Before We Donated Libraries to Universities, We Donated Art to Institutions

Dylan Grossmann

An inquisitive mind strolling down Locust Walk may wonder how buildings on campus got their respective names. What motivated those who endowed such tremendous contributions to the university? For some, personal gain, notoriety, and remembrance seem to be the central impetus for donation. Colossal donations to powerful institutions as a means to achieve personal gain and honor is not new, but before libraries were donated to universities, art was given to religious institutions.

Notably, Christianity functioned for a large part of history as the nerve center of self-focused donation. In accordance with the Catholic Indulgence system, immortalizing oneself through religious artworks paid for one’s ticket to heaven. For example, the Scrovegni Chapel built in 1305 by Italian painter and architect Giotto was commissioned by Enrico Scrovegni, whose conscience was weighed down by his and his late father’s sin of usury.

After Italian poet Dante inscribed Scrovegni’s father into the inner ring of the 7th circle of hell in his famous poem The Divine Comedy, Scrovegni built the chapel to re-orient himself in the eyes of God. The Chapel is organized by three registers of fresco depicting the story of Christ. Above the chapel’s entrance, a kneeling Enrico is pictured giving the building to the three Mary’s, aligning himself with the side of the blessed in the last judgment scene. He placed himself in heaven through his financial contributions.

However, including donors’ names was not exclusive to Catholic art and existed long before the 14th-century Scrovegni Chapel. This is seen as early as the 12th-century Hindu basalt carving, God Vishnu with Goddesses Lakshmi and Sarasvati. At the base of the piece, a Sanskrit inscription indicates that it was a gift to the Hindu temple and gives the donor’s name. Beside the inscription is a small portrait of the donor and his wife. Like Scrovegni who put himself among the divine, this donor gained favor with the Hindu temple by putting himself among Hindu Gods.

The sculpture’s subtractive carving out of the hard basalt depicts the Hindu God Vishnu, the “preserver of the universe”. To Vishnu’s left stands his sister Sarasvati; the patron goddess of knowledge and the arts, she plays a vina, a stringed instrument and also a distinguishing attribute. On the right, Vishnu’s consort Lakshmi holds a fly-whisk. She is the goddess of prosperity, wealth, and purity. The three gods together comprise the Trivikrama form of Vishnu. The Trivikrama emphasizes the giant form Vishnu took as he conquered the three worlds of the sky, earth, and underworld and was popularly depicted during the Pala Period (8th to 12th century). The inclusion of the donors in this sculpture elevates them into the divine three worlds and ordains them as god-like.

Since Martin Luther’s anti-indulgence Die 95 Thesin (95 Theses Book), and the general disenchantment of religion in our modern world, the all-consuming need for salvation through financial indulgences has flattened out. People still donate overwhelmingly to institutions of power, but the breadth of such institutions has expanded. University of Pennsylvania students interact with these donated majesties every day through their use of campus libraries.

The red Venetian gothic building, part cathedral and part fortress, Fisher Fine Arts Library was designed by acclaimed Philadelphia architect Frank Furness in 1891. It was named the “Furness

Building ‘’ after the architect. However, after a sixyear $16.5 million restoration project completed in 1991, the Furness building was renamed to Anne and Jerome Fisher Fine Arts Library, after the pair who financed the building’s renovations. In the same way that Giotto’s work is named for Scrovegni, Fisher’s monetary ddddddonation overshadowed Furness’s artistic one, renaming the library in regards to fiscal contribution. The Fisher’s donation solidified a precedent for which one can rename someone else’s contribution through mere overpowering of funds. In religious works, patrons gave artists capital to create something for them, but with the Fisher’s donation, their money took something from the artist who did the creating.

Jerome Fisher graduated from The Wharton School of Business in 1953, and is one of Penn’s most generous donors, financing the Quad Renewal Project (Fisher-Hassenfeld College House) and the Jerome Fisher Program in Management & Technology, among others. A graduate of the University, by donating to his Alma Mater he immortalized himself as a name and legend of the very place that made him one. By inscribing his name into Fisher Fine Arts Library through his financial contribution, he places himself into the foundation of the institution, the same way Scrovegni and the Hindu Donors did centuries ago.

Another Penn institution, Van Pelt Library designed by Architects Harbeson, Hough,

Livingston, & Larson and built-in 1962, was dedicated to Charles Patterson Van Pelt Library in 1962. It was named in memory of a University associate trustee’s son, David Van Pelt, who was a donor to the library’s construction and was paid for mostly by Pennsylvania state funds.

Charles Van Pelt was killed by gunfire in September 1952, and while he was a Harvard student at the time of his passing, his father canonized him at his own Alma Mater – forever engraving his legacy into the University of Pennsylvania. Van Pelt gave back to his University to grieve and honor his deceased son, further driving the notion of donation as divine catharsis.

So why are people driven to contribute so largely to institutions so much bigger than themselves?

Because, in buying into religious and now collegiate institutions, they buy themselves a place within the institution and make themselves larger. Whether motivated by a desire for honor or ordination from the divine, people continue to enthusiastically finance institutions; the University of Pennsylvania will see many more libraries and buildings erected, because it’s a precedent that was set thousands of years ago, a precedent society still deeply respects.

Charles Patterson Van Pelt Library, University of Pennsylvania, 1962. Photo: Roy Frank Larson (American, 1893–1973). Gelatin silver print, 10 × 7 13/16 in. National Academy of Design, New York, NY. Object no. 104-A.2. Submitted for NA diploma presentation, October 7, 1963.A

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