BGuthrie Photos: DC -- Donald W. Reynolds Center (SAAM) -- Exhibit: Measured Perfection: Hiram Powers' Greek Slave

DC -- Donald W. Reynolds Center (SAAM) -- Exhibit: Measured Perfection: Hiram Powers' Greek Slave:

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Description of Pictures: Measured Perfection: Hiram Powers' Greek Slave
July 3, 2015 – February 19, 2017
This one-gallery exhibition reveals the inner workings of the studio of Hiram Powers (1805-1873), who was among the most innovative sculptors of the nineteenth century, eagerly adapting long-standing sculpture traditions to new technologies of his age. The display draws from an extensive collection acquired by the Smithsonian American Art Museum directly from Powers’ studio in Florence, Italy, in 1968. Finished and unfinished artworks and a selection of tools reveal Powers’ creative process and ingenious experiments, including the highly controversial practice of body casting. A key object in the exhibition is the life-size plaster of Powers’ Greek Slave, the most highly acclaimed sculpture of the nineteenth century, so famous that Powers applied for a U.S. patent on the composition.
Interactive didactic displays and activities—including a special activity for children—invite viewers to appreciate Powers’ innovative contributions to nineteenth-century sculpture, while videos of 3-D scanning and a pointing machine in use demonstrate how sculpture tools and techniques have changed since Powers’ time.

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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. SIPGMP_150723_011.JPG: Greek Slave after 1849 Minton and Company after Hiram Powers Like the plastic reproductions of the Colosseum that prove irresistible to many tourists today, reduced replicas of the Greek Slave satisfied a nineteenth-century demand for souvenirs. Many firms sold reductions but none were as accurate as those produced by the British firm Minton and Company, which used a mechanical reduction machine to capture the details from Powers' original Greek Slave. In time, Minton's mass-produced porcelain replicas of the Greek Slave were collected in their own right.
2. SIPGMP_150723_023.JPG: Measured Perfection Hiram Powers' Greek Slave Greek Slave became the most famous sculpture of the nineteenth century and propelled the artist, Hiram Powers (1805-73), to international stardom. The work was so provocatively lifelike that certain exhibition venues in the United States required that men and women view the sculpture separately. Powers justified the sculpture's full nudity by claiming his work depicted historic events: a Greek woman, captured by Ottoman forces during the War of Independence, had been stripped and chained for sale at a slave market in Constantinople. American viewers in the 1840s and '50s, many of whom had never before seen a sculpture of a nude woman, felt licensed to admire the Greek Slave because she was "clothed all over with sentiment." Powers encouraged this interpretation of his work and indicated his subject's modesty by turning the figure's gaze demurely downward and including a cross and locket as symbols of Christian piety and faithfulness to a remembered loved one. The Greek Slave was almost immediately associated with slavery in the United States, where abolitionists used images of it to promote their cause. Powers produced six full-scale marble examples of the Greek Slave, each considered an original work of art. Much to Powers' dismay, the sculpture became so popular that countless unauthorized imitations of Greek Slave were also made.
3. SIPGMP_150723_033.JPG: X-Radiographs of Plaster Model of the Greek Slave 2015 These x-radiographs reveal the "skeleton" of the full-scale plaster model of the Greek Slave. An iron armature supports the weight of the solid plaster and provided stability for the pointing machine, which hung from the wire loop on the figure's head during the replication process. The x-rays also show how deep the metal pointing pins pierce into the "skin" of the sculpture and where metal ties hold together the multiple parts of the plaster cast.
4. SIPGMP_150723_042.JPG: Statue of the Greek Slave in the east nave of the Great Exhibition, London, England 1851 Powers' first marble version of the Greek Slave appeared more lifelike than ever at the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations, where it stood on a rotating pedestal under a lavish red canopy that gave the marble a rosy hue. Six million visitors attended this international fair, which took place in London in 1851 in the glass pavilion known as the Crystal Palace. It was the first exhibition of its kind to include a section dedicated to the United States. Powers' Greek Slave served as the centerpiece of a display that included a teepee, portraits of presidents, a cylinder engine, and other objects associated with progress and national identity. The popularity of the Greek Slave at the fair contributed to market demands for reductions, replicas, and photographic images, only some of which were authorized by Powers.
5. SIPGMP_150723_052.JPG: Replicas of children's hands have long stood as popular mementos of the tenderness and fragility of childhood. Early in 1839, Powers cast the hands and forearms of his sleeping six-month-old daughter, Louisa. He then made molds from which he generated additional casts, one of which he trimmed with a strip of real fabric to suggest the cuff of the baby's sleeve, and displayed on a pillow. In time, Powers mounted a cast of the baby's left hand in the center of a sunflower bloom, creating Luly's Hand (not shown). Although the artist made this work as a family keepsake, perhaps to send to the child's grandparents in the United States, Luly's Hand attracted such admiration that Powers authorized as many as forty marble and plaster replicas. In 1851, he revisited the sunflower motif and created a similar work using a cast of the right hand of an older child. In both Luly's Hand and Child's Hand, Powers took a shortcut in production: rather than sculpting the hands in clay, he used these body casts as pointing models, adding pins and pencil marks to guide their translation into marble. These incredibly lifelike casts capture the folds of the flesh, fingernails, and skin texture in detail that can never been fully replicated in marble.
6. SIPGMP_150723_061.JPG: Child's Hand, 1851
7. SIPGMP_150723_067.JPG: Baby's Left Hand (unfinished), undated
8. SIPGMP_150723_074.JPG: Greek Slave patent application 1849 Piracy has always been a serious threat to artists and inventors, even in Powers' day. Six years after completing his model of the Greek Slave, Powers applied for a patent in an attempt to control the explosion of knockoff replicas and unauthorized images of his sculpture. As a resident of Florence, Italy, Powers traveled to the United States Consulate in Leghorn to submit his application. It was then sent to the United States Patent and Trademark Office, which at the time was located in this museum building.
9. SIPGMP_150723_081.JPG: Model of the Greek Slave 1843 plaster, metal points Hiram Powers born Woodstock, VT 1805–died Florence, Italy 1873 This plaster cast is as close as we can get to Powers' "original" Greek Slave. It was made in the artist's studio directly from Powers' clay model and records the date "March 12, 1843," when the sculptor proclaimed he finished modeling his masterpiece in clay. Powers carefully sculpted the body but did minimal work on the locket, cross, and drapery, since it was more efficient to refer to real examples of these objects when carving these elements in marble. Similarly, Powers did not lose time modeling the chains that were so important to the sculpture's narrative. Instead, he attached real metal chains, which scraped into the plaster figure's right thigh. This plaster was the reference prototype for several of the full-scale marble replicas of the Greek Slave. Between 1844 and 1869, professional carvers working under Powers' direction mechanically reproduced six full-scale marble replicas of the Greek Slave for private patrons. Each one is nearly identical to this plaster except for variations in the drapery, chains, and other details and each one is considered to be an original work of art. The carvers used a pointing machine, similar to the one displayed in this exhibition, to precisely measure the location of metal studs and graphite "x" marks that appear on the surface of this plaster and transfer these registration marks to corresponding locations on the block of marble being carved.
10. SIPGMP_150723_089.JPG: Life Cast of Left Forearm and Hand (fragment) about 1843 plaster Studio of Hiram Powers Florence, Italy 1837–73 This cast of a woman's forearm and hand eerily captures the unmistakable skin texture and muscle tone of a living model. Remarkably, it is the exact size and holds the same pose as the left arm and hand of the Greek Slave, inviting us to wonder who may have served as the artist's model for this famed sculpture and to what extent Powers relied on studies from life to create his idealized figures. Sculptors have long made casts of limbs and torsos to serve as anatomical study models. Many were also hired to make death mask impressions of the faces of deceased loved ones and public luminaries. The boundary between modeling in clay and body casting was strictly observed, and sculptors risked their reputations and credibility if they were suspected of "cheating" by substituting a body cast instead of modeling the figure themselves.
11. SIPGMP_150723_094.JPG: Measured Perfection Hiram Powers' Greek Slave Hiram Powers (1805 – 73) was among the first American sculptors to establish an international reputation, rising to fame in the late 1840s with his Greek Slave, a life-size marble sculpture of a chained, nude woman. Few could have predicted Powers' incredible success from his humble beginnings on a farm in Ohio or his time in Washington, DC, where he made somber plaster portraits of four early presidents and other luminaries. Powers moved to Florence, Italy, with his wife and young children in 1837, lured there by its abundance of fine marble and highly skilled stone carvers. He quickly realized there was much to gain from making ideal compositions of nude figures drawn from literary, biblical, and historical themes. Powers set up a studio dividing labor among several assistants and, using the latest technologies such as the pointing machine, to create numerous replicas of his most popular designs in marble. Although he always intended to return to the United States, Powers remained abroad until his death and became an unofficial ambassador for American culture. He was a central figure in the expatriate colony in Florence, where he masterfully marketed his work to British nobles and American collectors touring Europe.
12. SIPGMP_150723_096.JPG: Studio of Hiram Powers about 1856 Powers' studio in Florence was such a fashionable destination among British and American Grand Tourists that it was listed in travel guides. Between 1839 and '69, the studio was located in a former convent, an unusual space in which to view life-size sculptures of nude figures such as the Greek Slave, which can be seen on the left. The fifteenth-century building with its high vaulted ceilings offered Powers, who appears on the right, an enchanting Renaissance setting in which to market his work to potential clients.
13. SIPGMP_150723_102.JPG: Sculpting Tools from the Studio of Hiram Powers Powers made many of his own tools in his studio and secured patents for some of his improvements to traditional tools. Each stage of production required different tools made of different materials. Powers used small wooden tools and wire loops to model his designs in soft clay. Studio assistants then molded and cast these designs in wax or plaster and used fine tipped metal spatulas, files, and scrapers to refine the surfaces. The plaster casts were subsequently translated into marble that was carved with iron chisels.
14. SIPGMP_150723_107.JPG: Calipers from the Studio of Hiram Powers Metal calipers of various sizes were used to compare proportions between plaster and marble versions and occasionally to measure the bodies of live models Powers hired to pose in his studio.
15. SIPGMP_150723_110.JPG: Tavola VIII, 1802, engraving designed by Carradori and incised by Lasinio; published in Istruzione elementare per gli studiosi della scultura.
16. SIPGMP_150723_114.JPG: Contemporary Chisels: Even today carvers use an array of metal chisels with different tips to create various textures on the surface of the marble, such as those found on the hair, clothing, and skin of Powers' figures. These three contemporary chisels -- flared rondel, hand point, and flared teeth -- are made of steel but otherwise remain remarkably similar to the iron ones used in Powers' studio.
17. SIPGMP_150723_128.JPG: Contemporary Pointing Machine Busts of the Greek Slave were so popular that Powers' studio made over one-hundred marble examples, some of which were created after the sculptor's death. Powers relied on studio assistants and a pointing machine to maintain quality control while keeping pace with the huge demand for his compositions. This mechanized production system also allowed him to replicate his designs in a variety of sizes and formats, such as this two-thirds reduction of a bust of the Greek Slave. The pointing machine is a sophisticated measuring device that was used widely in the nineteenth century to replicate sculptures in marble. Its adjustable, slender metal rods attach to a stationary crossbar that mounts to the base of either the plaster model or the block of marble being carved. A single pointed rod aligns with "x" marks or pins on the plaster model that indicate the high and low contours. The whole apparatus is then moved and the measurements are transferred to corresponding locations on the marble block being carved. The instrument is moved between the plaster and the marble hundreds of times, guiding the carver to remove the right amount of marble from the block.
18. SIPGMP_150723_139.JPG: Ginevra (fragment) revised 1863 plaster, metal pins Hiram Powers born Woodstock, VT 1805– died Florence, Italy 1873 The cult of youth had always been irresistible to artists and collectors alike. Ginevra depicts a fifteen-year-old bride, a tragic character from Samuel Rogers' popular poem Italy (1822), who dies on her wedding night after inadvertently locking herself in a trunk while playing hide-and-seek with her betrothed. Powers produced at least seven examples of Ginevra, his first ideal bust, before revising the composition in 1863 to eliminate the cascading curls of hair that were expensive to produce in marble. A marble example of the subsequent version of Ginevra is on view in a second floor gallery adjacent to the Bierstadt alcove.
19. SIPGMP_150723_142.JPG: Ginevra (first version) modeled 1838 plaster Hiram Powers Powers never intended for us to see these two unfinished examples of Ginevra, yet they offer a fascinating behind-the-scenes views of his studio process. After Powers modeled Ginevra in clay, his studio assistants created molds and casts in plaster, which is a more durable material. the seam lines on the large plaster bust show where the parts of the mold came together. Although such casts were sometimes refined with metal files and rasps and marketed as finished works of art, more often the design was transferred to marble by specialized carvers who separately executed the hair, drapery, and the fact, which was left for last. The geometric note in this marble example ways refinement, and divots made by the pointing device have yet to be polished away.
20. SIPGMP_150723_146.JPG: Ginevra (first version, unfinished) modeled 1838 marble Hiram Powers
21. SIPGMP_150723_148.JPG: Vise patent 1850 Powers constantly experimented with materials, tools, and techniques to increase the efficiency of his studio. He was an accomplished inventor and patented several of his improvements to files and other traditional sculpting tools, including his design for a vise.
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