Painting religion in public : John Singer Sargent's Triumph of religion at the Boston Public Library
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Painting religion in public : John Singer Sargent's Triumph of religion at the Boston Public Library
Princeton University Press, 2001, c1999
- : pbk
Available at / 1 libraries
-
No Libraries matched.
- Remove all filters.
Note
"Second printing, and first paperback printing, 2001"--T.p. verso
Bibliography: p. 349-355
Includes index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
A brilliant painter of society portraits, John Singer Sargent also devoted many years at the height of his career to a project of an entirely different order: an ambitious, multi-media decoration titled "Triumph of Religion" (1890-1919) for the Boston Public Library. The library cycle Sargent imagined as his most important work, however, would ultimately remain unfinished, quietly abandoned in the face of religious opposition, one critical painting short of completion. Truncation dramatically altered possible readings of Triumph, redirecting its narrative energies and generating new meanings in tension with the idea Sargent had proposed. In "Painting Religion in Public", Sally Promey tells the story of an artist of international stature and the complex and consuming pictorial program he pursued in Boston. Highly celebrated in its day, with individual panels retaining immense popularity even in the years of discord, this artistic project and its constituent images tell us much about broad cultural and political exchanges concerning the public representation of religious content in the United States.
Sargent's library decoration attracted the attention of multiple audiences and engaged concurrent debates about class, race, art, and religion. Representatives of various religious and cultural backgrounds hailed portions of the cycle as indicative of the strength of their own positions, and reproductions of the images appeared in everything from books and encyclopedias to stained glass and public pageantry. Promey analyzes the conception and production of the cycle, persuasively demonstrating that "Triumph of Religion", far from promoting a narrowly sectarian version of religious practice, represented instead Sargent's public recommendation of the privacy of modern belief. The artist recast contemporary religion as spirituality, she argues, linking it not with institutions and dogma but with personal subjectivity. For Sargent, this ideal was a sign of Western, especially American, progress. Carefully reconstructing patterns of reception in an increasingly diverse religious climate, and exploring the extent and character of Sargent's personal and artistic investment, Promey boldly illuminates the work Sargent hoped to make his masterpiece.
At the same time, she enriches understanding of religious images in public places and popular imagination.
Table of Contents
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS viii INTRODUCTION PAINTING RELIGION IN PUBLIC 2 CHAPTER 1 THE SUBJECTIVITY OF MODERN RELIGION 10 CHAPTER 2 RITUAL PERFORMANCES 62 CHAPTER 3 CULTURAL SELECTIONS 104 CHAPTER 4 EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY 144 CHAPTER 5 THE SYNAGOGUE CONTROVERSY 174 CHAPTER 6 SYNAGOGUE, CHURCH, AND THE SELF CONCEALED 226 CHAPTER 7 THE MANY PUBLICS OF SARGENT'S PROPHETS 272 EPIL0GUE REPRESENTING RELIGIOUS PLURALISM IN PUBLIC 306 ABBREVIATI0NS 317 N0TES 318 SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 349 INDEX 356
by "Nielsen BookData"