation) depreciation

181,223 $10,217,174

$10,595,290

1a 55 ,200

845,221

$11,572,374

$11,440,511

Commercial paper, at cost which approximates market Total investments, at cost

22,060

$

CASH

(81,556)

$

24,629

PREPAID BOND INTEREST

4'430

AccRuED INCOME TAXES (Note 1)

(19,383)

(34,746)

$11,575,051

$11'4 34,824

$

$

MusEUM PROPERTY (Note 1) Museum building and underlying land Contents of Museum building Greenhouse and underlying land

*

366,400

366,400

4,015,000

4,015,000

560,507

560,507

47,080

Cafeteria

Net Assets

$ 4,988,987

$ 4,941,907

$16,564,038

$16,376,731

FUND BALANCES

$

OPERATING (Note 3) GENERAL MAINTENANCE AND DEPRECIATION

113,566

15,640,832

15,502,958

752,651

760,207 $16,376,731

* EXPENSES FOR CAFETERIA WERE CAPITALIZED RATHER THAN CHARGED TO EXPENSES DURING 1978.

The accompanying notes are an integral part of these financial statements.

STATEMENT OF CASH RECEIPTS AND DISBURSEMENTS FOR THE YEARS ENDED DECEMBER 31, 1978 AND 1977

1978

1977

INVESTMENT INCOME: Interest Dividends OTHER INCOME: Sale of publications and other items Visitors' contributions Grants and contributions Other receipts Total income

$

490,620 309,089

$

382,656 367,557

$

799,709

$

750,213

$

37,630 90,696 28,141 13,214

$

36,563 30'469 11,625

$

169,681

$

7'489 86,146

$

969,390

$

836,359

$

309,869 236,148 104,747 54,308 40,155 1,525 10,587 17,177 39,681 16,000

$ $

298,227 209,055 100,169 50,821 37,851

OPERATING EXPENSES: Museum operating expenses Maintenance and security Administration Care of collections and paintings Gardening and grounds Music Cafeteria Cataloging expense Pensions (Note 2) Professfonal services Federal income taxes (Note 1) Insurance Book Exhibition Publication - Connoisseur Compensation of managing trustees Boston plan membership Gardner Museum film Total operating expenses

17,568 13,633 41,903 28,000 25,247

23,424 6,J79 29,198 5,100

5,380 2,500 9,871

18,103

840,225

$

912'401

$

INCOME (Loss) FROM OPERATIONS

$

56,989

$

(3,866)

NON-OPERATING EXPENSES: Renovations to Museum building Energy studies

$

7,060 496

$

17,560

Total non-operating expenses

$

7,556

$

9'493 27,053

Net income (loss)

$

49'433

$

(30,919)

REALIZED AND UNREALIZED GAIN (Loss) ON INVESTMENTS (Note 1) Proceeds from sale of investments $ 3,016,735 (2,875,911) Cost of investments sold 140,824 Capital gains tax (Note 1) (2,950) Net realized gain on sale of investments $ 137,874

$

Unrealized appreciation (depreciation) Beginning of year End of year

81,556 (181,223)

$ 1'420,003 81,556

$(262,779)

$(1,338'447)

$ (124,905)

$(1,100,703)

Increase (decrease) in unrealized appreciation Net realized and unrealized gain (loss) on investments

$

The accompanying notes are an integral part of these financial statements.

$ 6,360,115 (6,114,371) 245,744 (8,ooo) 237,744

STATEMENT OF FUND BALANCES FOR THE YEARS ENDED DECEMBER 31, 1978 AND 1977

BALANCE, December 31, 1976 Net income (loss) from operations

Operating

General

$117'432

$15,265,214

Maintenance and Depreciation

$787,260

Total

$16,169,906

(30,919)

(30,919)

Net realized gain on sale of investments

237,744

Fund transfers

237,744

27,053

BALANCE, December 31, 1977

(27,053)

$113,566

Net income (loss) from operations

$15,502,958

$760,207

$16,376,731

49'433

49'433

Net realized gain on sale of investments

137,874

Fund transfers

137,874

7,556

BALANCE, December 31, 1978

(7,556)

$170,555

$15,640,832

$752,651

$16,564,038

STATEMENT OF CHANGES IN NET ASSETS FOR THE YEARS ENDED DECEMBER 31, 1978 AND 1977

1978

1977

NET AssETs WERE RECEIVED FROM: Income (loss) from operations

$ 56,989

Net realized gain from sale of investments

$

(3,866)

137,874 $194,863

NET ASSETS WERE USED FOR: Energy studies

$

$

$131,863

$299,812

9'493

Renovations to Museum building TOTAL INCREASE (DECREASE)

THE INCREASE (DECREASE)

IN

IN

NET ASSETS

NET ASSETS WAS REPRESENTED

Investments

BY

CHANGES IN :

Cash

(2,569)

(93,885)

Prepaid bond interest

(4'430)

4'430

Accrued income taxes

15,363

Museum property -

cafeteria

(3,532)

47,080 $187,307

The accompanying notes are an integral part of these financial statements.

$206,825

NOTES TO FINANCIAL STATEMENTS Summary of Accounting Policies The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Incorporated (Museum Corporation), the sole trustee under the will of Isabella Stewart Gardner, is the owner of the property which now constitutes the Museum - Fenway Court and the works of art collected there by Mrs. Gardner. The more significant accounting policies of the Museum Corporation not covered elsewhere in this report include the following : A. Basis of Presentation - The Museum Corporation prepares its financial statements on a modified cash basis of accounting. Under this method, revenues and expenses are recognized when received and paid rather than when earned or incurred, except for Federal income taxes which are recognized when incurred. B. Investments -The Museum Corporation presents investments at quoted market price, less an allowance for unrealized appreciation (depreciation) . No change in unrealized appreciation (depreciation) is recognized for financial statement purposes. However, this information has been included below the Statement of Cash Receipts and Disbursements for disclosure purposes. C. Museum Property - Museum property is sta ted at appraised values established on December 24, 1936. Additions made subsequently are stated at cost. The Museum Corporation has consistently followed the practice of charging renovations to expense rather than providing for depreciation of Museum property, except for the newly constructed cafeteria, wh ich will be depreciated over its estimated useful life beginning in 1979. Allocations to the Maintenance and Depreciation Fund are credited thereto when authorized by the Trustees . D . Federal Income Taxes - Under the Internal Revenue Code, the Museum Corporation is classified as a private operating foundation and, accordingly, required to pay a tax of 2o/o (4 o/o in 1977) of " net investment income," as defined.

1.

Pension Plan The Museum Corporation has a pension plan which covers, substantially, all full time employees who meet certain age and employment requirements. The Museum Corporation's policy is to fund pension costs accrued. Costs charged to operations in 1978 an~ 1977 were $17,177 and $13,633, respectively, which represent normal costs plus the amortization of prior service costs over a fifteen year period. Unfunded past service costs amounted to $25-465 as of January 1, 1978. The actuarially computed value

2.

of vested benefits did not exceed the assets of the plan as of January 1, 1978. 3. Restriction on Operating Surplus

The Trustees are directed under the will of Isabella Stewart Gardner to pay to certain designated hospitals any surplus of income which, in the opinion of the Director and Trustees, will not be needed for the proper and reasonable maintenance of the Museum. These amounts, if any, are payable at the end of 路successive five-year periods, the next of which ends December 31, 1979. REPORT OF INDEPENDENT PUBLIC ACCOUNT ANTS To th e Tru stees of The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Incorporated, Trustee Under the Will of Isabella Stewart Gardner :

We have examined the statement of net assets of THE ISABELLA STEWART GARDNER MUSEUM, INCORPORATED (a Massachusetts corporation, not for profit) , TRUSTEE UNDER THE WILL OF ISABELLA STEWART GARDNER as of December 31, 1978 and 1977, and the related statements of cash receipts and disbursements, fund balances and changes in net assets for the years then ended. Our examinations were made in accordance with generally accepted auditing standards, and accordingly included such tests of the accounting records and such other aud iting procedures as we considered necessary in the circumstances, including confirmation of securities owned at December 31, 1978 and 1977 by correspondence with the custodian. As described in Note 1, the Museum Corporation's financial statements are prepared on a modified cash basis of accounting. Under this method, revenues and expenses are recognized when received and paid rather than when earned or incurred, except for Federal income taxes which are recognized when incurred. Accordingly, the accompanying financial statements are not intended to present financial position, results of operations and changes in net assets in conformity with generally accepted accounting principles. In our opinion, the accompanying financial statements present fairly the net assets of The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Incorporated, Trustee Under the Will of Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum as of December 31, 1978 and 1977, and the cash receipts and disbursements, and changes in its net assets for the years then ended, on the basis of accounting as described in Note 1, applied on a consistent basis. ARTHUR ANDERSEN & Co. January 29, 1979. Boston, Massachusetts

'Fenway Court 'i?

'FENWAY COURT Isabella Stewart Gardner JVIuseum

Published by the Trustees of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Incorporated Boston, Massachusetts Copyright 1979 Type set and printed by Thomas Todd Co., Printers, Boston

Photograph credits: Alinari/ Editorial Photocolor Archives p . 9 : Simone Martini, photo of Pisa polyptych. Laurence Channing p. 44 : Eden and Other Gardens in the Little Salon .

Lotte Jacobi p. 39 : Geo rge Leslie Stout. H erb ert Vose pp . vi, t: Simone Martini 's altarpiece at Fen way Court . pp . 5, 6 : details of the above. Larry p. 30: p . J5 : p . 36: p . 40 :

Webster The carriage house at Fenway Court. Chimney a ttached to the front of the Museum . Windows in the Gothic Room . Concert in the Tapestry Room . p . 42: Cafe in the Museum . p. 49 : The carriage house at Fenway Court.

Museum archives Frontispiece: Bernard Berenson , ca . 1887.

All othe r photographs by Joseph Pratt, Museum Photographer.

Contents

1.

Simone Martini' s Altarpiece at Conservation

3. Simone and the Franciscan Zelanti

Fenway Court, a Note on

Sherwood A. Fehm, Jr.

7. The Original Carpentry of Simone's Altarpiece

15. A Note on Two Degas Drawings

Joel Brink

Barbara Stern Shapiro

24 . Berenson and Mrs . Gardner : the Connoisseur, the Collector and the Photograph David A lan Brown 3i. Altamura: the Enigma

Rollin van N . Hadley

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Incorporated Fifty-fourth Annual Report for the Year 1978 37. Report of the President

Malcolm D. Perkins

38. George Leslie Stout, 1897-1978

Rollin van N. Hadley

4i. Report of the Director

Rollin van N. Hadley

44. Report of the Curator

Deborah Gribbon

46. Publications 48. Trustees and Staff

Simone Martini's Altarpiece at Fenway Court A Note on Conservation

Simone Martini, Madonna and Child with SS. Paul, Lucy, Catherine, and John the Baptist, tempera, Inv. No. P15e4, Room of Early Italian Paintings, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. The carpentry is modern reconstruction.

Simone Martini' s Madonna and Child with SS. Paul, Lucy, Cath erin e and John the Baptist is an outstanding example of fourteenth-century Sienese painting and the only complete altarpiece by the master outside of Italy. For the past two years Fenway C ourt has reported that the altarpiece was undergoing conservation which has now been completed by the museum's conservator of paintings, Gabrielle Kopelman, with gratifying results. The task was formidable, not only because of its size, but because of the delicate nature of the work. Evidently, between the years 1903-05 all five panels and their pinnacles were transferred from their original supports ; unfortunately, no treatment record exists. Inpainting, intended to conceal losses, discolored in the following years, distorting the original subtlety of modeling and flattening the figures unnaturally. Successive layers of varnish and wax had been applied and these became opaque, obscuring the depth and luminosity of the colors. The aim of the cleaning and restoration was to bring out the grandeur of the composition and emphasize the paintings' luminous tonality, while acknowledging losses that have been sustained. The gold ground in all the panels has suffered. S. Paul has survived less well than the others; restoration along the bottom of both this panel and that of S. John the Baptist has been removed and left in a neutral tone. The cleaning and restoration of the polyptych has prompted the following two articles. The first examines the historical context and iconography of the altarpiece, while the second reconstructs the design of its original framework.

1

Figure 1 . Simone M a rtini , Madonna and Child and Christ Displaying His W ounds, central panel and pinnacle of the Gardner polyptych.

Simone and the Franciscan Zelanti

Critics and admirers through the years have lavishly praised the work of Simone Martini who during his long career was summoned from his native Siena to the major ecclesiastical and court centers in Italy and France. The Florentine sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti, writing about 1450, called Simone "a most noble painter and very famous" whom he held to be probably "the best of the Sienese." (Maestro Simone fu nobilissimo pictore e molto famoso . T engono e' pictori sanesi fosse el migliore . .. .") An anonymous Florentine biographer writing between 1537-42 continued : "Master Simone of Siena was an excellent painter and is held by the Sienese [to be] the best of their painters." ("Maestro Simone Sanese fu excellente pittore et tenuto dal Sanesi ii primo de' loro pittori . . . .") And much more recently the doyen of Italian painting connoisseurship, Bernard Berenson, had this to say: To convey his feelings for beauty and grace and splendor, Simone possessed means more than sufficient. He was master of colour as few have been before or after him. He had a feeling for line always remarkable, and once, at least, attaining to a degree of perfection not to be surpassed. He understood decorative effects .... Simone is the most lovable of all the Italian artists before the Renaissance.1 Berenson's close relationship as artistic advisor and friend to Mrs. Gardner has been well documented [see D. A. Brown, Berenson and Mrs. Gardner . . . in this issue] and it was through Berenson that Mrs. Gardner acquired Simone's altar for her museum in 1899. Before coming to Boston the work is reported to have been in the church of S. Francesco in the Umbrian town of Orvieto until about 1860 when it was purchased by a Cavaliere Mazzocchi and subsequently displayed in the cathedral museum of that city until its departure for America. 2 Efforts to trace the

altar in earlier guide books of the area have so far been fruitless but there is every reason to suppose that the work was for a local Franciscan foundation, as we shall see later in this article. The production of large-scale altars for the mendicant churches and cathedrals in the cities and towns of central Italy was without precedent during the second and third decades of the fourteenth century. Giotto of Florence, and Ugolino, Segna di Bonaventura and Simone of Siena, to name a few, all had large studios which responded to demands for religious imagery. For Orvieto alone, Simone produced at least four altarpieces during the early 132o's, including Mrs. Gardner's work. He designed, supervised and certainly had the major role in the execution of the Boston polyptych. Careful examination of the Fenway Court painting and comparison with other altarpieces from this period suggest that although its original framing has been lost the altar is complete and the current arrangement of the various parts is, in all probability, correct. The Madonna and Child and Christ Displaying His Wounds are larger than the other panels and take the central position (fig. 1). SS. Paul and Lucy turn in toward the viewer's right while SS. Catherine and John the Baptist direct the spectator's attention left to the main group. The trumpeting angels, following other images of the Last Judgement, sound their instruments away from Christ and down towards earth . (One cannot imagine that their dreadful, ear shattering blasts would have been directed towards any of the saints or the Madonna and Child.) This then would situate the remaining two angels who bear the nails, lance, cross, and column over the two middle panels of the two female saints. It has been noted that the Boston panels are important since they form the only complete 3

altarpiece b Simon outside of Italy. hat has not be n str ssed, h01 ever, is the painting's spe ial i nifi an e as a ultura l do ument, and for tud nt f lat dieval Italian hist ry th painting' i nographi ont nt holds great interest. lnitiall , the sele tion of saints r pr s nted flanking the ad nna and hild ems arbitrary and not unusual. \ hat tnk s one immediately ar th fi e pinna le figures: not omplacent, joyful ang 1 surr uncling a b atifi , bl ssing hrist, but rather a pair f angels wh peer intently out at th spe tat r off ring the nails, column, er ss, r wn of thorns, and Ian e - a nearly c mp! te array f th instruments f hrist's passion (fi s. 2 and -) - Rank d b anoth r pair of ang ls ounding their trump ts (figs. 4 and c;). The hrist er th entral panel looks k enly and dir ctly ut, displa mg hi d hands held in an attitud ug esllv of th Last Judgem nt (fig. i). Th urren ntire gr up of figur s in the pinna I s pie es i rare and rtainl ' ithin Sim n 's xtant oe11vre The nails, Ian , lumn, r wn f thorns, and spong form an icon graphi typ kno1 n as th Arma Christi, and th stand f r all hrist's sufferings. Th y w r r ard d as ' eap ns ' ith which hrist onqu r d d ath and Satan, and until th high middl age , ' ap ns were symbols of triumph and authority. T wards th nd f the t1 elfth century the Arnra lmst1 t ok n a meaning ven more losely linked to hrist's passion, and by th nd of th tlmt nth entury the arms were shown tog th r with hrist disp laying his 1 ounds and as su h b am symbols of his death on "the day of rath." Th y show th profanati n of od whi h is piat d at th Last J udg men! and th y justify th s nt n e f damnation destined to be passed on all who have not accepted hrist's sacrific . The ntral pinna le is cru ia l to und rstanding the signifi ance of Simone's a ltar and may repr se n t a onflation of two, hitherto separate im ages. H ere Christ appears as Jud ge, yet a lso as th Redeemer as h for fu ll y displays h is wou nds. T his latter emphasis, when ac ompanied by t h e instruments of the passion, may refer to h ris t's 4

ro le as th e Man of Sorro w s (or Imago Pietatis).' It has been poi n ted o ut th a t thi s im age is the most pre ise vis ua l e pression of piety of the late midd le ages an d took its ch a racte r fro m m ys ti cal contemplation rather t h a n fro m th eological specu lation. hristian of the La te M iddle A ges sought uni n with hrist by fo llowing in his footsteps along the way of the Pass ion . To follow him thus . . . meant at th a t time to 'imitate' (11111tatio) or to share the s uffe rin g of Christ (compassio) in the worl d of si n . St. Francis of ssisi set so omplete a n exa mpl e that he assum d the wo u n d s o f the crucified Christ. The trumpeting angels a lso h ave sp eci al m eaning. They ar , according to M a tth ew (23 :31) a nd Rev lation ( :2), sent by the Jud ge to sound the Judgement on earth, and in this co nt ex t function with Christ in an attit..1 d e of jud ge m ent. Yet there mi ht be an additiona l meani ng for th is pa ir : they may b sounding a hy mn of joy a nd triumph v r death if hrist appea rs in th e ce ntral pinna 1 not nly as J ud ge b u t a lso as th e Red em r displaying his wo u n d s. \ ithin this ont xt of passio n a nd sac rifice p rhaps the repr entation of th e saints in the main ti r tak s n a greater sig n ifica nce. T wo of the four, Paul and a t h rin e, h ad vis ions o f God and wer convert d to h ristia n ity, a nd all four I t th ir lives for their fait h . Both fem a le sai nts suffered physi al abuse and Lu y e mbra ced abject poverty before her martyrd o m . Ca th e rine, renown d for her mysticis m a nd the. object of sp ial ve n ratio n in t h e ear Eas t, m ay ha ve h a d add d imp rtanc to those Fra ncisca ns returning home to Ita ly fro m m issio n s th ere. John, the itinerant prea her w ho b a pti zed C hris t and recogniz d him as th e La mb of God who would take away the si n of th e wo rld, s pent his final days in prison bef re he was fi n a ll y b eheaded . Si mo n e Mar tin i's a lta r at Fenway Court owes its ton e and mea nin g ultima tely to the mys ticism of S. Francis, a nd to th e writings of a number of h is fo llowers. S. Fra n is devoted h im self to the in a rn a te h ris t a nd es pe ially to his sufferings . Hi s devo ti o n was fi nall y reward ed on Mount La

Figures

2

and 3. Angels with instruments of Christ's passion, pinnacles of the Gardner polyptych.

Verna near Assisi when, deep in contemplation of Christ's passion, he was marked for life with the wounds which Christ suffered on the cross. This devotion to Christ's sufferings is one of the most important themes in Franciscan writing during the century following the saint's death in 1226.6 Ubertino of Casale in his Arbor Vitae Crucifixae writes that: Jesus made me feel, in an extraordinary way, that I was with him in every action of his life . . . I was with him at his baptism, in the desert, in the course of his preaching, and constantly in treacheries, desertions, insults and injuries. 7 S. Bonaventura, probably the greatest of all the devotional writers of the order, says in his Letter

to a Poor Clare : Draw near . . . to Jesus wounded, to Jesus crowned with thorns .. . fastened to the gibbet of the cross . . . you will know no other wish or desire except to die with Christ upon the cross. 8

Meditations on the Life of Christ, long thought to

have been written by S. Bonaventura but now generally ascribed to a Franciscan monk living in Tuscany during the second half of the thirteenth century,9 greatly influenced medieval thought and devotion and, hence, the art of this period. Here, the Life of Christ was related in the most minute detail. It is emotionally charged throughout and was often recommended for reading over and above the New Testament. At the time Simone painted his altar for the Franciscans at Orvieto in the early 132o's, the order was deeply divided between those friars, called Spirituals, who wished to follow the old traditions of a strict observance of the Rule and the Ideals of S. Francis by embracing poverty, and the Conventuals who advocated progress, development and, above all, the acquisition of property. The Spirituals, or Ze lanti as they came to be called, gained a powerful and influential ally when Ubertino of Casale became one of their leaders. During the early years of the fourteenth century he preached widely in Tuscany and Umbria, causing many of the Spirituals to look to him as their leader. 10 5

Figures 4 and 5. Trumpeting Angels, pinnacles of th e Gardner polyptych.

Considered in this context Simone's altar comes into clearer focus . Given its subject matter there can be no doubt of its connection with Franciscan mysticism . What is fascinating is the hypothesis that this painting, which owes so much to this mysticism, was commissioned by, and originally stood on, the altar of a foundation in Orvieto controlled by the Spirituals, to whom

the contemplation of the sufferings of Christ, as to their humble founder, would have had such an especial importance. Sherwood A. Fehm, Jr. South ern Illinois Univ ersity at Carbondale

NOTES 1 B. Berenson, The Italia n Painters of th e Renaissance, London, 1897, p. 163.

P. Hendy, Europ ean and American Paintings in the Isab ella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, 1974, p . 238. 2

3 For a full di scuss ion of the origin and numerous variations of thi s theme see G. Schiller, Iconography of Chri stia n Art, 2, Greenwich, 1972, pp. 184ff. 4 To be su re, the Gardner pinnacle of Christ is not as specific a reference to C hrist as the Man of Sorrows as o th er contemporary Italian examples. For a thorough di scussion of these, see J. Stubblebine, "Segna di Bonaventura and the Image of the Man of Sorrows," Gesta, 8, 1969, pp. 3ff. Yet there are

6

a number of in stances of the linkage of these two images in the late middle ages. For a discussion and examples see Schiller, op. cit., pp. 206ff. 5

Schiller, op. cit., p. 197.

6 For a deta iled discussion see J. Moorman, A History of th e Franciscan Order; Oxford, 1968, pp. 256ff. 7

Ibid., p . 259.

8

Ibid. , pp. 26off.

9 For a di scuss ion see I. Raguse and R. Green, Meditation s on the Life of Christ, Princeton, 1961, xxi, n. 2ff. 10

Moorman, op. cit., p. 198.

The Original Carpentry of Simone's Altarpiece

Now that the nega tive effects of past restorations have been cleaned away, it is possible at last to recognize the original high quality of Simone Martini's altarpiece in the Gardner Museum and to attribute it to the Sienese master. The carpentry of the altarpiece, however, remains in the state of previous reconstructions . Although the painted surface is largely preserved in each compartment of the altarpiece, only the inner arches with their decorated spandrils remain from the original carpentry construction. The other parts of the architectural format, including the gro und-board (support) , base frame, pinnacle frames, and piershafts, were lost when the altarpiece was m1tially dismantled and when the paint layer was transferred to modern panels . Since the painted surfaces have been restored, it would be of value to conservators and connoisseurs alike to know something about the construction and original appearance of the carpen try. By comparing the extant portions of the polyptych to the carpentry of Simone's panels in Siena, Orvieto, and Pisa, it is possible to determine the exact amount of loss to the structure of the altarpiece and to reconstruct the most probable original form. These altar paintings inspired by Gothic prototypes and produced during the early 132o's, form the core of Simone's important contribution to the development of the fully-carpentered architectural format in Trecento altarpiece design. As we shall discover, the polyptych at Fenway Court provides one of the best examples. Before attempting a reconstruction it is important to summarize the general development of the multi-gabled polyptych in Sienese art prior to the appearance of Simone's revolutionary designs.1 The carpentry style and construction of the pre-Gothic altarpiece in Siena can be illustrated briefly by discussing the polyptychs of Vigoroso da Siena and Duccio di Buoninsegna. The multi-gabled format officially began in the

128o's with the appearance of Vigoroso's altarpiece. To the horizontal emphasis of Guido da Siena's low gabled dossals of the 127o' s (fig. 1), Vigoroso added a triangular pinnacle over each compartment resulting in an increased verticality to the design (fig. 2) . Whereas Guido' s altarpieces were bound on the top and bottom by a continuous and confining frame, Vigoroso cut the frame at shoulder height and allowed his pinnacle panels to project upward, thus creating for the first time in a Sienese altarpiece five vertically oriented compartments, unified visually by the framing elements. Duccio' s altarpiece from the first years of the fourteenth century improved Vigoroso' s arrangement by expressing the structural elements more lucidly in the carpentry design (fig. 3). Instead of floating the arcade and pinnacles as did Vigoroso, Duccio reinforced his pinnacle fields with the addition of horizontal cornices, and employed colonnettes and impost-blocks to support the more refined arcade frames . To enhance the architectural appearance of the carpentered format, and to continue the vertical emphasis of the colonnettes, Duccio placed a pier-shaft between each of the compartments rising from the top of the impost-blocks. In addition to improving the architectural clarity of the carpentry design, Duccio introduced a new method for constructing the individual compart-

Figure 1. Guido da Siena, Polyptych No . 7, Pinacoteca, Siena. (After J. H. Stubblebine.)

7

ba se frame

Figure 2. Vigoroso da Siena, Polyptych No. 32, Galleria Nazionale dell' Umbria, Perugia.

impost-block

colonnette

Figure 3. Duccio di Buoninsegna, Polyptych No . 28, Pinacoteca, Siena.

ments of his altarpiece. Vigoroso's carpenter simply cut two or more horizontal planks to produce the ground-board of his polyptych, connected them with vertical battens at the back, and cut out at the top the shapes of his pinnacle panels. The base, arcade, and pinnacle frames were then joined to the surface of this groundboard. Duccio, on the other hand, selected five individual, vertical planks of wood, bound them together with horizontal battens on the back and used these for the five compartments of his altarpiece. The outside compar tments were designed slightly wider so that the major framing member could be attached to the sides of the structure. The projection of the base frame provided support for the colonnettes which in turn disguised the 8

Figure 4 . Simone Martini, detail of Ma esta, fresco, Palazzo Pubblico, Siena.

separations between the individual compartments of the altarpiece. For the pinnacle field and spandrils, Duccio's carpenter cut and appfied to each compartment a single, thin slice of wood . The lower edge of this pinnacle-spandril layer was then covered by the arcade frames. With the increased lucidity of Duccio's carpentered architecture came an equally practical method for constructing the individual parts of the altarpiece. By working with five separate vertical planks of wood which corresponded to the five compartments of the altarpiece, the carpenter could maintain a greater degree of accuracy and refinement than if he were working with a series of horizontal planks that had little structural relationship to the architectural design . Simone un-

Figure 5. Simone Martini , Madonna and Child wit It Saints and Proph ets, tempera, Mu seo 5. Matteo, Pisa .

do ubtedly came into contact with thes te hnical advances in D uccio's workshop and lat r employed them in his own carpentry design s and constructions. The advent of a fully developed othi style in Sienese pain ting occurred in Simone's arly works. In the style and structure of the frescoed throne in his Ma esta of 1315 one also finds th fund amental architectural elements which would characterize all of Simone's subsequent ca rp entry designs (fig. 4). The sharply pointed pinnacles and the pier-shafts which rise continuously between the compartments of the throne create a sense of soaring verticality absent in the composition of Duccio's altarpiece. The delicately twisted colonnettes and the refined pointed arches with their inscribed trefoils transcend the relatively bulky elements of D uccio's carpentry design . These details, borrowed ultimately from French Gothic architecture, provided the basis of the Gothic style in carpentry design in Siena. In 1319-20 th ese elements of Simone's gilded throne were trans la ted into the carpentry style and construction of his Dominican altarpiece for S. Caterina in Pisa (fig. 5). The twisted colonnettes and the d elicate trefoil arcades, with what must h ave been continuous pier-shafts between th e seven compartments, achieved a refinement of carpent ry unl ike a ny p revious altarpiece produced in Sien a. Simone's carpenter and framemaker could p roduce in wood en construction the same qu ality of lightness and elegance th at th e master could create in the painted for m s them-

selves . The arpentered ar hite tur and pictorial hi rarchy of saints and prophets blend harmoniously with th luminous golden surfaces to produc a truly heavenly ambience of brilliant olor and spiritual light. The larity of Simone's omposition is matched by th systematic arrangement of stru tural el men ts in the carpentry onstruction : individual verti al planks, joined by battens at the back, were employed for the seven main compartm nts; contin uous pier-shafts disguis d th divisions between the panels; and the pinnae! fields were establish d by separate slices of wood that extended down to include the upper arcade and spandrils of the main arcade. The gesso, gold-leaf, and temp ra we re applied only after all of th framing elements had been a ttached to the ground-board. The lucidity of th e ca rp entered format is also enhanced subtly by the proportionate arrangement of parts. A detailed examination of the dimension s of the fields and frames of the Pisa polyptych indicates th at Simone designed the carpentry with a geometric system of proportion that insured a harmonious composition . The internal width of each flanking compartment, for example, is related to the corresponding width of the central compartment as one to the square root of two . This incommensurable ratio which is based simply on the side and diagonal of a given square is found throughout the fabric of the carpentry design and can be isolated in the proportions of Simone's other altarpieces as well as those of

9

Figure 6. Simone Martini, Madonna and Child, central panel of the Gardner polyptych without modern frame.

Duccio.2 What is significant in the context of this study is that the carpentry construction and proportions of the Pisa polyptych are largely adopted in Simone's altarpiece at Fenway Court. To illustrate this and other phenomena, we must attempt to reconstruct its original carpentered form on the basis of the style and structure of his contemporary panels in Orvieto, Siena and Pisa. Once the central panel of the Gardner polyptych is removed from its modern frame it is easier to ascertain the exact amount of carpentry loss {fig. 6). Initially, when the altarpiece was dismantled it is possible that the main panel, includ10

ing its poi11ted arch and spandril (which is still preserved in the modern reconstruction), was cut from the pinnacle panel above. Later, when the paint layer was removed and transferred to a new support, the trefoil arch and spandril were severed, leaving three separate pieces for the originally unified central compartment: the main field with the Madonna and Child, the arch and decorated spandril, and the triangular pinnacle with the Last Judgement Christ. The amount of loss to the original carpentry construction can be established by comparing this panel to the central compartment of the Dominican altarpiece in Orvieto

Figure 7. Simone Martini, Madonna and Child,

Figure 8. Simone Martini, Madonna and Child,

central panel of Orvieto polyptych, tempera, Museo dell 'Opera del Duomo, Orvieto.

tempera, P1nacot ca, Siena .

which still preserves most of its original carpentry (fig. 7). Here, the trefoil arch and spandril are in situ as are the narrow, vertical sections on the sides of the ground-board where the pier-shafts were attached between the compartments. Also in place is the truncated pinnacle panel with its original frame with flame-like decorations. Even though both panels from Orvieto have lost their base frames, another contemporary work in Siena offers further evidence which assists in reconstructing the original form of the panel at Fenway Court (fig. 8) . In 1957 Enzo Carli discovered a painting by Simone Martini under a mediocre work from the sixteenth century . At the time of the repainting, all the frames were removed and a

mor up-to-da te M11do111111 nnd C!iild was superimposed on Simone's image. Today, in its restored state, the panel reveals how the central compartment in the Gardner polyptych must have appeared just before the frames were attached to the ground-board. Still clearly visible are the carpenter's design-lines which established the position and width of the narrow sections of groundboard for the vertical pier-shafts between the compartments. Also visible are the impressions of the trefoil arch which extended, as in the Gardner panel, up into the pinnacle field. Today the apex of the pinnacle panel has been lost, but its reconstruction poses no problem . Finally, the panel in Siena illustrates where the base frame 11

was atta h d to th ground-b ard, ug esting th appro imat amount of w d ut from th bas of the pan I at F m ay ourt. n the basis of the phys1 a l an on lud that th arp ntry of the entra l mpartm nt f th ardner p lypty h riginally dupli at d th form and omp ition f th pan 1 in Siena 1 1th 1t r onstru t d triangular pinnacle. h n th pan l at F nway ourt was separated from its Aanking ompartm nts, th bas fram was s ver d as w r th narrow trips along th sid s of the ground-board whi h arri d th pier-shafts. B f re th pan l was di mantl d its arpent red surfa wou ld hav r s mbled that of the Pisa polypty h (fig. q). Th ba colonnett s '"¡ould ha e b n in plac and ontinuous pi r-shafts (missing today) wou ld have attached to the sid s f the gro und -board and disguised the divisions b tw n the individua l compartm nts of th ¡ alt arpiece. The res mblances, however, do not end here; not on ly is th e carpentry constru ction of th e Pisa polyptych largely repeat d in that of the Gardne r altarpie e, but th width proportions of the compartments are also virtuall y identical. Th e central compartm nt of 12

the Pisa polypty h meas ures 60 .5 cm between the pier-shafts compa red with 60.7 cm for the correspondin width f th Gardner altarpiece. The Aanking ompartments a erage 42.3 cm in the polypty h at Pisa a nd .p .6 cm in the Gardner p lypty h. The latter two meas ur es multiplied by th squa r root of ti o (i.414) produce 59.8 and 60.2 cm re p ctively, or approximately the width of th entra l compartm ents of the two altarpieces. Th is data indicates th a t Simone was applying definite pr portions derived from the square in th two de igns, proportions which can be f und in most of his ca rpentry design s. Although comp lete evide nce ca nnot be presented here, a sur y of the maj r, well-preserved altarpieces from this peri d in Siena a nd Florence discloses a broad pattern f si milar proportional relationhips. 3 Wh at is most important is that the carpentered architect ure of Simone's altarpieces from Pi sa and Orvi to is informed by a geometrical system of proportion that is more commonly associa ted with monumental architectural design from th e Middl e Ages through the Renaissance.• Moving from th e construction of the central compar tment to the omposite form of the altar-

Figure 10. Author' s recon s tru ction of the Gardner polyptych.

piece, some final conclusions can be made regarding the original appearance of its carpentry (fig . 10). There is little question that it would have resembled very closely the architecture of Simone Martini's elaborate Gothic throne in the Maesta (fig. 4). The continuous pier-shafts, instead of functioning as separate framing elements as they do in the modern reconstruction, would have integrated the five compartments of the altarpiece contributing with the sharply pointed pinnacles a sense of high Gothic verticality . Flame-like decorations on the pinnacle frames and delicately twisted colonnettes may have also been included in the original design . The base frame with its upper and lower moldings would have unified the individual compartments much as in the Pisa polyptych (fig. 5), and it is possible that Simone's signature and the date of the altarpiece were originally inscribed below the central panel with the

names of the saints (as in the modern reconstruction) under the side compartments . The composite form of the Gardner altarpiece with its distinctly Franco-Sienese design provides in conjunction with the Pisa polyptych the best model of Simone Martini' s important contribution to the development of the high Gothic style in altarpiece design, indeed the climax of an important development that began in the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries in Siena with the designs of Guido, Vigoroso, and Duccio . Joel Brink

Univ ersity of British Columbia

N ote: I am grateful to Joan Lacouture Brink for diligently transforming my measurements into the series of drawings illustrated in this article.

NOTES

For the Tuscan altarpiece see H. Hagar, Di e Anfiinge des ltali enischen Altarbildes, Munich, 1962, M. Gimmerer-George, Di e Rahmung der To ska nischen Altarbilder im Tr ecento, Strasbourg, 1966, and J. White, " M eas urement, Design and Carpentry in Duccio's Maesta ," Th e Art Bulletin, 55, 1973, pp. 334-66 and 547-69 . 1

For the proportional structure of Duccio' s Ma es ta see ibid., pp . 356-64, and J. Brink, " Measure and Proportion in the Monumental Gabled Altarpieces of Duccio, Cimabue and Giotto," Racar, 4, 1977, pp. 2

69-77.

3 These are di scu ssed and illustrated in my doctoral disserta tion en titled The El em en ts of th e Painter's D es ign Sc ien tia during the Late Middle Ages in Siena and Florence, and are published in part in " Carpentry and Symmetry in Cimabue's Santa Croce Crucifix," Th e Burlington Mag azine, 120, 1978, pp. 645-52 . 4 On the problem of proportion in Medieval and Renaissance arc hitect ure see 0. von Simson, Th e Gothic Cath edral, New York, 1956 ; and R. Wittkower, Architectural Principles in th e A ge of Humanism, London, 1962.

\

I

I

1· I

... I •

I

~I

~ !.\ _I 1

!

I

Fig u re 1 . Edgar Degas (1834-1 917), Study for th e Program m e de la S oiree artistiqu e, 1884, black chalk drawing, 24.6 x 31.4 cm. Inv. No . 3.1.0.9 6, Short Gallery, Isabella Stewa rt Gardner M useum.

Figure 2 . Stu dy for the Programm e de la Soiree a rtis tiq u e, 1 884, black chalk drawing, 26.6 x 37.6 cm . Inv. No. 3 .1 .0 .97, Short Ga ll ery, Isa bella Stewart Ga rdner Mu seum.

A Note on Two Degas Drawings

When Edgar Degas died on September 27, 1919, over 1500 paintings, pastels, drawings, and prints were found in his studio. Except for relatively few pieces kept by the heirs, all of his work was dispersed at a series of auctions. 1 The noted art historian and collector, Paul J. Sachs, described one of these sales: One session of the sale was held on a memorable night during World War I . . . The auction was filled with French officers, men on leave, and agents of the Government, who by their presence, at such a time, testified to their passionate interest in art. They bid on pictures and drawings at a time when the fate of their nation was at stake. 2 At the direction of Mrs . Gardner, her secretary, Morris Carter, wrote on June 9 1919 to a Parisian agent listing several works in the final Degas sale that she wished to purchase. 3 Specifically included were two drawings for the Programme de la Soiree artistique organis ee par les anciens eleves du Lyde de Nantes, le 15 juin 1884 (figs. 1 and 2) . The entire project comprised four drawings (two of which were not requested by Mrs. Gardner [figs . 3 and 4]), a preliminary softground etching (fig. 5) 1 and a final lithographic print (fig. 6) that served as the program for the benefit concert and indicated the various participants and their selections. 4 The Gardner drawings, originally encased together in a simple white frame, are the most fully resolved of the four in the determination of the final lithograph. They were executed in black chalk on thin paper, one on transparent paper (fig. 1) and the other (fig. 2) on thin tissue; both were later mounted together on a brown wove sheet. In the first Gardner study, Degas summarily sketched the outlines of the composition, making his final decision as to the format and placement of the program text. The loose, unfinished lines 1

may have been traced from an earlier drawing in order not to lose the original design ; some of the motifs are clearly defined while others, such as the cluster of boats, are merely implied. Shading has been created by filling in small areas with short, dark strokes and by slightly rubbing the chalk to give a soft tone; superimposed contour lines contain the smudges. The artist's fingerprints can be detected in the long hair and epaulet at the left side of the male head. The second drawing is boldly executed and, of the four, most successfully captures the spirit of the etching and lithograph . Although there are alterations and duplications of lines (and a small face under the male portrait shows through the thin paper) , the composition is now clearly established . A careful exa mination (see technical note) reveals that graphite lines are laid over the chalk strokes and, in certain instances, the graphite stand independently . The many close parallels in design and configuration to the subsequent prints confirm that this drawing was used to transfer the line work to the etching plate ; it is, therefore, the last in the sequence of four. As a group, the quartet of drawings demonstrates Degas' preferred working method: tracing and reworking a series of progressive proofs as he strived toward an acceptable resolution. During the 188o's the artist employed a number of devices and techniques that gave a new dimen~ion to his drawings : the use of multiple contour lines and visible corrections (that is, intentional pentimenti) to convey vibrant animation or cinematic movement ; the repetition of poses on a page to find the correct position; increased pressure of the chalk at various intervals to accentuate certain curves and angles of the images. The Gardner drawings are representative of this mature draughtsmanship. Two other works, The Violinist (fig. 7) and Two Studies of a Dan cer (fig. 8), both executed about 1879-80, show a correlation in subject and 15

\ _ (~ ~ ¡

~ tr--:~ .. ~ -'fl:-

~ . ~

' I

•¡

;~ ! I/

Figure 3 . Study fo r th e Prog ramme d e la Soiree artistique, 1884. Collection unknown. (Catalogue Dega s Atelier Vente IV 257a.)

Figure 4 . Study for th e Programme de la Soiree artistiqu e, 1884 , Collection unknown. (Catalogue Degas Atelier Vente IV 257b.)

style to the concert program drawings. (Each, incidentally, was one of several studies for major pieces, the oil painting, The Rehearsal, in the Frick Collection and the wax sculpture, Little Girl of Fourteen Years, in the collection of Mr. and Mrs . Paul Mellon.) These examples, produced several years earlier, place the Gardner drawings within a technical framework and show Degas' thematic concentration in the 188o's. They reveal the artist' s imaginative sense of design as well as his ability to make the strong, black lines take on an unusual energy and rhythm of their own. Of particular interest is a pastel identified as Mlle Salle en Costume du 'Fandango' et Etudes de Bras et de Jambes (fig. 9). 5 One of two studies for a large pastel (Lemoisne 690), it must have served as the source for the ballet figure in the concert program. Mlle Salle, a sujet etoile of the Paris Opera ballet and known to Degas, is shown standing with a tambourine raised above her head. Her left arm holds her skirt while her right foot is stretched in a pointe tendue . The relationship of the figure and adjacent arm and leg studies to the final project drawing (fig. 2) is obvious in the arched posture and position of the dancer' s feet, the design of the costume with its decorative sash dnped over the tutu, and the decidedly upraised arm which partially extends beyond the chalk margin line of the drawing. Lemoisne dated the series of pastels to 1882, but Lillian Browse's suggestion of 1884 seems more accurate. It is reasonable to believe that the

artist was working on the pastels when the concert was proposed and that he turned to these more carefully thought-out studies for the program fig'ure. The young dancer is dressed in a costume for Le Fandan go, a ballet-pantomime written by Ludovic Halevy and Henri Meilhac, good friends of Degas, aided by Louis Merante who created the dance; it was first produced at the Opera in 1.877. The close connections with the print become relevant when one notices that the selection following the intermission is La Le(:on de Danse ; Le Fandan go (see the text panel, fig. 6). In the finished lithograph, printed in reverse from the stone, the ballerina is reduced in size, the arm with the tambourine and part of the upper body are eliminated; the figure has evolved into a simplified, linear abstraction : a decorative illustration for one of the evening's presentations. There is a small sketch of a female head and a raised arm holding a tambourine in one of Degas' notebooks used from 1882-86 6 and, more important, a sculpture entitled Dancer with Tambourine that strongly relate to the pastels, drawings, and prints (fig. 10). Supposedly, Degas first explored the Spanish dance in sculpture sometime during the mid-188o's and several pieces testify to his interest in this particular pattern of movement. 7 It is safe to say that the original wax sculpture with its distinctive posture and curves provided a scaffold, so to speak, upon which all the works discussed here were developed. A consideration of these illustrations verifies Degas' repeated analysis of an idea and supports the

16

Figure 5. Programme de la Soiree artisti qu e, 1884, softground etching with roulette, impression printed from a cancelled plate, 24.8 x 3 i.2 cm. Courtesy of Smith College Museum of Art, Gift of Abraham Kamberg.

~-..t.... :' ·a~"'.~

" " ·1..

w..,

1 .,._.. Jlt .... ...,~

"""w ~ lli r(l~,~~ rt ~! t t qw;

[. (i}1m1Vv.ltr 1J]1ru1 /,<!¥

/,;1 '"''"""-' u .

~.~~!•«

('/.WJ ,!. '·-· ~t: ... . .

i

't.)..,

fl/'1-,. ,/,. ,

1

• .... -

I , i,,kJ

·.... ........)...~ .. ~ ... '

Figure 6. Programme de la Soiree artistiqu e, 1884, lithograph, 27 x 38 cm. Private Collection, Boston.

Figure 7. Th e Violinist, ca. 1879, black and white chalk on blue-gray paper (with variegated fibers). Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, William Francis Warden Fund.

often quoted statement attributed to him, " No art was ever less spontaneous than mine ... of inspiration, spontaneity, temperament I know nothing." Duri ng the years in which he produced prints, about 1875-92, Degas made scarcely more than twenty lithographs and of these prints, only the benefit program is dated . From a stylistic and technical view, this example is unique in a lithographic oeuvre that ranges from early linear efforts, to more fluid tonal experiments. 8 In this instance, there is the curious intervention of the softground etching. The lines were obtained by tracing through the last preparatory drawing (fig. 2) onto a plate prepared with softground . The plate was then etched in the traditional m anner and the corresponding shaded tones were achieved by the addition of roulette work. 9 The etching, in reverse from the drawings, was further worked through three successive state changes. A freshly inked impression from the 18

plate was ultimately transferred to a lithographic stone which permitted a larger edition to be printed at a workshop. The nature of the line work is characteristic of softground etching rather than reflecting the tonal and textural possibilities of lithography . Thus Degas has used the medium as a conventional means of reproduction, more in keeping with the inl:entions of Aloys Senefelder, who aided the reproduction of sheet music by his invention of drawing on and printing from stone. Although the transfer process is practised in lithography, for some reason Degas found it more suitable, or perhaps more convenient, to apply the drawing first to an etching plate which could be delivered to a master printer who would fill in the text and produce the program. The essential point is that Degas was unafraid of employing innovative methods and indeed he improvised procedures. He was known to combine different processes in one work and was equally fascinated with the results

'

-~ ?>â&#x20AC;˘ . \ ... â&#x20AC;˘.

\ -..... â&#x20AC;˘,

Figure 8. Two Studies of a Dancer, 1879-80,

chalk and pa stel on gray paper. Sir Max Rayne, London.

that could be obtained when manipulating an image from one medium to another. When one considers the numerous steps that he took to effect this final statement, one can only marvel at his abiding interest in the subject and his complex methodology. The concert program itself is a pastiche of motifs, none of which are drawn in a completed form. The dancers, cafe-concert diva, and the musical instruments - all theatrical props familiar within Degas' repertoire (figs . 11 and 12) - are shown as cropped pictorial elements. The images, tending toward caricatures, are economically rendered with judicious touches of shading and there is little attempt to model forms. Even in this simple statement, however, the artist could not resist placing some of his favorite themes into precise diagonal arrangements, giving the design an overall impression of liveliness and vigor. It is possible that the male head is a portrait of

Moliere, author of one of the evening's selections (number nine on the program) . Only the significance of the group of boats and smoking stacks is less certain; probably they were to remind the viewer of the port of Nantes, first city of Brittany at the mouth of the Loire River and home of the lycee for which the benefit was being given.10 In the same way that the soiree was a presentation of excerpts from the ballet, music, and theater, so Degas extracted and assembled a variety of eye-catching vignettes. From the age of twenty, Degas owned a ticket to the Paris Opera and eventually obtained a pass to the closed rehearsals. His devotion to the corps de ballet, the musicians, the performers, and to those who waited behind the scenes is well documented . Many of these theatrical artists, as well as those who starred in the Com edi e Fran\:aise and outdoor cafes, were his friends and one of them may have persuaded Degas to design a cover for the Lycee de Nantes. These

Figure 9. Mlle Salle en Costume du 'Fandango' et Eludes de Bra s et de ]ambes, 1884, pastel. Mu see du Louvre.

Figure 10. Dancer wi th a Tambourine, mid-188o's, bron ze. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, The H . 0 . Havemeye r Collection, Beq uest of Mrs. H . 0 . Haveme yer, 1929.

benefit evenings which the artists supported were frequently published in the weekly periodical, Le Menestrel, and the names of MM. Boudouresque, Merante, Jules Delsart ("eminent violoncellist"), Hasselmans ("uncontested master of the harp"), and Miles Richard (of the Opera) and Reichemberg (of the Com edie Fran~aise) were frequently mentioned. 1 ' Another source indicates that Mlle Subra was a sujet etoile of the Opera ballet and M. Merante, the eminent dancer and choreographer, was intimately associated with the Opera from 1848 until his death in 1887.12 All of these professionals, widely known in the cu ltural life of Paris, participated in the benefit concert of June 15, 1884 at the Galerie Ponsin and their roles on that special evening were permanently recorded by a respected artist. Since Degas considered his artistic life as " la vie privee," it is especially remarkable that he consented to undertake this commercial project. Usually, he kept the few impressions that he made of his prints or, on occasion, he gave one 20

or two to friends. Although the concert program was not a major work, the artist was still concerned, even seven years later, with its disposition. In an exhibition of the history of lithography held at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts on April 21, 1891 , the program was shown without Degas' permission and he wrote to M. Aglaiis Bouvenne in irritation: not dated 路[1891] Monsieur Bouvenne, So you are the exhibitor of this little programme of the co ncert at the Quais Malaquais. It was with surprise and anger that I read your name on the cata logue . So you did not think that you lacked my consent. You were not, I very much fear, at the concert and it is not from there that you received the proof. It is more than probable that, over and above the copies ordered and paid for by M . Clemenceau who directed the fete, you had your own copy printed. It was an excellent reason to keep it in a box , or not to take it out without my consent. I should not have given it

Figure 11. The Orchestra of the Op era, 1868-69, oil on canvas. Musee du Louvre.

to you, and the idea of being represented in this lithographic revue by this unique piece would have seemed like a joke to me. I insist, on all occasions to appear, as far as possible, in the form and with the accessories that I like. I can scarcely compliment you on your strange sans ge ne . My friend M. Alexis Rouart, who is, I think, on the committee, did not think that he could exhibit an attempt by Mlle Cassatt without writing to her. She replied that she would permit it. You did not show the same consideration. Be good enough to have the six lithographic stones, that the maison Lemercier lent me some years ago for some attempts, fetched from 37 rue Victor-Masse. Very fortunately there is nothing at all on them . I have the honour, Monsieur, to salute you . Degas 1 3 It is evident that D egas took great pains with this project, and the Gardner drawings along with the subsequent studies and prints reconfirm

Figure 1 2. Th e Cafe-Concert at Les Ambassadeurs, ca. 1876, pastel over monotype. Musee des BeauxArts, Lyons .

without question his need to exploit technically and conceptually an artistic situation. The whimsical and spirited quality of the sheet suggests that Degas may have considered this a recreation piece - one that he enjoyed but that remains, nevertheless, a curiosity in his enormous production. Of equal interest is the reason Mrs . Gardner requested and acquired these particular drawings . One can only surmise that she was attracted by the poses and gestures of the figures, by the illustrative concept, and, perhaps also, by the basic subject matter and purpose which appealed to her profound interest in music. Barbara Stern Shapiro Assistant Curator D epartment of Prints, Drawings and Photographs Museum of Fin e Arts, Boston

21

Technical Note Both drawings were executed in what appears to be a moderately soft black chalk. In addition, firm strokes of grap hite appear on top of many of the lines in the second drawing (fig. 2). When studied under magnification, the charai::teristic sheen of the graphite, together with the impression of the graphite point into the paper, permit a close comparison with the lines of the softground etching and confirm that the second drawing is the transfer drawing. The first drawing is on a thin transparent tracing paper with no discernible texture of its own (fig. 1). A subtle pattern of closely spaced horizontal lines is, however, visible at several places in the drawing and corresponds to the surface on which the sheet lay when the drawing was executed. In this case, the proportions of the pattern and its rather mechanical nature resemble the textural appearance of a sheet of laid paper and, considering the transparency of the tracing paper, it suggests that Degas may have done this sketch with an earlier version beneath. The second drawing is on a very thin white wove paper, probably machine made (fig. 2) . Having a more pronounced texture than the paper of the first drawing, it could more easily catch and retain the pigment particles of the chalk, so that individual lines reflect the subtle variations of pressure from the artist's hand, and the drawing as a whole shows a wider tonal range. One unusual aspect of this drawing is the pale lines that appear in the face of the man at the right, as well as a sketchy image of a head below . At first it was suspected that these lines were the result of a transfer of a pigmented softground onto the verso of the drawing, as often happens when preparing a softground etching. Unfortunately, the drawing is glued to a second sheet of 22

paper so the back could not be examined directly; however, the transfer procedure should have left some evidence of a tool on the surface of the drawing. Exa mination under a microscope confirmed that the lines are on the verso, but revealed neither traces of graphite nor the impression of a tool on the recto . The lines, therefore, were drawn directly on the verso and it is tempting to surmise that, having taken an initial impression of the plate, Degas turned over his drawing and refined his original image, visible through the thin tissue, but seen in reverse as in the print. Both drawings bear the red stamp of Degas' signature placed on most of the works sold at the Vente Atelier Degas. The Gardner drawings were glued to the brown paper backing after the photograph s were taken for the July 1919 sale and some of the wrinkles and tears probably occurred at that time. Roy Perkinson, Conservator and Elizabeth Lunning, Assistant Conservator Department of Prints, Drawings and Photographs . Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

NOTES

Catalogue des tableaux, pastels et dessins par Edgar D egas e t provenant de son atelier ... , Paris, Galerie Georges Petit: Vente I, May 16-18, 1918; Vente II, December 11-13, 1918; Vente III, April 7-9, 1919; Vente IV, July 2-4, 1919. Estampes par

1

Edgar Degas . . . , Pa ri s, Galeri e M an zi-Joyant, November 22, 23, 1918 ; and two separate sales of works by other a rti sts in th e collection of Edgar Degas, March 26, 27, 1918 a nd November 6, 7, 1918 . 2 P. J. Sachs, Th e Pock et Book of Great D rawings, New York, p. 108.

3 Carter became the directo r of the mu seum a ft er Mrs. Gardner' s death in 1924. The list included in his letter of 9 June 1919 refers to i terns in the sale held July 2-4 and read s as follow s: 4. Tete de cheval [Mrs. G ardner must have changed her mind as this is crossed out.] 28. a) Route a l'entree d'une foret b) Sous-bois. Pastel 65. c) Reunion de personnages devant un palais [crossed out] *66. a) La sortie du pesage. Plutot ceci que numero 65; et plutot ceci que tout a utre. b) Cortege 151. Trois danseu ses [crossed out] 208. Four drawings of horses . 229. a) Jockey a cheval b) Cheval 258. a) Programme de la Soiree arti stique du 1 5 juin 1884. b) Etude pour le m eme programme *305 . Danseuses evoluant./ Second choice 377. Apres la course; jockey a cheval Nos. 66 a and b, 229 a and b, and 258 a and b were acquired. 4 The two prints were fir st catalogued by L. Delteil, Edgar Degas : Le peintre-grave ur illu stre, Paris, 1919, 9, nos. 40 and 58 respectively. Only a few impressions of the softground etching are known including the one illustrated here which wa s probably printed posthumously from the cancelled plate. (In 1959, the Frank Perls Gallery, California, had a small edition printed by Lacouriere in Paris on Vi eux ]apon from a group of cancelled plates.) The presently known impressions of the rare lithograph are found in the following : Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris ; Bibliotheque d' Art et Archeologie, Paris; City Art Museum, St. Louis ; Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton; Private Collection, Boston ; Kornfeld and Klipstein sale catalogue, 1978, lot no. 218 (formerly Beurdeley collection noted by Delteil) . Seven impressions were listed in the same sale as the Gardner drawings, Vente IV, 385 a and b - 390.

5

P. A. Lem oisne (D egas et son oeuv re, Paris,

1947-49, no. 689) ca talogued the pas tel as Danseu se Espagno le et etu des de jamb es; L. Browse (Degas Da ncers, London, 1949, pl. 173) identifi ed it as Mll e Sall e en Costum e du ' Fandango' . . . and (p. 393)

n o ted the relation ship between the pa stel and the concert program . 6

T . Reff , Th e Notebooks of Edgar D egas, O xford,

1976, 1, p . 146 : Notebook 37, p. 5.

7 C. W . Millard, T he Scu lptu re of Edgar D egas, P rince ton, 1976, p. 24. All the sculpture is reproduced in J. Rewa ld, D egas, Works in Sculp tu re, a Com plete Catalogu e, New York, 1944, 1957. 8 For a di scussion of D egas' lithogra phs see W . M . lttmann, Jr., Li thographs by Edg ar Degas, exhib . cat., St. Louis, 1967. 9 An examina ti on of the softground etching proves conclusively th a t th ere is no aqua tint as stated by D elteil, o p. cit., no . 40 . I am indebted to Edith Schmidt who resea rched the concert program and concluded tha t there wa s no connection betwee n the seaport illustrations and the works being presented.

10

Le M enes trel: journal du monde musical, musique et thea tre, Paris, 1833-1937 (not published 1870-71 and 1914-1919). Although the concert that interes ts us here was not specifically noted, the wee kly iss ue fo r June, 1 884 proves the established professional reputation of the performers.

11

12

Browse, op. cit ., pp. 70 and 53 respectively.

D ega s Letters, M . Guerin, ed. and M. Kay, trans., O xford, 1947, pp. 176, 177, letter 173. The date, 1891, is sugges ted for the follo wing note on a vi siting card (ib id., p . 177, letter 174) : " Dear Monsieur Bouvenne, If the stone of my little programme ha s not been effac ed, please be good enough to have ten copies printed. See you soon, Degas ." Based on the writer' s tone and the nature of the request, it does not seem rea sonable to place this note within the same time period. M . Bouvenne must ha ve had some part in the printing of the edition and more th an likely, thi s note should be placed closer to the project date of 1884 . Evidently there was anothe r sm all printing made by Lemercier after the concert ; perha ps these are the impressions that appear in the collection of Degas' friends as mentioned by Delteil, op . cit., no. 58. 13

23

Berenson and Mrs. Gardner: the Connoisseur, the Collector and the Photograph

Fenway Court is, perhaps, the most enchanting tribute ever paid to Italian culture.1 Ye t the way that this ex traordinary collection was formed has only begun to be explored. Th e fortunes Mrs. Gardner inherited from her fa ther in 1891 and her husband in 1898 gave her the wherewithal to be a great collector. The advice she needed was provided, after 1894, by a you thful protege soon to become the foremost authority on Italian painting - Bernard Berenson. Nevertheless, Mrs. Gardner's capital resources were small (five million dolla rs) compared with those of such rivals as Morgan and Frick in New York and the Wideners in Philadelphia. To compete with these wealthier collectors in the market for masterpieces, she had to act quickly and decisively. Because time was short, Isabella, in America, and Berenson, in Europe, adopted two modem inventions to hasten the normally slow and cumbersome process of acquiring a work of art. The first of these wa s the telegraph . Berenson instructed Mrs. Gardner to relay her decision about each offer by cabling yes or no in a pre-arranged code. The other technological innovation they used, the one that forms the subject of this article, was photography. Already in the mid-nineteenth century, the apparent accuracy of photographs had led to their almost immediate use in reproducing works of art and architecture. While the artistic merits of photographs were debated, few critics thought to question their value as visual records. The very traits that tainted them as creative art their objectivity and reproducibility - made them ideally suited as documents. It was an established custom Mrs . Gardner was uncharacteristically following when, as a sightseer, she obtained photographs as souvenirs. The other way she used photographs of works of art, systematically as part of her collecting activity, was unprecedented . Among the first generation of scholars who took to photography, Berenson in particular

em braced it as the es sen ti al if " uncer tain instrument" of modern connoisseurship. His deep interest in the photography of art led him to write intelligently about it in Th e Nation in 1893. 2 Berenson also turned to photography to aid him in his role as agent for Mrs. Gardner. It oft en happened that on the basis of a photograph supplied by Berenson (fig. 1), Mrs. G ardner, separated from the actual work of art, had to decide whether or not to acquire it. Not unlike some present-day student of the iconography of the Passion, Mrs. Gardner made a judgement, albeit a different one, about the Christ Bearing the Cross. Without having seen it, she purchased the picture, as by Giorgione, in 1898. In this way Berenson was responsible fo r most of the Italian paintings at Fenway Court. The period of rapid acquisition occurred du ring the years just before the legendary opening of the museum on New Year's Day in 190 3. The majority of the paintings thus acquired in so short a time were chosen by Mrs. Gardner, not from any first-hand acq uaintance with the originals but, as I have explained, fro m photographs. Berenson found it necessary, therefore, to assess the reliability of photographs as records of the wo rks in question. His correspondence wi th M ~s. Gardner, though incomplete, contains an illumina ting early acco unt of the relation photographs bear to the paintings they purport to rep roduce.3 The photographs discussed and illustrated here are not the ones Berenson sent Mrs. Gardner, which no longer exist. Made from the same negatives as hers, they are p rin ts which Berenson retained for study purposes . They come from his Villa I Tatti . When Mrs . Gardner acquired a picture, she evidently d isposed of the photograph of it she had received . Thus, pho tographs of this sort still at Fenway Cour t mos tly record works which Mrs . Gardner only considered . We must remember too, in comparing the photographs from I

Figure 1. Early photograph of Christ Bearing th e Cros s. Villa I Tatti, Harvard University Center for Italia n Renaissa nce Studies, Florence.

Figure 2. Early photograph of Fra Angelico, D ormition and Assumption of the Virgin. Villa I Tatti, Florence.

Figure 3. Early photograph of Pintoricchio, Madonna and Chi ld. Villa I Tatti, Florence.

Figure 4. Early photograph of Raphael , Lamentation. Villa I Tatti, Florence.

Tatti with the related paintings at. Fenway Court, that the paintings have since undergone changes of time and treatment. Their present condition does not correspond, therefore, precisely to the way they looked when they were photographed. Thus Berenson' s remarks may be reported but not analyzed in detail in relation to the paintings. Previewing paintings from photographs, Mrs. Gardner was better off than Catherine II of Russia. Little more than a century earlier, Isabella's predecessor had formed her own collection, again from a distance, partly on the basis of reproductive engravings. At first, Mrs. Gardner occasionally relied on the same method. Trying to interest her in Rubens' Portrait of the Earl of Arundel - which he succeeded in doing - Berenson wrote Isabella on June 22, 1896, " I enclose an engraving for there is no photograph." The advantage of photographs was that, more accurate than engravings, they eliminated the need for elaborate description. Writing about [the Gardner] A n nunciation on April 7 1900, Berenson would "say nothing more about this picture for the photograph will tell you more than I can of the purity of the line, of the enchanting perspective, of the stately elegance of the architecture, & of the infinite grace of the Madonna. 1

The colouring is clear & transparent, the condition excellent." Photographs, moreover, facilitated the comparison of geographically distant works of art. On another occasion in 1896, Berenson proposed a Bellini M adonna. " What it is in expression1 grouping, and composition the photograph I am sending will show you," he said 1 " but its colour is something unequalled even among Bellini's works ... I permit myself to dream of what your collection shall be and therein a Bellini must have its place." Of another such Madonna (now in the Metropolitan Museum), Berenson als.o included a photograph, so that " you may compare the two." It is inevitable, perhaps, that since he was trying to persuade Mrs. Gardner to purchase the works he offered, Berenson found that photographs distorted the beauty of the original. He applied a second level of discrimination when dealing with them in his work. About a Dormition and Assumption of the Virgin attributed to Fra Angelico, which Colnaghi's had from an aristocratic English collector, Berenson complained to Mrs. Gardner on February 22, 1899, that the " photograph is an exceedingly libellous one [fig. 2], making it seem that the picture is full of dark shadows, but quite the contrary, it is all radiant

Figure 5. Early photograph of Bellini and Titian, Feast of the Gods. Villa I Tatti, Florence.

& golden like spring flowers in a clear sky ." Berenson' s rhapsodic account underscored the failure of the photograph (now cut at the top) to capture the brilliance of the picture. Berenson made the same objection to a photograph of a Madonna and Child by Pintoricchio (fig. 3), which, he claimed in a letter of November 17, 1901, "was done in a bad light, has come out very dark, & coarsened & blurred the effects of exquisite delicacy." Here, I think, we must question whether the photograph does not portray the picture more honestly than do Berenson' s words. Though the tonal values are admittedly too obscure, the photograph does betray the sketchiness of execution actually found in the painting. In so far as they were accurate, then, the photographs Berenson sent had a cautionary value, that of controlling his enthusiastic descriptions. A photograph of a predella panel with the Lamentation from Raphael's Colonna altarpiece was, Berenson told Mrs. Gardner on October 25, 1900, " unhappily a caricature [fig. 4] . Being a

jewel of the most exquisite delicacy no photograph could do it the slightest justice, & least of all the one I enclose which is the exact size of the original. Now photographs that are the exact size of the original have an advantage in that they show every touch as the picture itself would, but have the immense disadvantage caused by the actinic rays of coarsening the outlines & blackening the shadows. I have wired for a smaller photograph, but as there is not a moment to delay, I must send you this one, begging you to make every allowance, & to use your imagination." A photograph reports information about the condition of an object of which we are not always aware in the presence of the original. Mrs. Gardner seems to have agreed with Berenson that a large photograph of a small painting exaggerates this aspect, for less than a month later she acquired the panel, through Berenson, from Colnaghi' s. On July 15, 1916, the English dealer Arthur Sulley sent Berenson an overall photograph and

27

Figure 6. Early detail

photograph of Feast of the Gods, Villa I Tatti, Florence.

three details of a picture that he had just acquired (figs. 5 and 6). Early the following year, Sulley sent prints of the same photographs to Mrs. Gardner, complaining that they didn' t " show the painting to advantage" (letter to Berenson, January 11, 1917) . Though, in the new scale of values, costly paintings were now being sent to collectors on approval, during World War I, works of art could not be shipped to America without risk. Berenson had already written Mrs . Gardner on November 26, 1916, hinting about this wonderful picture that " would crown your collection .. . The only trouble is that even I could not get it for you under half a million dollars . . . If you could afford such a sum . .. you shall receive photographs & all the information." 28

By January 7, 191 7, Berenson was able to confide to Mrs. Gardner that a world-renowned masterpiece, hitherto inaccessible in the Duke of Northumberland' s collection at Alnwick Castle, was at stake : the great Feast of the Gods, painted by Bellini and Titian for the Duke of Ferrara. " As for its artistic value," Berenson said he could "only subscribe to what Mary [his wife] tells you in the pages I enclose . .. So read what she says & let it colour the photographs that are being sent to you - photographs unusually inadequate because made in bad light & printed on bad paper. But I am confident that if you see the original you will not find Mary's rhapsody over it the least bit exaggerated." He went on, " As I go over the treasures of your collection & dwell on them one

Figure 7. Detail of Feast of the Gods. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

by one, I need not tell you with what admiration and loving recollection. I nevertheless can call up nothing of the profound artistic completeness, of the aesthetic significance, or of the historical importance of this Bacchanal ... So I conclude that if you can possibly see your way to paying for it, you will be crowning the work of your life by acquiring this canvas . . . If you can't manage it at all, please wire 'Berenson. Settignano. Impossible.' If by a miracle you can manage it, cable 'Berenson. Settignano. Will take the English picture.' In her fine appreciation of the picture, Mary Berenson aptly observed that the "interpretation of the theme has an unexpectedness & originality that make you realize it is the result of the brooding & dreaming of a great mind ." Mary claimed that "there is something in the picture deeper & more haunting than the beauty that meets the eyes. The painting has in it the thrill that certain voices have when they sing airs that we know, but, over & beyond, the melody here is in a new mode, with intervals and cadences of poetry that no written literature prepares us for ... Such a picture seems to say 'Sell all thou hast & follow Me.' I wish you could really see it! I knew the photographs very well, but they in no way whatsoever prepared me for the reality."

A week later (January 15, 1 917), Mary wrote again, " We hear that photographs of the great Bellini have gone to you, but it seems the only photographs existing or procurable now, in wartime, are a set made in a hurry for [B.B.J, which Mr. Sulley thinks will surely frighten you. That of the whole picture looks stained & marked, & in the others the varnish looks cracked and worn effects which completely vanish when you see the picture in the right light." Mary might have objected too that the photographs do not convey the tonality of the painting, at least in its present state. They have a dull flat look that also fails to do justice to Bellini' s and Titian' s handling . Though absent in the photograph, the specific quality of the paint surface is crucially important in this work of collaboration. Titian, for instance, conspicuously left a bit of bravura brushwork on the sleeve of Jupiter that is a virtual signature (fig. 7). As it turned out, Isabella could not afford the painting, which eventually came to the National Gallery, Washington, with the Widener bequest, in 1942 . The use to which Berenson and Mrs . Gardner put photographs in collecting anticipates what has happened in the field of scholarship : we often study a work of art through photographs before we see it . The photograph has even come to stand for the original - so much so that we speak of a photographic way of seeing art . We might call what Berenson and Mrs. Gardner accomplished a photographic way of collecting. But we should also remember that they were both careful to distinguish between the need to use photographs and the experience of the actual work of art, for which there is no substitute.

/1

David Alan Brown Curator of Early Italian Painting National Gallery of Art NOTES

This paper was presented at the annual meeting of the College Art As sociation in Washington, D. C., 1979. 2 B. Berenson, " Isochromatic Photography and Venetian Pictures," Th e Nation , 57, November 9, 1893, pp. 346-7. 3 Roger Fry performed the same service for another early collector of Italian primitives, John G . Johnson of Philadelphia (L etters of Roger Fry, Denys Sutton, ed., New York, 1972, no. 155). 1

Altamura: the Enigma

1

Court life in Renaissance Ferrara, as one imagines it, was a life of splendor, of festivals and pageants on one hand, and secret and intellectual pleasures embodied in riddles, poetry and masques on the other. Something of this mixture inspired Mrs. Gardner and was encouraged by her young friend and advisor Bernard Berenson. Her entertainments on Beacon Street, polished in Venice at her salon at the Palazzo Barbaro, reached a crescendo in the triumphal opening night at the museum. Although she never aspired to that grandeur again, smaller revels continued, and Fenway Court was an intimate setting for music, theater and even a mock Japanese village festival assembled for a benefit. New friends were made

Figure

1.

who appealed to her sense of intellectual gaiety. In a recent Fenway Court, Andrew Gray drew a picture of the festivities on Eastern Point, Gloucester: the code names, costumes and surprises in which Mrs. Gardner, after 1907, was an honored participant. 1 In the same year that she discovered Eastern Point, she took her last trip abroad and returned to supervise construction of an extraordinary building which enclosed the garden behind the museum. Plans in the museum's archives show a building with four stories and a clock set into the garden fa i;:ade, recalling a street scene of a small Italian town in the sixteenth century (fig. 1). This was never built. In its place Mrs . Gardner constructed a building of the same yellow brick

Plan for a carriage house at Fenway Court. Museum archives.

31

Figure 2. Fenw~y Court, ca. 1907, with new carriage house at right.

as the museum, but with a fa<;:ade on the street side rising to sixty-five feet and made up of Italian motifs (fig. 2). A newspaper account with a photograph referred to it as a storehouse with the fa<;:ade of a monastery to hold objects for which the museum had no room (fig. 3). That must have amused Mrs. Gardner almost as much as an earlier newspaper report in which Fenway Court was said to have been imported brick by brick from Florence. It was in fact a carriage house with storage space and an apartment above. No plans or written references to the unusual fa<;:ade were left in the museum and this "garage" passed as another of Mrs. Gardner's inventions as she had already shown a penchant for original architectural designs. About nine years ago I came upon a postcard in the museum archives, dated 4 May 1907, which bore the cryptic remark: " This is the real Altamura - delightful all the same," signed by Berenson, Mary Berenson, Carlo Placci, a friend and frequent traveling companion, and Placci' s nephew, Henraux. On the reverse is a picture of the thirteenth-century town gate in the small Italian community of Altamura, twenty-seven

miles west of Bari in the Apuglia (fig. 4). Here was the model for the fa<;:ade which Mrs. Gardner erected in Boston, the double doors serving as an entrance from the alley that ran behind the property. (The alley and adjacent lot were purchased by the museum's Trustees in 1927.) Still the question remained, why should the architectural fragment have had such an interest for Mrs . Gardner? Was it connected with her own travels or some incident in 路 history, or merely an impulsive and whimsical act? The answer seemed forever lost. A few years ago, the late Professor Myron Gilmore of Harvard, former director of the Center of Italian Renaissance Studies in Florence, the former Berenson Villa I Tatti, sent me the typescript of a speech on the Berensons he delivered to the American Philosophieal Society. In it he called attention to The Golden Urn , three small pamphlets privately printed by Berenson, Mary and her brother Logan Pearsall Smith, whom BB had known at Harvard and who had moved to Fiesole in 1896. The three Americans passed long nights in literary discussions, not unfamiliar ground for BB who had written for

HOSTO~.

SFNDAY. DECE)IHEH 8,

MRS. GARDNER'S LATEST ACTIVITY

STOREHOUSE BUILT COSTLY AS PALACE Mystery of New Building at J Mrs, John S. Gardner's Fenway Cou rt So lved ' T h!' qu ,..st ion

is

a n s w e r Pd

I

The Upper

Ph~tograph

Shows the Re a r Southern Wall of Mrs. John

L 'I

Gardner's Fenway Museum, Ab o ut Wh i ch There Has Been No End cf Speculation . The Lower Picture Is a Reproduction of the Lion of Mark's, Which Has Been I nserted in One of the Upper Walls.

at Inst.

Figu re 3. Boston Herald, D ecember 8, 1907.

'' -4.D'A.ltt.lofoiot. ed.ltoni

Figure 4. Postcard of Altamura. Museum archives.

the Harvard Monthly and had once thought that his career lay in literary criti cism . The first issue appeared in May 1897, the third and last some twelve months later. Bertrand Russell, married to Logan and Mary' s sister, was the only other contributor. This last issue, in the words of Berenson' s biographer Ernest Samuels, " was an elegant and m ellifluously phrased fantasy which burlesq u ed th e life of exquisite sensation and lofty thinking of Bernard and M ary's Fiesole circle." 2 Its title was " Altamura." Altamura, in the minds of Logan and Berenson, was an imaginary English Monas tery in the remote mountains of Italy, where days were passed in poetry, song and philosophy, and festivals invoked the great writers of antiquity. D edicated to " the contemplation of Nature . . . the study of their sacred books, the devout worship of those grea t forces and persons and works of art in which the Spirit of Being has b een most splendidly mani fest," the monastic community believed that " by real and devout enjoyment, the burden of th e world's joylessness can be, in som e way, abated." 3 " Have you received the last number of The Golden Urn?" Berenson wrote Mrs . Gardner on 31 July 1898. " Read the acco unt of Altamura. You are the only person in the world who can really live it - indeed you do already. Should anything like it b e realized on earth you must be the first visiting Monarch ." Although h er response is lost, in his n ext letter Berenson wrote to thank h er for " the perfectly charming ack34

nowledgement ... I was sure you, at all events, would appreciate it, & of course you have." Whether she visited the real Altamura is not known, but within ten years Mrs. Gardner's tribute to the authors of Th e Golden Urn was in brick and mortar as a threefold conundrum: Altamura, meaning high walls; Altamura, the Italian city built by Frederick II, its gate the Porta di Bari leading off the Piazzale Unita d'Italia; and Altamura, the gate to Berenson's " Shangri-La" which was Isabella's dream of Fenway Court. It was not her last architectural riddle. When a fireplace was added to the Raphael Room, the chimney on the front of the building was set out (much as they are in Venice) rising on either side of a bay window on the fourth floor. From the street it forms the letter Y, for Isabella, in the old Spanish spelling, a form of address used by certain friends (fig. 5). Anyone who 路enters the museum may read the stone plaque on this chimney which is inscribed: Th e Isab ella Stewart Gardner Museum in th e Fenway MDCCCC. Those who venture to the opposite side see Altamura, the way to real and devout enjoyment. Rollin van N. Hadley

NOTES

A. Gray, "A New England Bloomsbury," Fenway Court 1974, Boston, 1975, pp. 1-4.

1

E. Samuels, Bernard Berenson: The Making of a Connoisseur, Boston, 1979, p. 273.

2

3

Ibid .

Figure 5. Chimney attached to the front of the Museum.

Report of the President

Following this report there appears a brief biographical note on George Stout, who served as director of this museum for 15 years. George retired as director eight years before his death, and he and Margaret sought a more forgiving climate on the West Coast in Menlo Park, California. This meant, unfortunately, that few of us saw them after they left Boston. However, we did communicate, and there would appear from time to time, usually at Christmas, an affectionate and decorative greeting from the Stouts with a drawing by Margaret and a message or poem written by George. Regardless of communications, those of us who served as Trustees while George was director have continued to be influenced by him since he retired. He set for us an example of caring for this museum that went beyond meticulous stewardship because he loved and enjoyed every part of it so much. We cannot forget his special brand of integrity, which showed in his modesty, his dry and sometimes rueful wit, the exacting standards he set for himself, and especially in his disdain for any kind of pretense. We will remember George Stout vividly, with respect and affection, and do our best to see that his influence persists. The Note on th e Organ ization of the Museum that has appeared in previous Annual Reports has been omitted this year because our structure has been simplified. In 1900 Mrs . Gardner formed The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in the Fenway, Incorporated, to hold some of her works of art. When she died she gave the stock of this corporation, along with Fenway Court itself, the rest of her works of art and an endowment for

the museum, to the Trustees under h er will, now The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Incorporated . We recently terminated the existence of the Fenway Corporation by merging it into its parent. As has been noted before, we have reached the point where endowment income is not enough to pay the inflated costs of running the museum . Our first call for help has been to the visitors, who are asked to give something at the door, whether it is ten dollars or a penny. Most of them do give more than a token amount, and thanks to their generosity ($91,068 in 1978), our 1978 books were balanced without a deficit. Now we will ask for support from a broader group . We will invite people to become members and make annual contributions, not primarily for the sake of privileges such as invitations to special occasions and discounts on publications (although there will b e such) , but mainly to help take the responsibility for a local and national resource - the building, the collection, the flowers, and the music that go together to make Mrs. Gardner' s museum a unique and wonderful treasure. As a good director should, George Stout regarded it as one of his duties to select and indoctrinate a worthy successor. In this, as in other museum affairs, George was highly successful. All of us who serve as Trustees truly admire and are grateful to the director and staff for the scholarly and appreciative care they give to this priceless museum. Malcolm D. Perkins

37

George Leslie Stout 1897-1978

George Leslie Stout was born in Winterset, Iowa in 1897 and died in Menlo Park, California last July. During World War I he served in a field hospital in France. He returned to Iowa to take his Bachelor's Degree at the University in 1921, during which time he and a friend expanded the student n ewspaper to make it the city newspaper as well. Between 1921 and 1924 he was an instructor in Graphic and Plastic Arts at the State University of Iowa. In 1924 he married Margaret H ays and took a two-year lectureship at the University of Pittsburgh . Following a year of travel and painting abroad, h e and Margaret settled in Cambridge where George had a Carnegie Fellowship at Harvard University. H e received his Master's Degree in 1929, during which time he was a Fellow for Research at the Fogg Art 路Museum . H e was in charge of the D epartment of Conservation there from 1933 to 1947, director of the Worcester Art Museum fro m 1947 to 1954, and director of the Gardner Museum from 1955 to 1970. During World War II he played an important role as one of the senior officers in the Monuments and Fine Arts Commission in the European Theatre and later in Japan. Tom Howe's book Salt Min es and Castles recounted the story of the work of the Commission in Europe, a book which George referred to as the " Rover Boys Abroad ." It is fair to say that durin g the 3o's and 4o's George had more influence on conservation in this country than any other single individual. Encouraged and backed by Edward Forbes, director of the Fogg, he and Rutherford B. Gettens, a chemist with whom he shared an office, established a laboratory training program and the Journal of Technical Studies in the Field of the Arts, to which they contrib uted frequently . Together they wrote Painting Materials, a fundamental book still widely used. George's other books are The Care of Pictures and Trea sures from the Isab ella Stewart Gardner Museum. He was editor for a collection of essays entitled Color and Ligh t in Paintings. When the program

for conservation was b egun at New York University, he was a trustee. He was honored by the American Institute for Conservation for his long and influential service to his field, and received an honorary doctorate from Clark University in Worcester. In retirem ent he was consultant to several museums on the West Coast. George first became associated with the Gardner Museum in 1933 when the museum built a labo ratory and he became conservator, dividing his time between the Gardner Museum and the Fogg Art Museum. In 1955 he returned from Worcester as the director of this museum, the fi rst one appointed by the Trustees ; his predecessor, Morris Carter, was appointed by Mrs. Gardner. His success here and in Worcester was marked by a quiet attention to detail of which the public was often unaware, as for example the humidity system for the Gardner Museum, installed shortly aft er h e became director and long before other larger museums had seriously considered the problems of climate control. He was an ardent member of the Art Museum Directors Association which he served in various capacities, including one term as its president. Those of us who were lucky enough to work with him remember his immense integrity, carried with humility and never with righteousness. He had assimilated the Bostonian's dry sense of humor and a certain stoicism, both of which suited his methods of administration. Due to an ailment, he was advised by his doctor to walk about five miles a day, and this he did in rain or shine. On Sunday he would walk from the museum to the center of Boston to attend King's Chapet where for a number of year路s he served on the vestry. To many he was a generous friend and advisor, and to them and to the professions he served no one will ever take his place. The art world is diminished by his loss, as it was for more than half a century the beneficiary of his endeavors. Rollin van N . Hadley

Report of the Director

One of the remarkable aspects of the museum is the amount of publicity it receives from appreciative visitors. Among the many articles and photographs in newspapers and magazines last year, far and away the most rewarding was the May issue of Connoisseur . The entire issue was devoted to the Gardner Museum with eight articles chosen by the staff and written by scholars familiar with the collections. Copies of Connoisseur, hard bound and with supplementary photographs, are available at the museum's sales desk. In 1977, the Trustees instituted the system used by the Metropolitan Museum in New York in which each visitor is asked to make a contribution. While the added income has been gratifying, attendance figures have been disappointing. Contributions in twelve months came to $91,068 or about $.74 per person. Unfortunately attendance fell by 30,608, in part, one suspects, because of the misunderstanding by many who did not realize that a contribution in any amount was acceptable. This confusion was compounded by various publications that reported a one dollar admission charge. Early figures from 1979 suggest that the trend has now reversed, and attendance is on the rise. A comparison of two years follows:

Weekdays Sundays Special Visits

1978

1977

81,291 38,685 3,237 123,213

116,938 35,185 1,698 153,821

The present contribution system for casual visitors favors those who wish to return often. Soon the museum will offer loyal supporters a chance to become members. In a period of increasing inflation, the Trustees have been anxious to protect the endowment for the long term. A

Trustee committee has examined membership practice in other institutions and a program compatible with the museum' s objectives will be offered in the fall. A cafe for light refreshments was built in the space near the sales desk, beginning in August. It was opened to the staff in December and will be available to visitors as soon as a zoning variance has been obtained. Caterers for special visits may also use the space, and several groups have had lunch there following morning tours . Designed by Marion Smith, the room has a pleasing view of the Monks' Garden where a terrace was added outside the window-wall for extra seating in favorable weather. The room is convenient and attractive, and has met with an enthusiastic reception. Two additions to the museum' s program, the book show and the colloquium, are covered by the curator in her report. In both cases the staff worked long and hard to assure their success, and the results are still being discussed among those who attended. The search for ways to save energy and reduce utility bills produced several small changes and a review of larger proposals. The search continues for a method to insulate the glass roof over the courtyard, while a simple and inexpensive solution has been proposed for the greenhouses which will be adopted next fall. On 26 April a symposium on the new State Lighting Code was held in the Tapestry Room. Sponsored by the Massachusetts Energy Policy Office, it provided institutions with new guidelines restricting electric light use in buildings other than private dwellings. A seminar conducted by Massachusetts Institute of Technology Professor Timothy Johnson on energy saving met at the museum in the spring and was followed by another meeting at the M .I.T. Solar House attended by staff members. 41

Cafe at the Gardner Museum.

The museum was open for the following special visits by non-profit organizations: 27 January

Eastern Section, American Federation of Clinical Research (200)

26 February

Massachusetts Arts & Humanities Foundation (250)

29 M arch

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Executive Department, Governor's Office (225)

7 April

Graduate School, Wheelock College (300) America n College of Physicians (200)

1 5 April 24 May 8 June 28 Ju ne

29 August

42

Vassar College, Admission s Office (300) A m erica n Diabetes Association, New England Affiliate (300) Beth Israel Hospital National Governors Conferen ce (70)

15 O ctober

Italian Culture Commission of The Sons of Italy in America (300)

20 O ctober

Harvard Business School Wives (200-225)

27 O cto ber

Simmon s College Center for Blood Research

19 November

20 D ecember

(450) (300)

Tufts University Cancer Research Center an d H ematology Division (175)

In April, the Bach Society Orchestra, made up of Harvard students and conducted by Christopher Wilkins, presented a program of Purce!,!, Bartok and Haydn in honor of Mrs . Gardner s Birthday. The traditional memorial Mass, attended by Trustees, staff and guests, was celebrated by the Rev. David Clayton, S.S.J.E. on 14 April. Music continues to contribute to the distinctive atmosphere of the museum . This year' s offerings included th e American premiere of a Polish folk opera performed by the Warsaw Chamber Opera,

a mime show with early music, and performances by faculty musicians from Michigan, Stanford, Buffalo, and North Carolina Universities. Unusual concerts were also given by the Tiguela Mockingbird (tuba, marimba and piano), the local U. S. Steel Cello group, and a solo performance on the double bass. The gardeners joined with Eleanor McPeck, landscape architect, in finishing details of her plan for the garden behind the museum, and in replacing a number of specimens in the Monks' Garden where winter kill had taken its toll. Several trees around the parking lot were lost, also. Other than that, the gardens inside and out were kept in excellent condition through the constant attention of the staff. At the Massachusetts Horticultural Society Spring Flower Show the museum won the Antoine Leuthy prize, a gold medal for best display of flowering foliage plants (open to both commercial and private gardens) and a third prize for the exhibition of cinerarias. As this exhibition was placed in a difficult corner, an unusual and striking presentation was needed. For that the museum was fortunate to have the assistance of Mrs. James Lawrence who conceived the design and installed the exhibition in cooperation with Robert MacKenzie, head gardener. The director attended the meeting of the Association of Art Museum Directors in late January, and a seminar on the new Copyright Law, at the Philadelphia Museum, in December. The curator attended the College Art Association meeting in January. Four members of the staff attended the New England Conference of the Association of Art Museums held in Newport, Rhode Island, in October. Income from the Sales Desk reached a gross figure of $36,444.25. William Evans, nightwatchman, retired from full-time work on 31 August, after ten years of service. His competence and good humor remain with us as he continues to work one day a week on the watchdesk. The following also left the staff during the year: Kenwood Cappers and John Pantano, guards ; Alfonso Walker and Timothy Smith, nightwatchmen ; Gregory Cartmell, security foreman ; Betty Farina, information desk. Eight have been engaged for regular duties : Brian Scarry, watchman ; Barbara Russell, archival assistant ; Louise Mattaliano, admissions

Palace Road during the blizzard of '78.

desk; Donald Feeney, part-time maintenance; James Sullivan, Pasquale D' Alessio, Daniel McLaughlin, Jerry Ryan, guards. Employed on restricted schedules: Laura DiCurcio, Susan McHugh, Eileen Murphy, Elizabeth Wirth. Karen Haas, who worked as a volunteer one summer, joined the staff in June. She assumed the responsibilities of Lisa Ehret who returned to university for graduate work. Monica Albrecht and Sally Horsley worked as volunteers and should be thanked for their many hours devoted to organizing and updating conservation and curatorial files. The year 1978 saw as many changes as any year since Mrs . Gardner's death, all of which demanded extra work on the part of Trustees and staff. Everyone rose to the occasion and worked tirelessly, for which the director here records his thanks. W e all have much to be proud of in the progress made during this short but significant period in the museum' s history. Rollin van N . Hadley 43

Report of the Curator Two new events that opened the museum and its collections to a wider audience were the focus of this year's activities. An exhibition of rare books, Eden and Other Gardens, was held in the Little Salon during the summer months. The exhibition was conceived by Rebecca Karo who also prepared a checklist. It included thirty-six illustrated \Jooks, representing production in Europe and the

United States from the fifteenth to the twentieth century. Illustrations of different gardens - the Garden of Eden, elaborate eighteenth-century gardens, and fanciful garden settings for children's books - offered a whimsical but tantalizing introduction to the museum's collection of rare books . The museum's paper conservator, Caroline Graboys, prepared each book for dis-

Eden and Other Gardens, an exhibition of illustrated books in the Little Salon, June 6 -

44

September 24, 1978.

play. The installation was designed by Laurence Channing who created a handsome and congenial setting with modular cases, useful in future exhibitions . Placing the exhibition in the Little Salon provided the occasion for treatment of objects in that gallery . Two of the four Chateau and Garden tapestries were washed and repaired ; the other pair will receive similar treatment shortly . Boucher's Car of V enus was cleaned and res tored by the conservator of paintings, Gabrielle Kopelman. The museum has always served the scholarly community as well as the casual visitor; this year we have strengthened these ties. In December, the Gardner sponsored the first of what we hope will be an annual event: a colloquium for art historians . Graduate students from Boston University, Harvard, Tufts, Williams College, and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst delivered papers to an audience of faculty, students, museum staff and visitors. The subjects were diverse both chronologically and culturally, ranging from sixteenth-century Persian manuscripts to late nineteenth-century American architecture, although the greatest concentration of interest was in nineteenth-century French painting. Judging from the response of the audience and the enthusiasm of the students, the program was an unqualified success. Conservation work continued in all parts of the collection. In addition to her work on Simone Martini's polyptych, reported earlier in this issue, Miss Kopelman cleaned and restored Rembrandt's Storm on the Sea of Galilee and Zurbaran's Doctor of Law, completing her work on major paintings in the Dutch Room. Objects in the collection, sculpture and furniture of diverse periods and materials, received special attention and study. Mr. Rostislav Hlopoff visited the museum in January, surveyed the furniture and made recommendations for treatment. Jack Soultanian, Senior Objects Conservator, then spent a month at Mr. Hlopoff's workshop in Cooperstown, New York, restoring two pieces of veneered furniture (F11n38, F21e17). Mr. Soultanian

also studied techniques of conserving polychrome wood sculptu re at the Institut Royal du Patrimoine Artistique in Brussels. The staff lectured to a va riety of groups this year, introducing them to the museum's hidden treasures. Susa n Sinclair described the archival holdings to the N ew England Art Librarians . Rebecca Karo and the curator organized a meeting for the Museum of Fine Arts' Print Club, speakin g on Mrs . G ardner's collection of books, prints and drawings. Deborah Gribbon

Venetian cabinet with bone inlay, 78 cm., Inv. No. F21e17, Dutch Room . Returned to exhibition after treatment in 1978.

45

Publications

GUIDE TO THE COLLECTION 1976 An illustrated guide for visitors, with a brief sketch of the founder. Highlighting the collection, room by room, with attributions and descriptions reflecting recent publications ; 2nd edition; 116 pp . Paper bound $ 2.00 Postage and $ .50 (domestic) packing $ .60 (foreign) ORIENTAL AND ISLAMIC ART IN THE ISABELLA STEWART GARDNER MUSEUM, by Ya suko Horioka, Marylin Rhie and Walter B. Denny 1975 A fully illustrated catalogue; this small collection includes sculpture, paintings, ceramics, lacquer ware, miniatures and carvings. Paper bound $ 3.50 Postage and $ .60 (domestic) packing $ .70 (foreign) EUROPEAN AND AMERICAN PAINTINGS IN THE ISABELLA STEWART GARDNER MUSEUM, by Philip Hendy 1974 A descriptive catalogue, with biographies of the artists and reproductions of all the paintings; 282 black and white illustrations, 38 color plates. $30.00 Cloth bound Posta ge and $ 2.25 (domestic) packing $ 2.50 (foreign) DRAWINGS/ISABELLA STEWART GARDNER MUSEUM, edited by Rollin van N. Hadley 1968 A small group of notable drawings ranging in date from the late fifteenth to the early twentieth century; 38 illustrations, frontispiece in color. Paper bound $ 1.25 Postage and $ .40 (domestic) packing $ .65 (foreign)

TITIAN'S RAPE OF EUROPA, by Arthur Pope A study of the composition and the mode of representation of this and related paintings; 26 illustrations; 62 pp. Cloth bound Postage and packing

$ 1.95 $ .50 (domestic) $ .65 (foreign)

ISABELLA STEWART GARDNER AND FENWAY COURT, by Morris Carter A biography of Isabella Stewart Gardner and a history of the formation of her collection by the first director of the museum; foreword by G. Peabody Gardner; illustrated; third edition. Cloth bound $ 8.oo Postage and $ .80 (domestic) packing $ 1.oo (foreign) A CHECKLIST OF THE CORRESPONDENCE OF ISABELLA STEWART GARDNER AT THE GARDNER MUSEUM Writers, composers, performers, politicians, historians, and friends from the 186o's to the 192o's, numbering over 1000 names, with a guide to the locations of collected letters in the museum; 12 pp. Paper bound $ .10 Postage and $ .15 (domestic) packing $ .40 (foreign) FENWAY COURT Illustrated articles on the collection and the archives, from Sargent's watercolors to Mrs. Gardner's trip to Bayreuth; museum reports by the president and director. Annual Reports for 1970 and 1972 through 1977 are available. Paper bound $ 2.50 (1970: $2.oo) $ .45 (domestic) Postage and packing $ .60 (foreign)

FENWAY COURT 1966-1970 Single issue, illustrated articles on the collection. A list of 22 subjects will be sent on request. 10 cents per issue. (Library discount offered only on set of 22 issues.)

New Publications SCULPTURE IN THE ISABELLA STEWART GARDNER MUSEUM, by Cornelius C. Vermeule, III, Walter Cahn and Rollin van N . Hadley 1977 An illustrated catalogue of the sculpture collection, which includes examples from the classical and medieval periods through the Renaissance to the modern era; 264 black and white illustrations . Paper bound

$ 9 .95

Cloth bound

$15 .oo

Postage and packing

$ .85 (domestic) $ 1.25 (international)

THE ISABELLA STEWART GARDNER MUSEUM 1978 A handsomely illustrated book, containing essays on the founder and the collection by the director, curator and prominent scholars ; Bo pages, 24 color plates. Cloth bound

$18.oo

Postage and packing

$ .85 (domestic) $ 1.25 (international)

A list of slides is available on request. Libraries and other educational institutions are offered a 40째/o discount on most items . Mail orders will be shipped by 4th class, book rate (domestic) or surface rates (foreign). Please

m ake check or mon ey order payable to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Mu seum . Manuscripts on subjects related to th e collection will be considered for publication . Please send proposals to the editor of publications. 47

Trustees

Staff"

Senior Obj ects Cons ervator Jack Soultanian

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Incorporated, Sole Trustee under the will of Isabella Stewart Gardner

ADMINISTRATION

A ss istant Direc tor Linda V. Hewitt

Cons ervator/ Technical Liaison Leo V. Klos, Jr.

President Malcolm D. Perkins

Curator Deborah Gribbon

Pap er Cons ervator Caroline A. Graboys

Vic e-Presi dent and Tr easurer John Lowell Gardner

Research Associate Rebecca W . Karo

Secretary James L. Terry

Elliot Forbes Mason Hammond Francis W . H a tch, Jr. James Lawrence

Director Rollin van N . Hadley

A dmin is trative A ss istant Susan Sinclair Admini strative Sec retary Hope Coolidge Co ll ec ti ons S ecre tary Karen E. Haas Photograph er Joseph B. Pratt Director of Music Johanna Giwosky Docents Marie L. Diamond Judith E. Hanhisalo Clara S. Monro e Phyllis London Sales Clerk Loren L. Benson CONSERVATION

Conse rv ator o f Paintings Gabrielle Kopelman Cons ervato r o f T extiles Yvonne A. A. Cox A ssistant Conse rvator, T extiles Marjorie R. Bullock Cons erva tio n Assistant, T extiles Marlene Eidelheit

SECURITY AND MAIN T EN A NCE

Supervisor of Buildings John F. Niland S ecurity Foreman Patrick McCollum Maint enance Foreman Alfred J. Smith Sh op T echnician Michael Finnerty MAINTENANCE AND WATCH

Robert Anderson Elizabeth Bing Patrick Burns Stephen F. Duffe William Evans Donald Feeney Robert French Thomas King Thomas Little Paul W . McCurdy Yvonne Mercer Joseph Miniutti Patrick T. Niland Jonathan Randolph Brian Scarry Pieter Vanderbeck GUARDS

Maurice B. Ahern Jeremiah J. Clifford Pasquale D ' Alessio Thomas Dirrane Bernard Doherty Edward P. Downs

*on regula r duty 31 December 1978

Frederick C. Doyle Dennis Fitzgerald Anthony Flynn Francis R. Gillis Charles Heidorn John H. Holland Michael Hurley John J. King Daniel McLaughlin Charles A. McStravick John Murphy Daniel O 'Connell Joseph Rajunas John C. Rihner Barbara E. Rus sell Jerry Ryan Michael Shea Patrick H . Slevin James Sullivan David A. Twomey Eric W a tmough Louis Yachetta GARDENING

Head Gardener Robert M. MacKenzie Gardeners Charles P .. Healy, Jr. Joseph F. Kiarsis Stanley Kozak