proslavery politics and classical authority antonio canovas george
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PROSLAVERY POLITICS AND CLASSICAL AUTHORITY: ANTONIO CANOVA'S "GEORGEWASHINGTON"Author(s): Christopher M. S. JohnsSource: Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome, Vol. 47 (2002), pp. 119-150Published by: for theUniversity of Michigan Press American Academy in RomeStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4238795Accessed: 18-08-2015 16:26 UTC
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7/23/2019 Proslavery Politics and Classical Authority Antonio Canovas George
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PROSLAVERYOLITICS
AND CLASSICAL
UTHORITY:
ANTONIOCANOVA'S EORGE
WASHINGTON
Christopher
.S.
Johns,
University
f
Virginia
f
all the
public monuments executed
by
Antonio
Canova
in
a
career that
began
in
the ancien
regime
and
ended
during
the
Restoration,
George
Washington
s
argu-
ably
the
least well
known
today.
Paradoxically,
Washington
was the
era's most
widely
re-
spected and
admired
hero,
and
not
only
in
the
United
States.
A
statue
of
him made
by
Europe's
most
celebrated artist
created
an
unprecedented
degree
of
excitement on both
sides of the Atlantic. Unfortunately,a fire in remote Raleigh,North Carolina,destroyed
the
statue
in
1831.
This
tragic
loss,
coupled with a shift in
artistic
taste
away
from the
neoclassical
aesthetic,
soon
consigned
George
Washington
o near
oblivion,
despite
the
fact
that
Canova's
original
scale
modello
survives
(fig. 1).
In
addition,
a
large number of
engravings record the
sculpture's
appearance,
albeit with
widely
varying
degrees
of
me-
diation. Even
today,
in
an
era
more
tolerant of
classically
engaged
art,
George
Washing-
ton is
known
only
to
specialists.'
In
this
article I
argue
that
conflagrationsand
modernist
aesthetic
aversionare
not the
only
reasons this
late
masterpiece
by
Canova
s so
little
known
and
appreciated.
Commis-
sioned partly as a public symbol of planter-aristocraticrule by the political elite of a
slaveholding
state,
Canova's
George
Washington,n
its
antebellum
North
Carolina
context,
overturned
neoclassical
xpectations
regarding
monuments
o
antique
virtue
and
transgressed
againstreceived
traditionsof
heroic
emulation.
Indeed,
the
planter
politicos
of the
Tar
Heel
State
saw
in
George
Washington ot
only
a
model
patriot
and
disinterested
statesman
but
also a
marble
embodiment
of their
own
rightto
rule.
This
deeply
conservative
nd
antidemo-
cratic
agenda
has
generally
been
more
intuited
than
explicitly
recognized
andhas,
I
believe,
tended to
divert
scholarly
crutiny
rom
this
highly
significant
workof
art.A
careful
recon-
structionof
the
monument's
ontext-from
the
termsof
the
commission
o its
official
recep-
tion in Raleigh n 1821-should help not only to clarifythe sculpture's ignificance or the
development
of
nineteenth-century
American
artbut
alsoto
illuminate
he
political
expecta-
tions
for
public art in
the
Old
South.
George
Washington
lso
marks a
crucial
shift
in the
cultural
politics of
the
classical
radition.
Graeco-Roman
recedent,
once
deployed
o
visual-
ize
a
utopian
future,
was
reconceptualized s
a
justificationof
the
status
quo.
I
wish
to
thank
MaurieD.
McInnis,
Jeffrey
L.
Collins,
Elizabeth
A.
Meyer,
and
the
anonymous
eaders or
sev-
eral
suggestions hat
have
substantially
mproved
my ar-
ticle. I
also
thank
Donald
McColl
for a
kind
invitation
to
lecture on
Canova's
George
Washingtont Washing-
ton
College n
2001.
1
The
statue,
mentioned
only
briefly n
the
Canova
it-
erature
and n
historiesof
American
culpture,has been
the
focus of
only one
sustained
nvestigation, he
out-
dated
butstill
useful
account
of
Connor
1910.
This
pub-
lication
was
the
source
or
muchof
Fehl
1968.
Both
pub-
lications are valuablesourcesfor relevantdocuments
pertaining o
the
commission
but
make
no
attemptto
place
the
work in
its
political
context.
MAAR
47,
2002
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7/23/2019 Proslavery Politics and Classical Authority Antonio Canovas George
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120 CHRISTOPHERM. S.
JOHNS
Fig.
1.
Antonio
Canova,
George
Washington,
c.
1816
1817.
Possagno,
Gipsoteca
Canoviana.
1.
The
History
of
the Commission
On 16 December
1815,
shortly
after the end of hostilities between
Great Britain
and
the
United States in the War of
1812,
the Senate
and House of Commons of the state of
North
Carolinaointly resolved~~~~~~~~+,
o co"mmissio;e*%n
a
-
full length+n
,I.
ttu
of4
G-,eo*rge
Washingtonor,%
the
%
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PROSLAVERY
OLITICSAND
CLASSICAL
AUTHORITY
121
state
house
in
Raleigh.
Commander-in-chieff the
American
armies
during
he Warof
Inde-
pendence
(1775-1783),
Washington
also servedas
the first
president
of the new
nation,
retir-
ing
from
public life at the end of his
second term
in
1797.
He died
two
years
ater
in
1799
at
Mt. Vernon,his Virginiaplantationon the banks of the PotomacRiver,opposite the new
national
capital that had
been named
in
his honor. It
would be
difficult to
exaggerate
he
significanceof
Washington's
ersonality
ult
during
he
early
national
era,
and
his
reputation
for
patriotism,
determination,
modesty,
and
disinterestedness
made
him
the model
statesman
for the
new
republic.
That he was a
slaveholding
planter-aristocrat
ho
possessed
great
mili-
tary
and
political
power
and
voluntarily
surrendered t to
return
to
plantation
life,
a
la
Cincinnatus
returning
o the
plow,
particularly
ndeared
him
to
Southern
politicians
who
wished to
see
themselvesreflected n
his
image.
North
Carolina
was not
alone
n
its
desire o
honorthe
paterpatriae.
Many
tates,
counties,
andmunicipalities addiscussedvarious ypesof monumentso honorWashingtonn the pe-
riod
following
his
death, but
many
of
these took
years
to
realize,
and
the vast
majority
f the
proposalscame
o
nothing.What
makes
he
Raleigh tatue
so
unusual s
the
alacrity
with
which
the
legislativedecision
was
made,
the
intelligent
canvassing
f the
most
sophisticated esthetic
opinion
available,
he
relative
reedom
given
to the
artistand
to
the liaison
(Thomas
Appleton)
for
the
project
n
Italy,
and
the
unflinching
cceptance f the
statue's
very
high
priceby
a
state
notorious
or
resistance
o
almostall
forms of
taxation
and
public
expenditure.
Most
remark-
able,
however,was the
choice of
Antonio
Canova or
the
commission.
No
expense
was to
be
spared,
and
the
legislature
learly
not
only envisioned
he
monument
as a
tribute
to the
first
presidentbut
also
believed
it would
be a
tangible
proof of
state
support
for the
arts.Such
attitudes
n
Charleston,
Baltimore,
Philadelphia, r New
York
would
be
unsurprising,
ut in
1815
Raleigh
had
fewer
han
2,000
inhabitants, nd
North
Carolina
wasthe
poorest
state n
the
Union.
Astonishingly,
he
entire
expenditureor all
aspects
of the
commission
otaled
$12,487.50,
while
public
revenues n
the
state
peakedat
$137,712.74
n
1818.2
Thus,the
Canova
tatue's
cost
was a
noteworthy
percentageof
the
state's
ncome
during he
lean
years
mmediatelyol-
lowingthe War
of
1812.
For
financial
reasons f
for
no
other,
there
can be no
questionthat
Canova's
George
Washington
as of
the
utmost
significance o
the
politicians
who
paidfor
it.3
Popular
enthusiasm
or the
War of
1812
was
widespread
n
North
Carolina,
and it
re-
vived
fadingmemoriesof
the
heroes
of
the first
struggle or
independence rom
Britain,
above
all the memoryof GeorgeWashington.Thus,
martial
ardorand
patriotismwere
major
ac-
tors
in
the
legislature's
decision
to
commissiona
statue
of
Washingtonor
the
state
house. It
is
said
that a
Fourth
of
July
speech in
Raleigh n
1815
by
legislatorA.
G.
Glynnwas
the
direct
inspiration
or
the
monument,
but
there is
considerable
videnceto
suggest
that
discussion
about a
statue
of
Washington
was
commonplace.4
When the
legislative
session
opened
in
2
In 1820
North
Carolina
had
the
smallest
per
capita
in-
come in
the
country.
Connor
[1929]
1973,
1:445. The
costs for
the
monument
break
down as
follows:
To
Canova:
$7,107;
To
Trentanove, for
the
pedestal
reliefs:
$4,044;
Transport,
customs, the
agent
Thomas
Appleton's
ex-
penses, etc.:
$336.50;
Appleton's
honorarium:
$500;
Total:
$12,487.50.
3
See Fehl
1968,
542, who
cites
the
primary
documents.
See
Connor
[1929]
1973,
1:463-469, with
additional
bibliography.
The
costs
for
the
renovation
of
the
capi-
tol
are
not
included in
this
figure
but
are
obviously a
collateral expenditure to be considered in relation to
the
statue.
I
Williams
1957-1958, 23;
see
also
Lemmon
1971.
The
Glynn
speech,
highly
laudatory
of
Washington
and
the
"patriots of
1776,"
was
reprinted in
the 7
July
1815 is-
sue
of
the
Raleigh
Register, a
newspaper
with
strong ties
to
the
Democratic-Republican
Party.
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122
CHRISTOPHER
M.
S.
JOHNS
November,
a monument o
Washington
was
an
early opic
of debate.
The
bill
authorizing
he
commissionpassed
easily,
even
though
there was considerable
opposition
to the
expendi-
ture,especially
rom
the
state'swestern
counties,
the
importance
of whichwill be
considered
in due course. On 3 January1817 the RaleighRegisterproclaimedthat "in order to per-
petuate
the
memory
of
[Washington]
the
Legislature
have
ordered a
superb
MARBLE
STATUE,
to be erected
by
the
first
ARTIST
in
the
WORLD,
the
celebrated CANOVAof Rome
. . .
and
which
will
no doubt be the finest
piece
of
sculpture
n the
U. States."This
notice
was
picked
up
by several
other
newspapers
and
generated
much
favorable
publicity
for the state.
Sig-
nificantly
for
the
present
argument,
most
outside interest
in
the
statue
came
from the
slaveholdingstates.5
Working
out the
particulars
f the
commission,however,
ook most
of the
year
1816 to
complete.
These detailed
negotiations
are
crucialto
understanding
he
agenda
of the
North
Carolinapoliticians n decidingto pursuetheproject.At the suggestionof ThomasJefferson,
whose
opinion
had
been
solicited
by
state
officials,
Thomas
Appleton,
United States
consul
in
Livorno
(Leghorn), he
majorport
in
the Grand
Duchyof
Tuscany,was
selected
by Gover-
nor
William Miller to serve as liaison
between the
legislature
and Canova.
Appleton
had
little
difficulty
in
persuading
the
overworked
sculptor
to
accept
the
commission,
undoubtedly
be-
cause of
the
person
whom
the statue
was to
honor.
Appleton forwarded
Canova's
response to
Jefferson and sent
a
translation
to
Governor
Miller
in
Raleigh.
The
artist's
reasons for
ac-
cepting
the task
are
worth
considering:
Sir,I am
responding
mmediatelyo
thegracious
etterwith
which you
havebeen
pleased
to offer me the commission or a marblestatue of the immortalWashington, or one of
the
states
of
the
United
Statesof
America.Truly
hemany
worksto which I
am
obligated
for
manyyears o come
oughtto mean
that
I
would
onlythank
you forthis
honorable ask
[and
decline
t],
but
myadmiration or
thegreat
Geniuswho
performed
uchgreat
deeds
and
for the
healthand
libertyof his
nation
demand hat
I adopt every
force....
I
there-
fore
accept
the
commission.6
It should
also be
acknowledged
that Canova,
at the
zenith of
his fame, was
eager to
send an
example
of
his art to the
United
States.
Before
discussing the
iconography of
Canova's
George
Washington,
which is one
of the
primary keys to its interpretation, I would like to call attention to the extraordinary proac-
tive
legislative efforts to
protect the
statue from
the
public. The
revolutionary
epoch had
witnessed
spectacular acts of
political
iconoclasm,
above all to
public
sculpture, but the
state's
obsession
with the
issue is
nonetheless
surprising, given
the almost
universal
veneration for
Washington.7
In
a
poem addressed to
Canova
published
by an
anonymous author
in a
news-
paper
in
1817, the
possibility of the
statue's
defacement is
addressed
directly:
I
Alexandria
(Va.)
Herald,
20
January
1817;
Richmond
(Va.)
Commercial
Compiler, 7
February
1817;
Savannah
(Ga.)
Repuhlican, 9 January 1817; among many others.
6
Quoted in
Fehl 1968,
530.
7
The
politicization
of public
sculpture in
late
eighteenth-
century France has
been
intelligently discussed
by
Merrick
1991. The
destruction
of
royalist
and
ecclesias-
tical
monuments
all
over
Europe
during the
Revolution-
aryand
Napoleonic era
deeply
shocked
many artists.
For
Canova's
negative reaction
to
iconoclasm
and its
influ-
ence on his public sculpture, see Johns 1998, esp. chap.
3.
The
most
spectacular
loss
was
Edme
Bouchardon's
Louis
XV, a
colossal
bronze
equestrian
monument
that
had
stood
in
the
Place
Louis
Quinze.
See
McClellan
2000,
with
additional
bibliography.
In the
early
days of
the
American
Revolution a
statue
of
George
III in
New
York
City
was
destroyed by
an
iconoclastic
mob;
see
Marks
1981.
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PROSLAVERY
OLITICS
AND CLASSICAL
AUTHORITY
123
'Tisgratitude
hat consecrates
he
Shrine
No commontask,
great artist, hen,
is
thine.
No pretty
decorations hould
disgrace,
(To
tempt
the idle trav'ler
o
deface
Thisnoble tributeto his honor'dname:)
No pen
of
history -No trump
of Fame 8
This ambiguous
bit of doggerel
may
be
an
attack
on the complicated
allusions ("pen
of
history
") and
allegories
("trump
of Fame
")
often encountered
n
European
monumental
sculpture,
but the
phrase
"To
tempt
the idle trav'lerto deface"
is
more
difficult to
inter-
pret. Could
it be directed
to a foreign, possibly
a
British,
tourist? Since
it was
generally
known
that
the statue
was to
be set
up
in an
interior, protected
space-the
state
house-
rather
than a public square,
this concern
seems even
more
puzzling.
Indeed,
the
issue of
possible harmbeing done to the monumentoccasionedmore discussionin the legislature
than
did the
original
commission.
On 29
December
1821,
shortly
after
Canova's
statue arrived
n
Raleigh,
the
governor
signed
a
bill into law
making
t a crime to "injure
or deface"the sculpture.
Both
the
Senate
and the
Commons
debated
the
bill
at
length,
adding
"spit
on" and
"in
any way
stain"
to
"injure
r deface"
as "indictable
offenses."9 uch
stipulations
ndicate
an
uneasiness
over the
sculpture's
vulnerabilityand
were doubtless
wise precautions
o
protect
an
important
and
expensive
work
of art.
I
wonder,however,
f
an
image
of Washington,
a
symbol
(at
least to
some
viewers)
of
planter
aristocracy
nd elite government
by a landed,
slaveholding
minor-
ity,mayalso haveneeded protectionfrompoliticallymotivatedabuse.Moreover,could the
slaves who
worked
in the state house and
who were charged
with
cleaning
the statue
have
been
perceived
as a threat
to the monument's
afety?
In
any event,
the fact that
the legisla-
tors believed it necessary
o takelegal steps
to protecta statue
placed
only a few
stepsaway
from where
they
convened
to make andinterpret
he state's
awsis perhaps
evidence,
admit-
tedly speculative,
hatWashington's
opular egacy
mayhave been
morepoliticized
n 1821
than
it
was
in
the years
mmediately ollowing
his
death in 1799.
2. TheIdeology fIconography
One of
the
most remarkable
eatures
of Canova's
George
Washington,
nd the aspect
of the
statue that occasioned
the most
commentat
the time, was
the
ancientRoman
militarycos-
tume.
In
works
of
art
Americans
hadrarely een
Washington
wearinganything
other than
his
8
The
poem is addressed"ToSignor
Canova,
at
Rome,
on His
Being Chosen
by
the
Legislature
f
North Caro-
lina, to Execute a Marble Statue of
Washington,with
Appropriate mblems o be
Left
to His Own
Taste."The
artist,
who had some
readingknowledgeof
English,
al-
most certainlynever saw it (norwas he probablyever
intended to see it). It was published
in
the
Daily
Na-
tional
Intelligencer
in
Washington,D.C.,
on
15 January
1817.
PublishedCourtesyof the
ResearchFiles of the
Museumof Early Southern
Decorative
Arts, Winston-
Salem,
North
Carolina.
9
"The
bill
making
t
anindictable
offense to injure or
deface the
statue
of
General
Washington was read,
and,
on
motion
of
Mr.
Seawell,
was amendedby add-
ing
in
the sixth
line of the first
section, the words 'spit
on' and on
motion of Mr.
Williamson, the
same was
further
amendedby addingin
the said line
the words
'or in anyway stain.'Whereupon he said bill was read
the second and third
time,
as
amended,
and
passed."
Journal
of
the
Senate and House of
Commonsof the
General
Assembly of North
Carolina, 29 December
1821, quoted in Fehl
1968, 536-537. The
"in any way
stain"
may
refer to
either urine
or,
more
ikely,
obacco
juice.
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124
CHRISTOPHER
M. S.
JOHNS
Fig. 2. Jean-AntoineHoudon, George
Washington,
786-1792.
Richmond,Va.,
State
Capitol
Rotunda (photo VirginiaStateLibrary).
l | 1 |- )' t t,2.........................................................,'?'i}227,'({'...S....*.....l
l | | | - X j, a>,< .e . .
p~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
...
....
Continental
Army regimental
uniform or the
elegant
but understated civilian attire of the
late
eighteenth-century gentleman.
In
sculpture, Jean-Antoine
Houdon's
George Washington
in Richmond, Virginia, was the prototype (fig. 2). Painted portraits by Charles Willson Peale,
John
Trumbull,
and
especially
Gilbert
Stuart,
among myriad
other
artists,
were familiar to
many through copies
and
inexpensive engravings.
The issue of costume for Canova's statue
was
extensively debated,
but
the
opinions
of Thomas
Jefferson,
Senator
Nathaniel
Macon
of
North
Carolina,
and other
prominent
Americans with a
reputation
for
knowledge
of the fine
arts
convinced
Governor Miller
to
stipulate classicizing
Roman
military
dress
for the
statue,
although
the
sculptor
was
given
a
relatively
free hand in most other
respects.
Such
a
historicizing
solution
marks an
important departure
from the
Benjamin
West-inspired
em-
phasis
on
contemporary
dress
in
the neoclassical treatment of
subjects
from modern
history.
This
phenomenon
is
possibly
connected to the broader shift
in
Washington's personality
cult
from a
larger-than-life
but still
accessible
modern
hero to
the realm
of the
remote,
mythic,
and eternal
deity
for the
ages.
Given Canova's aesthetic
preferences,
Roman dress
in
all like-
lihood would also have been his
personal
choice.'0
10
Given the problems with nudity Canova encountered
with Napoleon as Mars the Peacemaker (1803-1806), rep-
resenting Washington in the buff would likely not
have
been
considered
a
viable option;
see
Johns 1990, 368-
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PROSLAVERY
OLITICSAND CLASSICALAUTHORITY 125
The best
contemporary description
of the costume of the
original
statue of
Washing-
ton
I have
encountered
was
published
in the
Norfolk (Va.)
Herald on 22
June 1821,
months
before
it arrived from
Rome,
and
very
likely
written
by
someone
who had seen it on
display
in Canova's studio:
He is clad
in
the
Roman
costume,
the head and neck
bare,
a
close vest with
braccie,
with
a
girdle
round
the
waist, upon
which
is
displayed
Medusa's
nakyhead,
and otherem-
blems of the Roman
taste.
The
toga,
or
cloak,
is
drawn close
round the
neck,
and de-
scends
in luxuriant olds to the floor.
The
legs
bare to the
knee,
the feet covered
with
sandals....11
As Andrew McClellan
has
pointed out,
costume alla
romana
enjoyed
universal
authority
and
legibility
in
ancien
regime Europe.
Even Etienne Maurice
Falconet,
an
outspoken proponent
of modern dress in sculpture, favored Roman attire for imperial images that demanded height-
ened respect
and
augmented dignity.12
Even
so,
there was no real consensus as
to
the
superi-
ority
of ancient or
contemporary
dress
for
monumental
public sculpture,
at
least
in
the United
States.
Thus,
in
terms of
costume,
the
Raleigh George Washingtongenerated
considerable
controversy.
What would have been less clear to most American viewers who felt
uneasy
about the
first
president appearing
in
Roman
armor, however, was the fact that the
perfectly
conven-
tional
European
accessories
(sandals,
breastplate, stylus, etc.)
that
the
sculptor
used to make
the costume
philologically
correct were standard stuff
in
Italy
and were not an
attempt to
impose on American sensibilities. The fact that Canova based the pose on a celebrated antiq-
uity-the Ludovisi Mars-was also
fully
in
keeping with
neoclassical sculptural practice.
Houdon
earlier
had
included the
antique fasces
with his otherwise contemporary rendering
of
the
Father
of the
Nation, and even such
canonical painted portraitsof Washington in mod-
ern
dress as those
by
Gilbert Stuart and Thomas
Sully deploy
ordnance from the venerable
arsenal
of
the
seventeenth-century
baroque princely portrait.
In
sum, for many Americans
understanding
of
a
"modern"
portrait was largely limited to
contemporary clothing and a
specific physiognomy. Classical
allusions and accessories could be
tolerated if the likeness
was
convincingly
"real."
Through the agency of Senator Nathaniel Macon, Thomas Jefferson became the lead-
ing proponent of
antique dress for the North Carolina George
Washington. As soon as the
state
legislature passed the bill in
favor of the monument, Governor Miller wrote to the
state's senators
in
Washington, D.C., asking them to solicit
expert opinion. Jefferson, a
political
ally
of
Macon, was the first
to respond to the appeal, and his intervention was
decisive.
In
addition to
stating
authoritatively that the sculpture could only be executed in
3 82
and
Johns 1994,
with
additional
bibliography. Sev-
eral
early sources
say that Canova
read Botta
1809 while
he
was
working on
the
statue
of
Washington.
This
multivolume history was translated into English by
George
Alexander Otis and
published
in
Philadelphia
in
1820-1821.
11
The story
was
repeated
in
the
Maryland
Gazette
of
Annapolis on
5
July
1821. The
notice
continues:
"With
regard to
the
dress, it is
said
he
[Canova]
could not haz-
ard
his
reputation
by
attempting any
other than
that
which was
most
familiarwith
him,
and
which is
best
adapted o
his taste and
genius. In
the
opinion
of
ama-
teurs,
this is
Canova's
happiest
effort-so
he has
been
heard to declare himself, and the Pope [Pius VII
Chiaramonti]
nd
Cardinal
Ercole]
Consalvihaveex-
pressed
the
same
opinion."
Consalviwas
the papal
sec-
retary of
state.
Courtesy
of the
Research
Files of
the
Museum
of
Early
Southern
Decorative
Arts,
Winston-
Salem,
North
Carolina.
12
McClellan
000, 18,
who
quotes
Falconet
1781.
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126 CHRISTOPHERM. S.
JOHNS
}~~~~~~~~~~~~
.....
..:
..',,.,.
..............................................................................................
,,
/M
; l | l : '
.... : .
' : u .
v.
: . ''5 l '5, X , i | | | | | . ..................................
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
..... .....
... .. ... .........
.|E l w
g Sg _ _
.._..
.;s , } * ........ - _ _
...... ...
.
_
~ ~~~~~
#~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- ---
Fig. 3. ThomasJefferson,State Capitol,Richmond, Va., 1785-1 789 (photo VirginiaState
Lihrary).
Italy and that "old Canove" in Rome was the only sculptor who could do
justice to the com-
mission, Jefferson
also
emphatically
advocated ancient Roman dress for the statue. In an im-
portant
letter written to Macon
from Monticello on
22
January 1816 Jefferson
declared: "As to
the
style
or
costume,
I
am sure
the artist, and every person of taste in Europe
would be for the
Roman, the effect of which is undoubtedly
of a different order. Our boots and
regimentals have
a
very puny
effect."'3
The "puny effect" of modern military dress raises some highly interesting
issues related
to
Jefferson's
earlier involvement with Houdon's George Washington in the Virginia capitol,
a
building
he had
designed
in
a
progressive neoclassical style (fig. 3). Early
in 1786, Jefferson
wrote to
Washington
to
ask his opinion about costume for the Richmond monument. He
modestly
demurred
but mentioned
West's preference for contemporary dress for modern
themes,
as
in
the famous Death
of General Wolfe of 1771 (fig. 4). Jefferson
obligingly con-
formed to
Washington's
clear but unstated preference for the modern. Epistolary evidence,
however, suggests that Jefferson
also favored modern dress at the time, despite H. H.
Arnasson's claims to the contrary, and that his views on the issue had changed dramatically
by
1816.14 It should also be considered
that Jefferson's change from modern to ancient dress
13
Quoted
in Connor
1910, 23-26. This letter
was
for-
warded to the governor
in
Raleigh,
who was
guided by
it
in
every respect.
14
Arnason 1975, 72-73 argues
that, although Jefferson
preferred
antique dress for Houdon's statue, he
acqui-
esced to
Washington's desire to be shown in
his uniform.
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PROSLAVERYOLITICS
AND CLASSICALAUTHORITY
127
*.......................................|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
. ..
...
.... .....
Fig.
4.
Benjamin
West,
The Deathof General
Wolfe,
1771.
Ottawa,
National
Gallery
of
Canada.
for
images
of
Washington may
be due to more than
simply changing
taste.
The
Sage
of
Monticello was
politically
more conservative in 1816 than he had been in
the
1780s,
and
ancient tradition and aesthetic
authority,
above all in the
public sphere
of
patrician,
slaveholding, agrarian government, may
have had an
enhanced
appeal.
As a visualization of ancient Roman auctoritas
grafted
onto the
political
context of the
early
American
republic,
Canova's use of
antique military
dress was
highly
successful.
Many
in the new
nation, however,
deeply
resented
European
cultural
imports
of
any
kind and
vo-
ciferously
objected
to
the
latinization of the
pater patriae.
Some attacks on
antique
costume
had a
decidedly
chauvinistic
and
xenophobic
tone.
A
letter
published
in
the
American Re-
corder
n
Washington,
D.C.,
on 2
9
January
1819,
signed simply
"A
Plain
Man,"
is a
character-
istic
example
of this
type
of criticism. Written
in
response
to a discussion about a
proposed
equestrian
monument to
Washington
attired
alla
romana,
"Plain Man"
clearly
had in
mind
newspaper descriptions
of the
Raleigh
statue when he
pontificated:
I
will not
attempt
to state
my
ideas of the
propriety
of our
erecting
statues,
etc.
(which
have ever been the
toys
of ambitious
monarchs)
.. but I do
hope,
that if
any
such
statue
A
letter written later
in
1786 by Jefferson warmly cham-
pions contemporary dress and
denigrates
the
antique.
See Hallam
1978, 75-77,
who
publishes
the text of the
letter. Houdon, unlike Canova, had little input
in
the
decision, although he
probably wanted to portray Wash-
ington
in
ancient garb, possibly as a proof of his abilities
in the heroic genre, hoping to receive the commission
for
a colossal equestrian monument then being promoted
by Jefferson; see Arnason 1975, 73.
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128 CHRISTOPHER. S.
JOHNS
Fig.5. Horatio
Greenough,eorge
..
.
.
i.
Washington,832-1841.
Washington,
.C.,
Smithsoniannstitution.
should be erected
...
it will
represent
our hero
in
his
proper emphasis
mine]
dress ...
and not in the robes
and
nakedness
of ancient
statues,
with a
truncheon
in
his hand.
This
may
be an uncouth and awkward
opinion;
but I was never
more
forcibly
struck
with the
propriety
.. than on
entering
the
capitol
in
Richmond,
and
seeing
there
a
statue
of the
illustrious
hero,
in
the
military
dress
of the
Revolution .. .
I
was
pleased
with the
independence emphasis
his and
mine]
of the dress. Our little
gentlemenmay
have formedtheir tastein antiquemoulds,but I do not think this is anyconsent thatit
is
correct."
In
this
amusingly self-righteous
letter to the
editor,
contemporary
dress for statues is
equated
with
patriotism
and to a
great degree
defines
the artistic
quality
of
being
"American." The
"little
gentlemen," including Jefferson,
are all but accused
of
being unpatriotic
(with
a hint
of
a
charge
of
effeminacy)
for their
cosmopolitan
aesthetic notions.
Representative
of a
grow-
ing segment
of
public opinion,
this
anonymous
tirade
helped
to
prepare
the
ground
for
the
wholesale
rejection
of
Horatio
Greenough's George
Washington (fig.
5).
Unfortunately
for
the
sculptor, by
the
early
1840s
the American
public usually
associated overt
classicism
and
sculptural
nudity
with
"decadent"
European
traditions that seemed
not
only
alien but mor-
ally
tainted. To
portray
a cultural icon and
ur-patriot
like
George Washington
in
such a man-
ner
was little short of
blasphemous.
15
Courtesy
f the ResearchFiles
of the Museumof
Early
Sou-
1-___
hern
- - - -- -
D c ai -Ar----'Vts,
- - - C'- - -' T
W s - l North
-_1
C r Ina.
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PROSLAVERYOLITICSAND
CLASSICAL UTHORITY
129
Much
greater
damage
was
done
to
the
reputation
of
Canova's
George
Washington
nd
its
antique garb by the art
critic
Edward
Everett,
who
published
in
the North
American
Review
the
first
analysis
of
the
sculptor's
career
to
appear
outside
Europe.16
Based
largely
on translationsof Italian and Germanbiographiesof Canovaand on newspaperaccounts
of individual
sculptures,
Everett
went out
of
his
way
to
condemn
the
choice
of
antique
dress for the
Raleigh monument.
In
addition,
he
pronounced
the head an
unsatisfactory
likeness
although
he
obviously
had
never seen the statue.
Many
of
the
errors
and
inven-
tions
in
the article
have
been
repeated
in
the literature on
the artist and the
sculpture
to
the
presentday.
Everett
claimed that Canova
had
complained
of
a lack
of
adequate
models
for the
portrait,a mendacious
charge
that
all reliable
accounts
refute.'7
Moreover,
he
erro-
neously states
that
Washington s
portrayed
n
the act
of
writing
the
Constitution
( )
with a
styluson a
tablet
when,
in
fact,
the
intended text was
the
salutation
of
the
celebrated"Fare-
well Address." After briefly describingthe Romanclothing, Everett adds: "Thisdress is
criticized
[supposedly by people
who,
unlike
Everett,
had
actually
seen
the
sculpture]
as
unbecoming,
besides
being
inconsistentwith
the
legislative
or
civil
occupation
represented,"
concluding
that it "will
not suit
the American
aste."'8
Although
the
circulationof the
North
American
Review was
limited,
excerpts from
the essaywere
picked up
by several
newspa-
pers,
prejudicing
many against
the
statue even
before it
arrived
n
North
Carolina.More
significantly,
t
helped
foment
public
opposition
to
ancient
allusion
in
public
sculpture
in
America
hat
would
havegrave
implications
or the rising
generationof
American
neoclas-
sicists,
above all Horatio
Greenough.
The
central
conceit
of
Canova's tatue
s
Washington
omposing he
"Farewell
Address."
This act
is
crucial
to
its
political
interpretation
n
context. The
hero
preparing to
leave
public
office
to returnto
the
plantationafter
years
of
public service
was a
vitalmessage
the
Raleighpoliticians wished to
convey
in
the
monument.
Thus,Everett's
mistake
n
identify-
ing
the
proposed
text is
strangewhen
one
considers the
legislative
agendaand
the keen
popular
nterest
in
the
famous
published
oration
n
the
years
followingthe
Warof 1812. In
1818, the
Raleigh Minerva
ran an
advertisement rom a
Philadelphia
publisher
soliciting
subscriptions
or
a
luxury edition of
the
revered
document,marketed
by Gideon
Fairman,
John
Binns,
and
Charles H.
Parker.
The
notice
was
titled simply
"To the
People of the
United
States,"
repeating the
opening
words of
Washington's
alutation in the
"Farewell
Address,"
which
was
penned to
commemorate
his
retirement
rom the
presidency n
1797
at the
end
of
his second
term.19Many
people,
especially
Europeans,
marveledthat
such a
powerful
and
popular eader
would
voluntarily
urrenderpower
(they
were
thinkingabove
all of
Napoleon),
and
it
became a
major
component
of the
Washington
mystique.
Canova
16
[Everett]
1820.
17
Canova
used a
plaster cast taken
from
the
original
bust
executed from
the
life
by
Giuseppe
Ceracchi,
a
work
that
belonged to
Thomas
Appleton in
Livorno. More
will
be
said about this portrait later. It was reported by Ameri-
can
visitors
to
Canova'sstudio
that the
head was
"esteemed
an
excellent
likeness"
(Norfolk
Herald,
22
June
1821).
18
[Everett]
1820,
385-386.
Among
the
newspapers
that
published
parts of
the North
American
Review
article
was the
Cincinnati,
Ohio, Western
Spy
and
Literary Ca-
det, 29
June
1820.
Courtesy
of
the
Research
Files of the
Museum
of
Early
Southern
Decorative
Arts,
Winston-
Salem, North
Carolina.
Mixed
opinion
about the
statue
and the
likeness is
recorded in
Cooper
1993, 231.
The
author misses
the
point
in
saying that
"one can
only imag-
ine the
reaction
of
North
Carolina
planters
upon
view-
ing the great American general as Cincinnatus, half-na-
ked, with
tablet
and
pen
in
hand."
Such a
dismissive
statement
reveals
not
only a lack
of
knowledge of
the
commission
but only
a
superficial
understanding
of
the
sculpture's
appearance and
iconography.
19
Raleigh
Minerva,7
August
1818.
I
do
not know
whether
this
particular
edition
was ever
published.
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130
CHRISTOPHERM. S.
JOHNS
sculpted
Washingtonpoised
to
writethe salutation,
but the
sculptor
almost
certainly
eft the
tablet blank,
to
be
filled
in
by
his
patrons
n North Carolina.
Still,
he knew what text
was
intended,
since he put
the words
"Al
popolo
e concittadini
degli
stati uniti di America"
on
the tablet in the scale modello that was exhibited in his studio. Such a renderingon the
marblestatue, however,
would have
been
highly opaque
to
the
"popolo
e
concittadini"
n
Raleigh. Political
leave-taking
s crucial to the
political significance
attached to the work
by its patrons
since the chief
virtue of "disinterested"
lanter
rule
is the idea of
"returning
to the plow"
in
emulation of the Roman
republicanworthy
Cincinnatus,
who
gave up
dic-
tatorial
power
to resume
agricultural ursuits
and
the
supervision
of his
slaves).
Cincinnatus
was a
frequently
evoked
prototype
for
George Washington,
and the
plow
and fasces
(sym-
bol of
juridical
authority
n
ancient
Rome) figure prominently
n
the
rearview of Houdon's
statue
in
Richmond.
The Roman
military
dress
(Cincinnatus
was
also a
dictator-general
n
a
time of nationalemergency) n Canova'sstatue makesimplicit the flatteringreference to
Cincinnatus.
The allusion to Cincinnatus
n
the
Raleigh
monument occurs even more
explicitly
on
the
base.
In
the commission to Canova
negotiated by Appleton,
the choice of
subjects
for
the
relief
sculptures
hat were to adorn the
pedestal
was left to the
artist,who,
in
the
event,
was
prompted by
the
diplomat
after an initial
proposal
from
North Carolinawas
rejected
by
both men.
This
scheme,
offered
in
the form of
a
sketch,
sheds
considerable ight on how
the
North Carolina
egislators
viewed
the
entire
undertaking.
According
to
Appleton'sde-
scription
of the lost
drawing, he sketch
represented
a
laudatory nscriptionflankedby two
female figures, one representing the goddess of agriculture Ceres and the other Liberty.20 t
would
be
difficult to
imagine
a more
explicit political message
for the
monument-Wash-
ington,
the
modern Cincinnatusand
role model for
the Southern
egislator, supported by
liberty
and
farming.
I
believe the
honorific
intent
of
the
sculpture
was
equally
balanced
by
a
desire to
commemorate he rule
of
planter-politicians,
and the
original proposal
for the
pedestal
decoration
seems
to
confirm
this
idea. That
Appleton
and
Canovaboth
objected
to the
plan
was
not
due
to the
iconography
but to
notions
of
narrative
unityand the need
to adorn all four
sides
of
the
pedestal
since it was
determined
early
on that the
sculpture
was to be
viewed
in
the round.
Thus, the base
was articulatedwith three scenes in marble
relief from
Washington's
ife:
GeneralCornwallis urrendering
his sword after the battle of
Yorktown
n
1781;
the commander n
chief relinquishinghis
militarycommandat the end
of the
war
in
1783;
and
Washington
unanimouslyelected first
president of the nation in
1788.
The
fourth
relief
was
emblematic and associative:"Washingtonholding a plough
drawn
by
two
oxen, behind,
is
a
humble
cottage,
near to which are
seen
Ceres and
Mer-
cury,
with their
suitable
emblems."'21
o
"Cincinnatus eturned to
the plow" made its ap-
pearance
on the
pedestal, accompanied
by
the
fecund goddess of
agriculture.It may be
supposed
that
Mercury
s
present
in
part
in
his
capacity as divine herald, ready to call the
hero
back to the
public sphere
should
the necessity arise.22
20
This
discussion s based on
a letter
fromAppleton to
Jefferson
datedLeghorn,
27 September
1816,
quoted n
Fehl
1968,
530-531.
21
From a
letter from
Appletonto
GovernorMiller in
Raleighdated 11
June 1818.
Quoted in
Connor
1910,
39-40. Thepedestal
reliefswere
sculptedby Raimondo
Trentanove, a
Canova
pupil of
Tuscan origin
whose sis-
ter was
allegedly
Appleton's
mistress.
22
It
is also
possible
that
Mercury is
present in his
role as
god of
commerce,
here
wedded to
agriculture,
helping
to
clarify
the
vision
of
plantation
farming
for
export
rather
than
symbolizing subsistence
farming by smallholders.
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PROSLAVERYOLITICSAND CLASSICAL UTHORITY
131
Fig.
6.
Giuseppe
Ceracchi,
George
Washington,
-
7/23/2019 Proslavery Politics and Classical Authority Antonio Canovas George
15/33
132
CHRISTOPHERM. S.
JOHNS
In
1800 a national monument
in
honor
of
Washington
was
proposed
in
Congress only
a few
weeks after
his death. The most controversial
plan,
which
enjoyed
wide
popular sup-
port, called
for a
huge granite pyramid
to serve as a mausoleum. Rival schemes included a
heroically scaled bronze equestrian statue and an enormous standing figure, both to be
placed
outside
the
capitol
then
under construction. Nathaniel
Macon,
a member of
the
House
of
Representatives
from eastern North Carolina who as
senator
became
a
major
ad-
vocate
for the Canova
statue, opposed
all such federal
monuments, especially
the mauso-
leum,
at considerable
political
risk. As
I
shall soon
demonstrate,
the
reasons
for the
change
in Macon's attitude toward
public
monuments are of
deep significance
for
understanding
the
political agenda
of
the
Raleigh Washington.
Macon's
antipathy
to
the
mausoleum
was
partly pragmatic-he objected
to the
staggering projected expense.
More
important
for
the
present
context was his
ideological objection,
in which he described such works of
art
as "useless and pernicious ostentation" and claimed that a biography of Washington to
teach schoolchildren
lessons
in
virtue would be
a far more
appropriate
"memorial." He
warned the House
of
Representatives
that "the
precedent
we now establish will be
auspi-
cious
to
our
future measures.
If
we decline
raising
a mausoleum to
Washington,
no man
who succeeds
him
can ever
expect
one reared to his
memory.
24 The
privileging
of
text over
image
is
predictable
in
a
bourgeois republic,
and
the subtext of Macon's
remarks
is
that
monuments are
intrinsically dynastic, aristocratic,
and
essentially
un-American. In addi-
tion,
their
interpretation
is more difficult to
control since the
language
of
visual
form
is
more
open
to
ambiguity
and subversion.
Thus,
his
support
for the
Canova statue sixteen
years later represents a crucial ideological shift. The reasons for Macon's change of heart
will
be
examined
in
detail
in
due
course.
The national debate about the necessity for a monument to Washington in the nation's
capital
and the visual
form
it should take continued for several
years.
After
the War of
1812,
fewer voices were raised against public monuments
in
principle,
I
believe partly because most
of those
proposed
for
such
commemorations were
deceased,
it
being
at the time
politically
safe
to
praise
the dead
(but
how times have
changed).
Given this sea
change
in
public atti-
tudes about honorific monuments to
past leaders, the North Carolina project was used as a
reproach to
the
federal government's inactivity. Moreover, the pedagogical advantages of
Canova's statue for the
emerging
American school
of artists
began
to be
appreciated.
A
Wash-
ington, D.C., newspaper proclaimed
in
1819:
[T]here is
an
admirablepropriety n the whole of this proceeding [the Raleighmonu-
ment]....
This
statuewill
kindle
in
the minds of our countrymen n enthusiasm or this
noble
art;
and it is
not improbable hatan American chool of statuarywill take its rise
from this
workmanship
f Canova.25
This article
was
reprinted
a few
days later by the Baltimore Morning Chronicle. As early as
1813,
in
the
aftermath of the
battle of Fort McHenry, a member of the advisory board for a
monument to Washington to be erected in Baltimore suggested that Canova be approached
for the
commission,
but
nothing came
of
it.26My point here is that the victory in the second
24
Quoted
in
Dodd
1903,
153-154.
25
American
Recorder, 4 June
1819.
Courtesy of the
Re-
search
Files of the Museum
of Early
Southern Decora-
tive
Arts,
Winston-Salem,
North
Carolina.
26
Alexander
1974,
71-72.
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PROSLAVERYOLITICSAND
CLASSICALAUTHORITY
133
..............
Fig. 7. Gilbert
Stuart,George
Washington,
1796.
Boston, Mass.,
Museum
of
Fine Arts.
... .
....
.
......
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.
...
...
H
,
.
. .
. .
.~
~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
..
..
....
.....
....~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.......: ........ ...
7.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
thoe of Euoe
.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.
s
......_......
4...The.Raleigh.State
ouse.and.Other
mages.of Washington
.. ... .
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.
. ....
..
. .....
.. . .. ...
. B .
The statue of the
pater patriae
commissioned
for the state
capitol
was neither the first
nor
the
only image
of
Washington planned
for the
building.
In
its first session after
Washington's
death,
the
North Carolina
legislature
authorized Governor
John
Branch to obtain two
por-
traits of the late
president,
one for the Senate chamber
and one to be
placed
behind
the
speaker's podium
in
the House of Commons.
What the lawmakers had in mind
were
copies
of Gilbert Stuart's famous Athenaeum
original
(fig.
7),
but the artist's
quote
of
$1,500
for
the
framed pair so shocked the parsimonious solons that the entire idea was dropped. In the
wake of the Canova
commission, however,
the
proposal
was
revived. Rembrandt Peale
and
Thomas
Sully,
two of the era's
leading society portraitists,
were
approached
for
pictures,
mean-
ing
framed
copies
of the
Stuart
original.
Peale
asked for so much
money
for the work
that
attention soon focused
solely
on
Sully.
To the
delight
of the
governor,
the artist
demanded
only
$400
for each
copy
or
$600
for one
copy
and an
original
historical
portrait
of his
own
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134
CHRISTOPHERM. S.
JOHNS
invention, proposing
the
passage
of
the Delaware
River
on the eve
of the battle of
Trenton
as
the
subject.27
The state
agreed
to the second
proposition
and must have been well
satisfied
with
the
bargain,
considering
how much
money
had
already
been committed to Canova.
Sully's
copy of the Stuart George Washington(fig. 8) arrived in Raleigh in November 1818, and the
painter began
Washington's Passageof
the Delaware
(fig. 9)
the
following
summer.
Sully
had
no
instructions
concerning
the
size
of
the
room
in
the
state
house
designated
to receive the
painting,
and he made it far too
large
for
any
available
space (19'
x
14'
framed).
Governor
Branch and
the
legislature,
with
Sully's approval,
voided the
contract
for
the second
picture
and settled
for the
single copy
of the Stuart
portrait.28
think
it
very likely
that
Sully
made
Washington's
Passage of
the Delaware
extraordinarily large
because
he had no intention of
actually sending
it to North Carolina.
Hoping
to cash
in
on the
Washington
craze
sweeping
the nation
after
1815,
the
artist
decided to send his
picture
on
tour,
charging
admission
to
visitors who lined up to see it. In addition, large dimensions and a compelling historical sub-
ject,
seen
by
more
people
than
ever would have been
possible
in
provincial
Raleigh, helped
to satisfy Sully's
desire,
shared
by many
other
portrait
painters,
to transcend the lesser
genre
by painting "half-history pictures."29
The
commissions for
the
Canova statue and the
Sully paintings
reveal a
desire
on
the
part
of
the governor
and
the
legislature
to
enhance the
authority
of the state
government,
symbolized visually by
the
capitol
building. Principles
of
states'
rights were
cherished
in
North
Carolina as elsewhere in the
South,
and the
glorification
of
the seat of
government was
in
part
a
concrete
assertion of this
ideological position. The
direct
consequence of the
immi-
nent arrival of
George Washington
in
Raleigh was the decision to make
extensive
alterations
to the architectural
fabric of the state
house,
which
was an
incommodious, antiquated relic
of the
immediate
post-Revolutionary years.
As the
legislature
was considering how to
display
the Canova
statue to best
advantage, the utter
inadequacy of the building came into
focus. It
was rather
like
buying
new shoes
only
to discover
how
shabby an old suit actually
looks.
Given the
highly
favorable
publicity
the
statue's
commissioning had
generated for the state,
it was vital to
showcase it
properly. There is almost
an element of panic in minutes of
the
committee debates on
what
ought
to be
done.
Alfred Moore, a member
of the House of Com-
mons from
coastal
Brunswick County, penned the
report submitted to the full
legislature
regarding accommodation for the
statue and expressed full awareness
of the state's responsi-
bility
toward
such an
important
monument. He
concluded:
The
absolutenecessityof
preserving n exactrelative onformityn all the
accompanyments
[sic]
of a
work of taste and
of art so forcibly
mpressedon the mindsof the committee,
that
they cannotrefrain rom the
expressionof it. Let, therefore, he
plan adoptedby the
27
Sully's
opy
of
the Stuart
was to be
the
full-length
por-
trait
n
the
Pennsylvania
Academy
of
Fine Arts n
Phila-
delphia,where
Sully's
portraitpractice
had been
estab-
lished for
severalyears.
English-born
ut
broughtup
in
Charleston
ndRichmond,Sullymayhaveseemedespe-
cially
appealing
ecauseof his
Southern
onnections.See
Fehl
1973,with
additional
bibliography nd
citationof
the
primary
ources.
28
Fehl
1973, 584.
Fehl states
that
Sully
had second
thoughts
about
sending he
workto North
Carolina, ut
I think
he
had a tour
in mind
when
he made
the pro-
posal,
drawingattention
to the
worknot
as a
specula-
tion but
as an
actual
commission rom
a state
govern-
ment.
Making
such a
grand
paintingwithout
explicit
instructions,
especially or
only
$200, would
otherwise
seemfoolhardy.
29
For
Sully's
ambitions o
work n
the
historical
genre n
the
traditionof
Joshua
Reynoldsand
Henry
Fuseli, see
Johns
1983,
with
additional
bibliography.
or a
differ-
ent
readingof
Washington's
assage f the
Delaware, ee
Myers
2000,
524,
n.
6.
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PROSLAVERYPOLITICS AND
CLASSICAL AUTHORITY
135
|_
|
g.
~~~~~Fig.
8. Thomas
ully,GeorgeWashington
after
Gilbert
_ ITa,2.,
.,t',lD
l'.07
Stuart),
818.
Raleigh,
N.C.,
OldStateHouse
photo
North
s
.
t~~~~~~~arolina Museum
Of
Hilstory).
...~_
. .......
__,~
~ ~
~~~~Fg
Thma
Suly Wahngo'
PsaeothDlwr,
......
~ ~ ~
_
.. ..........
.
.... ......
.. . ......
... ......
11
.. .. ...11.
_
w
. .:. . ....
_..... .......:,_
_~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~---------------:.
I
_ _
_ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~...
.
...
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136 CHRISTOPHER
. S.
JOHNS
legislature,
be
what it
may,
hey
earnestly
ecommend hat this idea
may
not
be lost
sight
of for
a
moment.
To
fail,
is to
become rediculous
sic].30
The
newspapers agreed.
After
eulogizing
Washington
and
lauding
Canova,
the
Raleigh
Minerva
wondered:
where
are
we to
put
the statuewhen we
get
it?
Supposing
t
be
placed
in the
passage
of
the State
House,
some
of our
naughty
boys
would mutilate t within
six weeks
time;
be-
sides that there
is
neither
ight
nor elevation
or it
there. The
onlyplan
then
will
be,
to
adopt
the
plan
of
enlarging
and
altering
he
present
building.31
Even in
the
urgency
to determine a
fitting place
to
set
up
the
statue there is
concern for its
security,
in this
case
fear
of
mutilation
by
"naughtyboys."
It
could be
argued
that
this
cat-
egory
would include
male slaves of
any
age
but would
not be
limited
only to them.
The
legislature
took
prompt action,
voting
to
sell land
in
nearby
Wake
County
to
pay
for
the
renovation and
expansion
of
the
capitol,
an
undertaking
estimated to
cost
$25,000,
twice as
much
as the
Canova statue. William
Nichols,
an
English-born
architect active in the
Carolinas,
Tennessee,
and
Alabama,
was
named
superintendent
of
public
buildings
to oversee the
project.
Nichols's
plan
called
for the addition of a
second
story
to the
existing
structure,
the
extension
and
widening
of
hallways,
the
construction of
an annex to
house
offices and a
gallery,
and
the
replacement of
the small
cupola with a
simple, elegant
dome, under which
Canova's
monument
was to
be
placed.32
Completed
in
1822,
a few
months after the
arrival of
the
statue
from
Italy,
the
cramped,
homely brick
structure
was
transformed into an
earlyexample
of classical
revival
architecture
in
the
South
(fig.
10).
It
should
be
noted, however, that the
building's
classicism is
more
closely
related to the
aristocratic villa
and
palace models of
Palladio than
to the
genuinely
progressive
neoclassicism of
Virginia's
capitol
building, a
fact that
further
underscores
the al-
tered nature
of
neoclassicism in
the
early decades of
the
nineteenth
century.
The
highly
ambitious
initiative
to provide
the North
Carolina
state
house
with a monu-
ment
to
George
Washington
sculpted
by
the
world's
most famous and
expensive
artist,
coupled
with the
additional
commission to
obtain
two
painted
portraits of
the
hero, was a
highly re-
markable
cultural
undertaking
in
the
nation's
poorest state.
When
one also
takes
into ac-
count
the
large
expenditure for
the
renovation of
the capitol
(admittedly long
overdue) to
receive and
display a
work of
art, the
endeavor
seems
necessarily
fraught
with political
sig-
nificance.
Considering the
history of
bitter
opposition in
the state
government
to
public money
being
used
to fund
schools, pave
roads,
dig canals,
construct
bridges,
and
support
other in-
ternal
improvements, the
decision
to spend
such a
staggering sum
on
things of
largely sym-
bolic
value
demands
explanation
beyond
the
patriotic desire
to honor
the first
president
and
to
relieve
overcrowding
in
the
halls of
the
legislature.
What
could they
hope to gain
with
Canova's
statue,
Sully's
paintings,
and
Nichols's
renovations?
Other
states-richer, more
popu-
lous,
and
presumably no
less
patriotic-attempted
nothing on a
proportionately
similar scale.
A
crucial
part
of the
explanation,
I
believe,
lies in the
changing
political
landscape of
North Carolina following the War of 1812. At that time, national debate came to center more
30
Quoted
in
Fehl
1973, 598.
31
Raleigh
Minerva,
23 April
1819.
Courtesy
of
the Re-
search
Files of
the
Museum
of
Early
Southern
Decora-
tive
Arts,
Winston-Salem,
North
Carolina.
32
For a
brief
summary of
Nichols's
alterations, see
Elliot
1958. For
Nichols's
career in
the
United
States,
see
Peatross and
Mellown
1979
and
Lane
1985,
146-153,
with
additional
bibliography.
See also
Murray
1983, 251-
255,
with
additional
bibliography.
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PROSLAVERY
OLITICS
AND
CLASSICALAUTHORITY 137
~~~~~~~~~......S |
..
.
..........
-"w --
,--
Fig.
10. William
Nichols,
State
House,
Raleigh,
N.C.,
destroyed
1831
(photo
North CarolinaMuseum
of
History).
and more
on the
issues
of states'
rights, greater
democratization of the
political process,
and,
above
all,
slavery.
These issues
gained immediacy during
the bitter debates on the Missouri
issue from
1819
to
1821,
while the statue was
being
carved,
but were
incubating
as
early
as
1815, when it became clear that Missouri's future admission to the Union would upset the
free state/slave
state
balance
in the
Senate. At the state
level,
the
power
of the
slaveholding
planters
of eastern North Carolina was
being increasingly opposed by
the small farmers of
the western and Piedmont
counties,
who
only rarely
owned slaves. The choice of Canova for
the
Raleigh
monument indicates an attraction to fame and a commitment to
classicism,
but it
also
reveals
just
how much was at stake. The cultural
politics
of the statue can
only
be under-
stood
in
relation to the multivalent
expectations
of
its
patrons.
Canova's
George Washington
is an excellent case
study
of the
profound change
in
the aesthetic
ideology
of
public
art that
will come to characterize the middle decades of the nineteenth
century.
5.
Senator Nathaniel Macon and Canova's
Washington
On New Year's Eve
1815,
as
I
have
already
mentioned,
Governor William Miller wrote a
letter to North Carolina's two snnators
in
Washington Asking them .tlicit advice about the
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7/23/2019 Proslavery Politics and Classical Authority Antonio Canovas George
21/33
138 CHRISTOPHERM. S.
JOHNS
monumentto
George
Washington
recently
approvedby
the
legislature.James
Turner,
he
senior
senator,
seems
to have
done
little
about
it,
but Nathaniel
Macon,
recentlyappointed
to the
Senateby
Miller,
ook
up
the
task with
enthusiasm,
writing
that he would
"cheerfully
giveeveryaidin mypowerto procure he statueof General
Washington."33
Maconhadvehe-
mently opposed
a
national
monument
n
Washington's
honor
in
1800 when he
was
in
the
House of
Representatives,
o
his
ardent
support
for a similarmonument
n
1816
is
highly
curious. Macon
immediately
became the
majorpolitical
player
n
the
commission,
and it
is
difficult
to
imagine
the
project
being
realized n its
final
form without his intervention.
As
North Carolina'smost
prominent
statesman,
Macon,
a
slaveholdingplanter
from
Warren
County
n
the east-central
ection of the
state,
was a