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December 27, 2024

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Looking at the Masters: Candy Chang by Beverly Hall Smith

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The year 2020 is finally over and now we can look forward to 2021 with both hope and uncertainty.  Candy Chang, a contemporary American, says she struggles maintaining perspective. “I feel like it’s easy to get caught up in the day-to-day and forget what really matters to you.” Chang’s installation pieces are not closed inside a museum or gallery; they are outside on the street and reach out to the community. Her works offer the opportunity to participate, to challenge one’s self, to complain or exclaim, and to be heard.

Chang is the daughter of immigrants from Taiwan. They settled in Pittsburgh where she was born. After receiving a BS in Architecture and a BFA in Graphic Design from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Chang received a MS degree in Urban Planning from Columbia University. The combination of art, architecture, and urban planning are the core of Chang’s art.  She has been creating interactive art installations since 2006, and has achieved a significant global profile.  This article will discuss three of Chang’s numerous works.  All her works require thoughtful audience participation.  

Chang lives and works in New Orleans, although she travels the world lecturing, leading workshops, and creating site specific art. “Before I die” (2011) (41’ x 8’) was influenced by the unexpected and sudden death of someone she loved: “I spent a long time full of grief, and then I felt gratitude for the time we had together. I thought about death a lot which brought clarity to my life, the people I want to be with, and the things I want to do. I wondered if other people felt the same way.  Over the past few years I’ve tried ways to share more with my neighbors in public space, using simple tools like stickers, stencils, and chalk. This time I wanted to know what was important to the people around me and I wanted a daily reminder to restore perspective.”

Chang sought and received permission to use the side of an abandoned, crumbling house in the Marigny district of New Orleans.  After applying chalk board paint to the wall, she then stenciling, eighty times, the open ended phrase, “Before I die I want to. …. “ Chang comments, “While I was still stenciling the wall, people were walking  up to ask questions – you know, what is this? And a lot of people asked if they could write on it, and we said, yes, please do.” She left colored chalk at the site. The following morning she found the lines entirely filled in with responses, and squeezed into every available corner.

“Before I die” (detail)

 Chang says, “I never had any plans to make any walls beyond New Orleans.  You know, I made this wall, posted a few photos online and then it just spread like wildfire.  And my inbox blew up with messages from people around the world who wanted to make a wall with their community.”  Chang’s project has been recreated more than 5000 times in 75 countries, including China, Haiti, South Africa, Iraq, and Brazil.  The project is ongoing and has generated a book of the same title as well as a website.  

In 2019, “Before I die” was repeated in a full room, at the Renwick Gallery as a part of its Burning Man Exhibition titled “No Spectators.”  As a viewer of the work, this writer found it very compelling, fascinating, moving, and exciting. The Atlantic magazine called “Before I die” “one of the most creative community projects ever.” Publishers Weekly described the book as “a powerful and valuable reminder that life is for the living, and it’s never too late, or too early, to join the party.” Chang states: “I am passionate about the relationship between public space and mental health.”  

In 2010 Chang Co-founded with James A Reeves the Civic Center in New Orleans. They describe the Civic Center as an “urban design studio that combines architecture, graphic design, and urban planning to make thoughtful public spaces and communication tools for everyday issues of city life.”  Their goal is to “make cities more comfortable for people. And we are not talking about outdoor seating and wider sidewalks – that’s what makes this creative studio so unique.  We believe that public spaces should inspire conversation, make the machinery of the city more accessible, and restore a sense of dignity to the public realm.” They have worked in such disparate cities Nairobi, Vancouver, New Orleans, and Johannesburg.

Chang became a TED Senior Fellow and delivered a TED talk in 2011.  The TED foundation “supports and connects global visionaries who have shown outstanding accomplishment and exceptional potential. The foundation has identified and honored over 470 individuals. 

“Confessions” (2012)

In 2012, while artist-in-residence at the Art Production Fund in Las Vegas, Chang set up “Confessions” (2012).  Inspired by the ritual of the Catholic Confessional and Shinto Prayer Shrines, Chang invited guests at a nearby Las Vegas hotel to write their confessions on wooden plaques similar to those used in Shinto Prayer shrines.  The participants represented a transient and temporary community, rather than the established local community.  The confession booths, set up to insure privacy, perhaps remind us of our recent election in an ironic or comic way.

Chang painting confessions for exhibition

Chang collected 1500 confessions and arranged them in an exhibition at the Cosmopolitan P3 Studio gallery in the heart of the Las Vegas Strip.  She selected several and painted them in white on large red boards. “Confessions” as has been recreated in Belarus (2016), Athens (2016), London (2017), Armenia (2017), and San Diego (2019).

“Confessions”  (detail)

“A Monument for the Anxious and Hopeful”(2018/19)

“A Monument for the Anxious and Hopeful” February 2, 2018 to January 7, 2019) (31’ x 12’), is a collaboration between Chang and Reeves.  “We live in a uniquely unsettled moment of technological, political, and social flux. Awash in endless currents of information delivered by glowing screens, each new headline, discovery, and development brings a fresh opportunity for hope or anxiety, depending upon our individual attitudes and philosophies. By definition, anxiety and hope are determined by a moment that has yet to arrive—but how often do we pause to fully consider our relationship with the future? Are we optimists or pessimists? And how do our private sensibilities square with the current collective mood?” 

“A Monument for the Anxious and Hopeful” (detail)

The installation was located in the lobby of the Rubin Museum of Art in New York City and received over 50,000 responses.  It was inspired by Tibetan prayer flags, and as Chang states, “It’s a fitting exercise to do in the Rubin Museum because it adopts Buddhist practices along with psychological techniques. A helpful first step in dealing with our anxieties is to greet them and give them a name. Then we can examine them more objectively and break them down further. Psychologists have shown how productive this can be. It may not make us less afraid, but it can make us braver.”

Chang painting confessions for exhibition

When asked which side received more responses, Chang replied the Hopefuls received more responses, but not by much.

“Light the Barricades, Walls: Defend, Divide, and the Divine” (2019)

Chang and Reeves collaborated on “Light the Barricades, Walls: Divide, and the Divine (2019) commissioned by the Annenberg Space for Photography in Los Angeles.  The installation, located at the Annenberg Community Beach House, consists of three solar powered 27’ by 8’ light boxes created by James Reeves. It was influenced by the I Ching, a Chinese text originally carve on a prison wall 3000 years ago. Made into a book, it deals with the obstacles of resentment, judgment and doubt, which human place on themselves that prevent us from moving forward.  The I Ching tells us that “keeping still when faced with obstruction provides an opportunity to turn inward and resolve our difficulties.”  

“Light the Barricades, Walls ‘’ (detail)

               

Each light box represents one of the impediments, RESENTMENT, JUDGMENT, and DOUBT displayed in large white letters, and a smaller white text running the length of the wall.  The text for RESENYMENT begins:  “It started with a tiny betrayal.  A few words in the kitchen or a broken promise…”  On the other side of the wall, three seats are placed in front of three holes, allowing viewers to sit and contemplate a specific question that is printed around the outer edge of the hole. The light boxes were next to the beach, allowing viewers to interact with the calming effects of sun, sand and surf, or sand and surf at night. An original sound track played during the exhibition adding to the ambiance.  Chang and Reeves’s book, Light the Barricades, records over 3000 handwritten responses from visitors to the exhibition.

“Light the Barricades, Walls” (detail)

Chang and Reeves currently are working with psychologist, sociologists, researchers, and others, to generate new ideas to “better connect the personal and public in meaningful ways.”  On October 29, 2020, Chang was the keynote speaker at the American Art Therapy Association Annual Conference.  In November 17, 2020 she gave a talk at the Diversity & Inclusion Professions Annual Awards luncheon.  She says, “I am passionate about the relationship between public space and mental health.” 

NOTE:  Candy Chang has a large presence online. If you Google Candy Chang include the word artist behind her name, otherwise you will find another Candy Chang, a Beauty Queen winner.

Beverly Hall Smith was a professor of art history for 40 years.  Since retiring with her husband Kurt to Chestertown six years ago, she has taught art history classes at WC-ALL and Chesapeake College’s Institute for Adult Learning.  She is also an artist whose work is sometimes in exhibitions at Chestertown RiverArts and she paints sets for the Garfield Center for the Arts.

 

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Looking at the Masters: The Art of Christmas

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Religious art created to tell the story of Christ’s birth was influenced by many sources beyond Matthew and Luke in the New Testament and numerous verses from Old Testament prophets.  Since Christianity began, religious individuals have written down their thoughts and visions adding to the events surrounding Christ’s birth. Some of these writing were accepted by the Catholic Church as legitimate, while other texts, although disputed, were still available.  Artists and their patrons, from the Byzantine period to the Renaissance, liberally employed these stories and symbols in their art. Churches and wealthy nobles commissioned all of the art work, and had artists include persons and symbols that they desired.  Thousands of images of the birth of Christ were produced.

Two separate incidents are frequently conflated in works of art depicting the birth of Christ.  “On the eight day, when it was time to circumcise him, he was names Jesus, the name the angel had given before he had been conceived” (Luke 2: 21). When the time of their purification according to the Law of Moses had been completed, Joseph and Mary took him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord, Every firstborn make to be consecrated the Lord, and to offer a sacrifice in keeping with that is said in the Law of the Lord, a pair of doves or two young pigeons” (Luke 2: 22). The Catholic calendar celebrates these events on two separate days.  The Circumcision of Jesus is celebrated on January 1, and the Purification is celebrated on February 2, forty days later as specified by Mosaic Law.  

Bernardo Luini’s painting, “Circumcision” (1520), depicts the two events, but emphasizes the circumcision.  Mary and Joseph have returned to the temple in Jerusalem from Bethlehem.  The setting is in an Italian Renaissance church and the Mohel (Rabbi) holds up a scalpel about to perform the ritual.  In an unusual depiction, Jesus holds onto Mary’s arm for support. Mary is elegantly dressed in a red dress and dark green cloak, rather than in the traditional royal blue.  The sleeves of her garments are heavily embroidered with gold and her cloak is closed at the neck with a wide gold band.  Mary is the only figure in the scene given a halo.  In keeping with the artistic tradition, Mary is a young woman, and Joseph is a middle ages man with a beard.  His robes too are resplendent with gold, and he has brought two doves in a basket to the Temple for the Purification.  A roundel on the altar depicts the Old Testament story of Abraham about to sacrifice Isaac.  An angel flies in above Abraham’s head and grasps his arm to prevent the sacrifice. Isaac was not sacrificed, but Jesus will be. A number of spectators look on. In many cases they would be portraits of family who commissioned the painting. 

The Golden Legend (1275) explains the circumcision was necessary to show the Jews that Jesus was human.  The act served to remove any excuse for the Jews not to acknowledged Jesus as the promised savior. Mary and Joseph strictly followed Mosaic Law (Law of Moses). The Golden Legend continues to explain the significance of the Circumcision as the first of five times Christ shed blood for our redemption. 

“Presentation of the Temple” (1304-06)

Giotto’s fresco “Presentation to the Temple” (1304-06) (Arena Chapel, Padua) completes Luke’s description of the two events. Mosaic Law requires a woman to wait forty days after giving birth to a male child before going to the Temple to be purified and to redeem her first born son.  Joseph holds the pair of doves, an offering given in memory of the first born of Egypt. The book of Leviticus and The Golden Legend state a woman who has a male child is unclean for seven days, and cannot enter the Temple for thirty-three more days.  At that time she offers gifts to buy back her child, and the child’s soul is then infused into his body.  If the child was female, the mother must wait twice as long, since Christ chose to be born a man, males would grew faster, women had sinned more, starting with Eve, and their suffering should be doubled.  

Giotto’s painting is a fresco, water based paint on a plaster wall.  Mary’s outer blue robe and Joseph’s under robe have lost most of their blue paint, as has much of the blue sky.  Blue paint was the most delicate of the colors. Giotto was the first artist to place figures before a blue sky rather than the gold sky of the previous Byzantine style. Giotto also was the first artist to be able to depict figures with weight and to appear as if they were standing on the ground.  Although he was not able to show emotion on the faces of his figures, his use of gestures to generate emotions were unparalleled.  His achievements were the major influence for Italian Renaissance artists in the next century.

“Presentation” (1605)

Ludovico Carracci’s painting “Presentation” (1605) fulfills the promise of Giotto’s art and completes the story started in Luke 2: 21-28.  In the temple, was Simon, an elderly man with a long white beard reaches out to hold Jesus. Simon was one of the scribes who copied and translated the Book of Isaiah for Pharaoh Ptolemy II of Egypt (260 BCE). Coming to the passage, “Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign, Behold a Virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call him Emmanuel,” (Isaiah 1: 14), Simon thought this could not be right and crossed it out. The next morning the sentence had been rewritten in the document. Simon crossed the sentence out three times, but each morning it reappeared.  Finally accepting that a virgin would bear a son, Simon prayed to live to see such a thing.  Simon, now over two hundred sixty years old, reaches out to hold and accept the miraculous child.  Next to Simon is the prophetess Anna, the decrepit old woman holding the stone tablet.  Anna prophesied great things for Jesus but will not reach out and will not embrace him. 

Mont Joie” (1420)

 On January 6, thirteen days after Christ’s birth, the Magi reached Jerusalem.  In the time of the holy Crusades (1099-1221), structures called Mont Joie’s were constructed. From these sites one could see Jerusalem.  The “Mount Joie” (1420) (Limbourg Brothers,Tres Riches Heures) depicted in this illuminated manuscript is an elaborate Gothic structure with pointed arches and numerous pinnacles and spires.  Three gold draped female figures, presumably Faith, Hope and Charity, can be seen inside. Three gilded warrior figures appear at the top. The Magi and their retinues come from three different directions and are dressed in colorful silks and brocade from the East. Trade in these fabrics along the Silk Road was established by 130 BCE-1453 CE. The figures presumably are intended to illustrate their nations of origin, but are most drawn from the artists imagination.  The oldest Magi with a white beard and rides a white horse. The middle aged Magi with the brown beard rides a gray horse.  The youngest Magi is clean shaven.  This artistic tradition of showing age by hair color and beard was established early in painting and did not end until the Italian Renaissance when artists began to understand how to render faces with the appropriate signs of age.  Exotic animals accompany the Magi: a lion climbs a hill behind the Mont Joie, two cheetahs and two camels accompany the middle aged Magi, and a brown bear and small green lizard look on from the right. 

“Three Magi” (505 CE)

Epiphany (epi meaning above and phanos an appearance), is celebrated on January 6. According to Matthew 2: 1-2: “Magi from the east came to Jerusalem” seeking the “star of Jacob” and the King of the Jews. They were following a sign in the heavens prophesized by Baalem, a diviner in the Book of Numbers (24: 17). The Bible does not specify the number of Magi, but it tells of gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.  Magi were wise men and astronomers. “The Magi” (505 CE) (Sant’ Apollinare Nuovo, Ravenna), a mosaic, depicts three men in Persian dress and wearing red Phrygian caps. Tertullian the Christian (160-230 CE) determined that the three gifts were gifts were ones that would be given from a King to a King.  In the Sixth Century, it was decided to give the Magi/Kings names from the ancient Mesopotamian list of the gods.  Balthasar, Melchior and Caspar are written above their heads.  The Byzantine gold sky, green grass with flowering plants, and date palm trees complete this scene.

“Adoration of the Magi” (1423)

Gentile da Fabriano’s altarpiece,“Adoration of the Magi” (1423) (9’11’’ x 9’3’’),  is an excellent combination of early Italian Renaissance mixed with the International Gothic style.  It was commissioned by Pala Strozzi, one of the very wealthy Florentine nobleman.  It is a complete altarpiece with an elaborately carved and gilded wood frame.  The first of three top scenes depicts the angel Gabriel, who delivering the Annunciation to Mary, with two Old Testament prophets who foretell the birth of Christ. In the center, God is depicted with Moses and the Ten Commandments and King David, the ancestor of Christ.  In the third scene, Mary is accepting the message from Gabriel and is shown with two other Old Testament prophets. The three panels across the bottom are called predella and tell the early part of the Nativity story.  In sequence from left to right they are the Nativity with the mid-wives and annunciation to the shepherds; Mary, Joseph, and the Child on the way to Jerusalem; and Mary and Joseph presentation of Jesus to the Temple for purification and circumcision.  The main altar depicts the Adoration of the Magi.  Across the top Fabriano shows the journey of the Magi as they follow the star in search of the newborn King of the Jews.  

The major scene, the three Magi/Kings adoring the child, fills the forefront. The older figure has fallen on his knees and removed his crown in deference to the new king.  The middle aged Magi/King reaches up to remove his crown, and the youngest, standing out in his red tights, is having his spurs removed as he waits his turn.  One hopes his attendant in blue will not be trampled. All of the figures, including the two mid-wives and the entourage are richly dressed.  Christ, although only thirteen days old, sits upright and reaches out His hand to the elder Magi/King.  In adoration of the Magi scenes, Jesus is represented as having both knowledge of his intended purpose and physical abilities beyond that of a newborn. 

The setting combines the cave/stable and stone and wood structure of a stable, and the ox and the ass. Fabriano has included several animals in the scene. Foremost is a muzzled grey hound, a prized status symbol of the wealthy. Several beautifully caparisoned horses are crowded in the right hand corner. Fabriano, trying to show the horses in three dimensions, is not successful.  It is an interesting to study and image the reality of the people and horses in this congested space.

Numerous exotic animals have come from the East with the Magi. Careful observation will reveal a snarling cheetah between two horse’s heads. Moving farther into the crowd, a lion’s head, a pelican nest, two monkeys, and two hawks can be found.  Big cats were prized animals in a Prince’s’ collection as they represented among other things power and strength.  Hawks, known for their great speed and incredible eyesight, were used for hunting and symbolic of intuition. The pelican was a spiritual icon; a mother pelican would feed her babies by striking her own breast to give her body and blood if necessary. Christ gave his body and blood to save his children as is celebrated in the Eucharist 

“Adoration of the Magi’’ (1504)

        

The Venerable Bede (673-735), an English Benedictine Monk, described the nature of Christ by the gifts he was given:  gold for His royalty, frankincense for His divinity, and myrrh for His mortality. St Bernard (12th Century) found more practical reasons for the gifts.  The gold would keep the holy family from poverty in Egypt, the frankincense would help to purify the smells in the stable, and myrrh would drive the worms contracted in stables from Christ’s entrails. In the thirteenth Century it was also decided that the Magi represented Europe, Asia, and Africa.  Albrecht Durer’s “Adoration of the Magi” (1504) (39 x 44.7’’) depicts this last development.  The oldest Magi, the European, has removed his crown, and kneels before Jesus and Mary.  The blond, long- bearded middle aged Magi, however is not Asian.  Although it was determined he would be Asian, no artist attempted to create this impression.  This is Durer’s self portrait. He frequently placed himself as a character in religious scenes.  He was one of the early artists to include an African male as the third Magi. 

Durer had traveled to Florence and had seen Leonardo da Vinci’s unfinished “Adoration of the Magi” (1481-82). Durer liberally copied the background scenery from da Vinci.  The falling stone walls and crumbing Roman arches represent the old law of Rome.  He also included da Vinci’s group of Roman soldiers on horseback in the far right.  The newly built stable in the foreground, is his addition to the scenery, and it represents the new law of Christ.  Two butterflies are perched next to the Virgin and are symbols of the resurrection of Christ:  as the butterfly emerges from the cocoon as Christ emerged from the tomb. The plants and greens, identifiable to a close observer, growing from the stones also have symbolic meanings but are always indicative of regeneration and new life.  

Small but not insignificant are the ant and the beetle. The ant is next to Mary and the butterflies. Although thought to be small and weak, ants are frequently observed in the Bible as symbols of cooperation, organization, providing for the future.  They were observed to work together to build and to store food for the future.  The beetle, seen in the lower right hand corner, in the form of the scarab/dung beetle, was a symbol from Egypt,  Egyptians observed the female beetle rolled what they thought was a ball of earth ahead of her, and they thought baby beetles were born from this earth. To them it was a sign of a miraculous transformation and birth.  The arrival of the beetles also signaled the coming of the annual flooding of the Nile.  Thus the beetle represented hard work, creativity, and good luck.  Roman Catholic artist painted copious symbols is their paintings, as everything on this earth was created by God and had a meaning and purpose. 

“Toppling of the Pagan Idols” (1423)

The Gospel of Matthew 2:11-14, tells that after the Magi left, an angel appeared to Joseph and told him to take Mary and Jesus to Egypt, as King Herod would look for Jesus to kill him.  Herod ordered the massacre of all male children of one year and younger, the act recalling Pharaohs’ order to massacre the first born children of the Jews. Several miraculous events are recorded during the journey.  Josephus the Historian (37-100 CE) wrote that Mary and Joseph traveled on robbers’ paths to avoid detection.  When they came upon robbers, a young robber stopped the other from robbing them. According to Josephus Mary said to the robber: “The Lord God will receive this to his right hand and grant thee pardon for thy sins.”  This was Dismas the good thief, who was crucified with Christ and was believed to have been forgiven.  Pseudo Matthew records that when the holy family entered Egypt, trees bowed down to Jesus and idols fell as prophesied by Isaiah.  “Toppling of the Pagan Idols” (1423) (Bedford Master) depicts one such idol falling.  The sculpture on top of the column appears to come to life and is aware he is falling, and comically displays a startled expression.

    

The manuscript image, “The Flight into Egypt” (1400) (Limbourg Brothers, Tres Riches Heures), depicts two separate stories. The Gospel of Pseudo Matthew tells the story of the palm tree. On their journey, Mary saw a palm tree, and tired and thirsty, she asked Joseph to pick her some fruit. ”Then the child Jesus, who was sitting on her knee, ordered the palm-tree to bow down and let his mother eat of the fruit at her pleasure.  As the tree still continued to bow, Jesus permitted it to resume its upright position, and, for its devotion, chose it as tree of eternal life for the dying, and declared he would make his triumphal entry into Jerusalem with a palm branch in his hand.”  The Limbourg Brothers chose to depict Jesus as young boy in a gold robe giving fruit to two other boys.  Also included are the two midwives and the back ends of the ox and the ass. Inclusion extraneous figures are often found in works of art created for specific patrons and included at their request.  More than one story describing trees bowing down to Christ were written and were included in both the journey to Bethlehem for the Nativity and the flight into Egypt.  

The lower scene of the manuscript depicts a favorite story. As the family passed a farmer just sowing his wheat field, Mary tells him that if anyone asks about them he should tell them they passed this way when I was sowing this wheat.  Mary could not lie and would not ask anyone else to do so. Overnight the wheat grew tall and the next day when the soldiers of Herod asked, the farmer, who was harvesting his wheat could answer truthfully, they passed here when I was sowing this wheat.

Happy Epiphany to all, and  May 2021 bring you health and peace.

Beverly Hall Smith was a professor of art history for 40 years.  Since retiring with her husband Kurt to Chestertown six years ago, she has taught art history classes at WC-ALL and Chesapeake College’s Institute for Adult Learning.  She is also an artist whose work is sometimes in exhibitions at Chestertown RiverArts and she paints sets for the Garfield Center for the Arts.

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Looking at the Masters: The Art of Christmas

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Many artists have depicted the Christmas story from the the New Testament. From 313 CE (Edict of Milan) when Constantine declared the Roman Empire to be Christian, other sources influenced these stories. Many of these sources, some as old as the New Testament, were excluded from the official texts in the Bible for various reasons, although many are included in the Catholic Bible. Other books were written during the early Christian and Middle Ages to amplify the significance of Christ’s birth. The Infancy Gospel of Thomas (2nd Century, Rome), Protoevangelium of James (2nd Century Rome), Gold Legend (1275), St Bridget Vision of the Nativity (1372),(Sweden), and the works of the Venerable Bede (673-735), and others were major sources for artists when depicting the stories surrounding the birth of Christ. These stories were used in both Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox art.

“Journey to Bethlehem” (1320)

Caesar Augustus decreed a tax on all Roman citizens of one silver penny as a token of submission to Rome and as a census. In the mosaic “Journey to Bethlehem “(1320) (Chora Church, Istanbul), Joseph and Mary travel to Bethlehem to pay their tax. Mary rides on a donkey, made clear by it’s long ears, and Joseph walks behind. Both wear golden halos. Joseph is shown as an old man as he was a widower with several children. At fourteen Mary left her service in the Temple and of marriageable age was betrothed to Joseph. This Byzantine mosaic is typical in the Eastern Orthodox Church where all stories take place in heaven; the gold background represents the golden light of heaven and of God. On the journey to Bethlehem, the Infancy of Christ Gospel of Thomas recalls that on their way Mary and Joseph saw groups of people rejoicing and others lamenting. Mary asked the angel, who was guarding them, who these people were? The angel replies, “Those who rejoice are the people of the heathen who in Abraham’s seed are about to be admitted to eternal bliss. Those who grieve are the people of the Jews, for God is about the cast them out in accordance with their deserts.”

“Nativity” (Lorenzo Monaco) (1414)

Lorenzo Monaco’s “Nativity” (1414) (12.5 x 20.8’’) depicts Mary and Joseph with their new born son and the ox and ass in a stable/cave. The Protoevangelium of James, a Coptic text translated from Greek (2nd Century), reveals Joseph found a cave for them because there was no room for them in the inns. In the Holy Lands there were many caves, and these were used for stables. In the early Italian Renaissance, artists frequently combined the two structures; a stable roof, familiar to Italians, is built over a cave. On either side of the stable roof are blue and robed angels radiating golden streams of light and praising God. According to St Bridget’s vision (1372), Christ is not wrapped in swaddling clothes but is laid on the ground nude, and his radiance keeps him warm. Mary wears, what becomes a tradition, a rich blue robe with gold edging. Joseph’s robe is likewise edged in gold. These rich garments, not typical for a carpenter and his wife, were a part of the popular International Gothic style of art, in which gold was liberally applied to Holy figures dressed in rich garments. The elaborate gold frame, also International Gothic, was in the favored Gothic quatrefoil design. Unlike many paintings of this time, Joseph’s hand is raised in blessing. More frequently, artists did not know what to do with Joseph and often showed him sleeping. In other paintings Joseph is shown cutting up his socks to make swaddling clothes, getting water, cooking supper, or applying his trade as a carpenter fixing up the stable. Symbolically the ruined stable, sometimes consisting of a crumbling Roman column, represented the old law of the Jews, while any newly built repairs represented the new law of Jesus.

“First Bath”

Several versions of the Nativity story mention that two midwives assisted Mary with the birth and the bathing the Christ child. Pseudo Bonaventura (1300), recalls that Mary gave birth standing against a pillar in the stable, a precursor to Christ’s flagellation. The inspiration for many paintings of the Nativity came from St Bridget of Sweden (1372). She described her mystic vision of the Nativity: “And while she was standing thus in prayer, I saw the child in her womb move and suddenly in a moment she gave birth to her son, from whom radiated such an ineffable light and splendor, that the sun was not comparable to it, nor did the candle that St. Joseph had put there, give any light at all, the divine light totally annihilating the material light of the candle…. I saw the glorious infant lying on the ground naked and shining. His body was pure from any kind of soil and impurity. Then I heard also the singing of the angels, which was of miraculous sweetness and great beauty.”

The Protoevangelium tells of an unexpected encounter between Joseph and Salome. He was seeking for a midwife for Mary and she for a new mother. A spectacular vision appeared to her when she arrived at the stable and she immediately believed in the miracle of the child. Salome had a withered hand and at that moment an angel appeared to her and told her to pick up the child; her hand was whole and she exclaimed: “I will do him worship, for a great king is born unto Israel.” The Salome and the other midwife, whose name varies in different texts, proceed to bath the Child. Ritual baths plays play a major role in Jewish history. Water was scarce and therefore bathing was a significant event used for purification from many types of impure things. Three white turtle doves are perched on the ceiling beams. White doves are iconic symbols of the Holy Spirit and always symbolized purity. Three of anything also references the Holy Trinity, which has now been made complete.

“Nativity” (1310-20)

The “Nativity” (1310-20) (English Missal) and the “First Bath” depict another aspect of the Nativity story. The ox and the ass appear as gentle and smiling creatures in the “First Bath.”The ox holds the swaddling cloth while the child is bathed. The ox and ass help to keep the child warm as they breathe on him. They watch over the child and straighten the swaddling clothes. The ox and ass are not mentioned as being present in the New Testament, but they are almost always included in Nativity scenes. The Infancy Gospel of Matthew (800), states that Mary left the cave on the third day and went into the stable, placing the child in a manger: “And an ox and an ass bent their knees and worshipped him. Therefore, the animals, the ox and ass, with him in their midst incessantly adored him. Then was fulfilled that which was said by Habakkuk the prophet, saying ‘Between two animals you made manifest’.” More significant was Isaiah 1: 3: “The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master’s crib, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand.” The ox is symbolic of Israel and considered a clean animal. The ass represents the Gentiles and considered unclean. In the stable the Jewish and the Gentile world have come together. However, the Jews do not recognize Jesus. The ass is a mindless beast of burden, but is the animal of choice when Jesus rides into Jerusalem. The first Nativity crèche to include an ox and ass was created by St Francis of Assisi, who wanted to see and feel the reality of the manger.

“Annunciation to the Shepherds” (1405-08)

According the Bible, shepherds were nearby tending their flocks when angels appeared in heaven praising God and saying, “Gloria in ex Celsius Deo.” The “Annunciation to the Shepherds” (1405-08) (Book of Hours of Marshal of Boucicaut) is an elaborate International French Gothic scene with the city of Bethlehem, depicted as a French country village. Included in the scene is an attentive sheep dog, three shepherds, a flock of sheep, and a pond with a goose and white swan. The white swan was a symbol of feminine beauty and virginity, light, and innocence among other meanings. Sheep were significant to the Jews as their major source of sustenance, and for Christians, sheep were a symbol for God’s people.

The shepherds are depicted as common people and clothed in plain garments. In the Old Testament, Jews were frequently visited by angel messengers and so were not afraid to hear and see them. The scene is populated with elaborate flowering trees that served two purposes: they add to the International Gothic elegance and whether the artist knew it or not, December in the Holy Lands would probably be warm enough to support the flowers. Biblical sources often mention flowers blooming on the night of the Nativity.

“Adoration of the Shepherds” (1670)

“Adoration of the Shepherds” (1670) (Domenichino), from the Baroque period, depicts joyful and adoring shepherds worshipping the Child. It was typical to see both male and female shepherds with their children bringing gifts to manger. A young boy holds two turtle doves to give as gifts, and a shepherd piper plays for the Child. Gifts of food included eggs, bread and fruit are often presented at the manger. Two different ranks of angels are shown, one group of three cherubs look down from above, and another group of three angels kneel adoringly at the manger. In the background, Joseph is feeding wheat to the ox and ass. The birth of Jesus takes place in the city of Bethlehem which means ‘house of wheat.’ Wheat was thought to ease the pains of child birth and was often available for births. St Helena, mother of the Roman Emperor Constantine who recognized Christianity, was said to have found the straw from the manger three hundred years later because the animals recognized its significance and did not eat it.

With the addition of the shepherds to the manger scene, The Golden Legend (1275) states that at Christ’s birth, “it was revealed to every class of creature, from the stones, which are at the bottom of the scale d creation, to the angels, who are at the summit.” Inanimate things with existence reacted to the birth when “the darkness of night was changed to the brightness of day…the water of a spring changed to oil. The Nativity was revealed to the creatures which possessed existence and life, such as the plants and trees. For in the night of the Savior’s birth, the vines of Engedi bloomed, bore fruit, and produced their wine. The Nativity was revealed to the creatures possessed of existence, life, and sensation, that is, to the animals. The ox and ass, miraculously recognizing the Lord, knelt before Him and adored Him. The Nativity was revealed to the creatures possessed of existence, life, sensation, and reason, that is, to men [the shepherds]. Finally, the Nativity was revealed to the creatures who possessed existence, life, sensation, reason, and knowledge, namely to the angels; for it was the angels themselves, as we have just seen, who announced the birth of Christ to the shepherds.”

“Ara Coeli” (1410-14)

On the day of the Nativity of Christ’s birth The Golden Legend (1275) records Pope Innocent III (Pope 1198-1216) story of the “Ara Coeli” (1410-14) (Christine de Pisan Epistle Otheo). At this time the Roman Senate voted to declare Octavian (Caesar Augustus) a god. Caesar consulted with the Tibertine Sibyl and asked if this was his time to except divinity. Caesar and the Sibyl were alone, and “she saw a golden ring appear around the sun. In the middle of the circle stood a Virgin, of wondrous beauty, holding a child upon her bosom. A voice was heard which said: ‘This woman is the Altar of Heaven’ (Ara Coeli). And the Sibyl said to him: “This child will be greater than thou.” Another version of the event records the Sibyl as saying: “From the sky will come a king who will reign in human form for centuries and judge the world. This child is greater than you; also adore it.” All versions agree, Augustus immediately knelt down and worshipped the Child. This vision was said to appear on the highest hill, the Campidoglio, next to the Roman Forum and Senate. On that spot, Augustus built an altar to the “Lord of Heaven.” The church of St Mary in Ara Coeli now stands in that spot. As a result of this miraculous vision, Octavian declined divinity. He did accept divinity later and became Augustus.

Beverly Hall Smith was a professor of art history for 40 years.  Since retiring with her husband Kurt to Chestertown six years ago, she has taught art history classes at WC-ALL and Chesapeake College’s Institute for Adult Learning.  She is also an artist whose work is sometimes in exhibitions at Chestertown RiverArts and she paints sets for the Garfield Center for the Arts.

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Looking at the Masters: How St Nicholas Became Santa Claus in America

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St Nicholas of Myra (270-343 CE) (Greece) and the numerous miracles he performed were the inspiration for St Nicholas Day celebrated on December 3, 2020. He was buried in the Church of St Nicholas in Myra.  The great schism (1054) officially separated the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches.  The Byzantine Empire was conquered in 1087 by the Seljuk Turks who brought the religion of Islam. A group of Italian Catholic merchants in Myra secretly removed the bones of St Nicholas from the Church and took them to the Italian town of Bari.  They bones were interred in the Basilica of San Nichola and remain there still. The first Crusade (1096) departed from Bari, and St Nicholas’s miracles involving the saving of people, particularly seafarers, became popular with the Crusaders. On their return from the Holy Land, the Crusaders spread the cult of St. Nicholas in Europe.  By the Fifteenth Century stories had evolved to include St Nicholas the gift giver and patron saint of children. Children all over Europe celebrated St Nicholas Day and left shoes or stockings by the fire; if they were good children, they would receive a gift, if not, they might receive a switch.

“The Vindication of Christmas” (1652)

St Nicholas Day suffered a setback in Germany when Martin Luther (1483-1546) stated that Christmas Day, December 25, was the appropriate time for gift giving to celebrate the Christ Child, Christkind in German.  In England, Oliver Cromwell (1647) declared Christmas was a “Popish” tradition and punished those who observed Christmas on December 25.  He promoted the idea that Christmas really was derived from the Roman pagan festival of Saturnalia.  The people revolted.  In 1652, “The Vindication of Christmas, O Sir I bring good cheer to Pilgrims, ”an anonymous print was circulated.  A Puritan on the left is about to draw his sword while Old Father Christmas, dressed in a long gown similar to the robes of St Nicholas, calms the Puritan, and a commoner welcomes Old Christmas.  

The Examination and Tryall of Old Father Christmas (1658)

Josiah King’s pamphlet “The Examination and Tryall of Old Father Christmas” (1658) depicts a white haired and bearded Father Christmas,  this time in Bishop’s robe and mitre, similar to the early images of St Christopher. He wears a long fur stole, and although he is in prison, he sits in a chair with a nailed leather back and curved arm.  Accused by the Commonwealth of idleness, drunkenness, profligacy and other debaucheries, Father Christmas was not restored to his proper role until 1600, when Charles II came to the throne

Festival of St Nicholas on December 6, 1810

From their arrival n America, Puritan colonists banned Christmas in the Massachusetts Bay Colony until 1681. It was Dutch immigrants in New Amsterdam that brought the stories and legends to New York. On St Nicholas Day in Holland, seafaring men went to the harbor to take part in church services for St Nicholas.  On their way home they would pick up small gifts, such as oranges imported from Spain, to put in the stockings or shoes of children.  Coincidentally, St Nicholas often was shown with three golden balls representing the gift he gave to the father of three daughters for their dowry.  The oranges represent the golden balls.  Alexander Anderson’s engraving for the New York Historical Society’s annual meeting in 1810 officially recognizes the first “Festival of St Nicholas on December 6, 1810”.  St Nicholas is depicted in traditional bishop’s robes and on the hearth a Dutch teakettle, waffles, cat, and stockings.  On the mantle, the good little girl holds several gifts in her arms, and her stocking overflows. The bad little boy holds a switch and his stocking is full of switches as well.

“Old Santa Claus with much delight” (1821)

A small paperback book titled The Children’s Friend:  A New-Year’s Present, to the Little Ones from Five to Twelve was published in 1821 by William Gilley in New York. The book included eight illustrations of the poem “Old Santa Claus with much delight,” that tells of Santa Claus’s visit on Christmas Eve, December 24, not December 6. Riding in a sleigh pulled by a reindeer, Santa wears the red robe associated with a bishop.  In other illustrations for the poem he is depicted as tall and thin, quietly putting toys in stockings hung on the children’s bed post.

Another contributor the image of Santa Claus was Washington Irving (1783-1859). Famous for his novels “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and “Rip Van Winkle,” he wrote under the assumed name of Diedrich Knickerbocker, a satire titled A History of New York from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty (1809). In the story Irving described Sinter Klaas as a rascal in a blue three cornered hat, a red waistcoat, and yellow stockings. The figure of Santa Claus was by this time a jolly heavy man who smoked a traditional Dutch long white clay pipe.  He rode over the roof tops in a horse drawn wag and dropped the children’s gifts down the chimney.

A poem called “A Visit from Saint Nicholas”, known familiarly as “The Night before Christmas,” was published anonymously in the Troy Sentinel, on December 24, 1823. The author, disputably, Clement Moore, was a Biblical scholar, a professor and a poet, who taught at the Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church in New York City, did not admit to authorship of the poem for twenty-two years.  The poem contributed a number of new details about Santa Claus. He was dressed all in fur, with a broad face and a little round belly, and he filled the stockings hung by the fire. Moore’s unique contribution to the Santa Claus image was the names and number of eight reindeer: Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner and Blitzen.  Moore presented a peaceful vision of the arrival of Santa Claus in contrast to the more traditional public festivities of drinking, eating, carousing and general rowdiness as the revelers ran riot in the town.  Santa Claus became a family centered figure, and as Moore put it, “A wink of his eye and a twist of his head soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread.”

“The Workshop of Santa Claus” (1873)

Louisa May Alcott, of Little Women fame, wrote in 1856 a poem titled “Christmas Elves,” which would have made another addition to the story of Santa Claus if her publisher had decided to use it. However, in 1857, Harpers’ Weekly published a poem titled “The Wonders of Santa Claus” that included these verses: “He keeps a great many elves at work, All working with all their might, to make a million of pretty things, Cakes, sugarplums and toys, To fill the stockings, hung up you know, By the little girls and boys.”  Godey’s Lady’s Book, (Christmas 1873) contained the image “The Workshop of Santa Claus.” Numerous elves sew, hammer and otherwise busily make toys. The caption reads: “Here we have an idea of the preparations that are made to supply the young folks with toys at Christmas time.”  The same issue also contained an article by a socially conscious writer who informed the reader that contemporary toymakers were not elves, but real people, mostly struggling foreigners. “Whole villages engage in the work, and the contractors every week in the year go round to gather together the six day’s work and pay for it.”

“Santa Claus at the Union Camp” (1863)

The artist who most influenced the evolving image of Santa Claus was Thomas Nast, an immigrant from Bavaria and a famous political cartoonist. Nast, inspired by his German background and “The Night before Christmas,” created what was to become the iconic image of Santa Claus.  However his first depiction of Santa Claus, published by Harper’s Weekly (1863), drawn and printed during the American Civil War, was not what one would expect.  “Santa Claus at the Union Camp” depicts a white bearded Santa dressed in a jacket with white stars and pants with white stripes.  Although a black and white image, the intended reading of the red, white and blue of the American flag is obvious.  This patriotic Santa passes out gifts to Union troops.  A strong Union supporter, Nast included a small boy holding a puppet with a noose around its neck that looks very much like Jefferson Davis. 

“Merry Old Santa Claus” (1881)

Thomas Nast continued to draw images of Santa Claus for Harper’s Weekly for the next thirty years, completing thirty-three Santa’s. The iconic image is “Merry Old Santa Claus” (1881).  His red suit, arm-load of toys, pack on his back, white beard, smiling jolly face, and a long stemmed pipe, this Santa composed the model for all Santa’s to follow. One more part of the story came from Thomas Nast. He began noting “Santa Claussville, N.P.” in the corner of his works, to identify the North Pole as Santa’s home.

 After the end of the Nineteenth Century, Santa Claus’s image was secure. Writers such as Frank Baum, commercial companies such as Montgomery Ward and Coca Cola, and song writers and singers such as John Marks and Gene Autrey continue to add delightful bits of information about Santa Claus.  St Nicholas from Myra, Kris Kringle or Kristkind from Germany, Old Father Christmas from England, and Sinterklaas from Holland, all participated in bringing Santa Claus to America. 

Beverly Hall Smith was a professor of art history for 40 years.  Since retiring with her husband Kurt to Chestertown six years ago, she has taught art history classes at WC-ALL and Chesapeake College’s Institute for Adult Learning.  She is also an artist whose work is sometimes in exhibitions at Chestertown RiverArts and she paints sets for the Garfield Center for the Arts.

 

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Looking at the Masters: The Art of Hanukkah Lamps

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The Jewish celebration of Hanukkah begins at sundown on December 10, and ends at sundown on December 18, 2020. Also known as the Festival of Lights. The festival commemorates the re-conquest of the land of Israel and the re-dedication of Solomon’s Temple. The land of Israel, including the city of Jerusalem, was conquered by Antiochus III (ruled 222-186 BCE), King of Syria, who at first dealt kindly with the Jews. When he was defeated by the Romans and made to pay them heavy taxes, he extracted the tax in gold from the treasury in the Holy Temple of Jerusalem. The treasury held the half shekel each adult male Jew gave annually for the upkeep of the Temple, and an amount for orphans to be paid when they came of age and went out on their own.

At Antiochus’s death his son Seleucus IV further oppressed the Jews. He was followed by his brother Antiochus IV, called the Madman. Defeated in a war with Rome, Antiochus IV returned to Jerusalem and ordered his army to attack the Jews. Thousands died. Jewish worship was forbidden, the scrolls of Law were burned, rituals were forbidden, and Jews were made to eat pork. Thousands of Jews fled and hid in the hills of Judea. From 167 BCE to 160 BCE, Judah Maccabee and his brothers led battles to reclaimed the land. They cleared the Temple of the Syrian and Greek idols and built a new altar. The re-dedication of the Temple was held on the twenty-fifth of the month of Kislev (November-December) in 139 BCE.

Golden Menorah from Arch of Titus, Rome (81 CE)

The original Gold Menorah was stolen when Antiochus IV savaged the Temple; a new one of crude metal menorah was made for the re-dedication. A Menorah has six cups of equal height to hold the consecrated oil, representing among other things, the tree of life and the six days of creation, and a seventh taller cup in the center representing the light of God. However, there was only a small amount of purified olive oil was found, and it was only enough for one night.

The Hanukkah miracle occurred as the one day’s worth of oil burned for eight days, the time necessary to prepare new oil. A new celebration of Hanukkah was declared, and a new lamp was created. Hanukkah lamps had eight oil cups and with a ninth, the Shamash, with oil to light the others. The new lamp celebrated the miracle of eight days of light and the rededication of the Temple.

Hanukkah Lamp (1680)( Frankfort, Germany) (10’’ x 12’’ x3’’)

Lighting the Hanukkah lamp is the most significant part of the celebration. The honor of lighting the lamp goes to a woman. The Talmud and other scholars state that women contributed to the victory of Hanukkah and compare their part in the victory to that of Judith (Book of Judith, Apocryphal Gospels which are excluded from Hebrew and Protestant books) and her victory over the Assyrians. Centered on the lamp is the image of Judith and Holofernes. Judith, a beautiful widow of Bethulia in the sixth century BCE, was determined to save her city from the Assyrians. Nebuchadnezzar, King of Assyria had sent his general Holofernes to conquer the town. He laid siege to the town and their victory was assured as the people of Bethulia would soon starve.. Judith dressed in her finest and with her maidservant went to the camp to see Holofernes. She promised to aid him with the conquest and an easy victory if he promised to spare her people. Holofernes was charmed. In three days, at the dark of the moon, she would lead him to a secret entrance into the city. Until then she agreed to stay in the camp and only asked to go outside in the evening to pray.

On the evening before the attack, she contrived to get Holofernes very drunk, and using his sword she cut off his head. Stuffing it into a bag, she and her maid went out to pray as usual. When the soldiers came to wake Holofernes, they found him dead. Without a leader the army foundered, and the city was saved.

The Talmud states that Jews could not rely on miracles, but should ask God to give them the strength to do the impossible. One story about Judith quotes her: “Give into my widow’s hand the strength that I plot.” Another version of the story relates that she took food into the camp so as not to break Jewish dietary laws. This act presents another aspect of Judith’s link with Hanukkah. Today potato Latkes are a traditional food for Hanukkah: however, they originally were made with cheese. Potatoes were not found in Israel until well after they were brought to Europe from South America and America by Christopher Columbus. In Europe and Israel eating cheese latkes was the tradition. Judith’s food included cheese made from goats and sheep and was extremely salty. She fed Holofernes cheese on his last night; to quench his thirst he drank heavily, and passed out. Cheese latkes became forbidden in the Fourteenth Century when Jews began to fry food in chicken fat (schmaltz), which violated kosher dietary laws not to eat dairy with meat, thus the potato latke. Cheese is still a part of Hanukkah meals as kugel or rugelach. Both cheese and oil remain a part of Hanukkah to remind the Jews of the miracle associated with Judith. Ashkenazi Jews are known for the potato latke. On Hanukkah, the Sephardic tradition features fried jelly doughnuts (Sufganiyot).

Hanukkah lamp (1680) (detail)

Lions and eagles frequently are depicted on Hanukkah lamps. Two rampant lions appear on either side of this bench lamp The Lion of Judah is the symbol of the Israelite tribe of Judah. In Genesis 49:8-10, Jacob blesses his son Judah: “Judah your bothers will praise you; your hand will be on the neck of your enemies. You are a lion’s cub, Oh Judah. The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet.” Three eagles refer to God sending eagles to fight against the Egyptians as the Jews crossed the red Sea. On Mt Sinai, God said to Moses (Exodus 19:4): “You yourself have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to yourself.” The Talmud states that eagles fly the highest of all birds and carry their young on their backs rather than in their claws as other birds do. In this way if an eagle is attacked, the children are protected, and the eagle will sacrifice itself for its children.

Hanukkah lamp (17th century) (14’’x16’’)

Early Hanukkah lamps use oil and not candles as we see today. A second Hanukkah bench lamp depicts Judith and her maidservant in Holofernes’s tent. The beheaded general is depicted on the bed his arm lying over a chest. Judith holds Holofernes sword in her left hand and his head in her right hand. The maid servant opens the bag to receive the head. The city of Bethulia appears to sit upon Judith’s head, perhaps an attempt by the artist to place it in the background outside of the tent. Behind the maid servant are waving palm branches. A Hanukkah lamp with burning oil is centered in the composition. To the left Moses holds his staff in his left hand with the waters of the Red Sea swirling at his feet. In his right hand he supports the two tablets of the Ten Commandments. On the right Moses’ brother Aaron is depicted in the garb of a priest of the Temple: a mitre or turban on his head, a breastplate of judgment set with five stones, and a robe with pomegranates and golden bells on the hem as tassels. In his left hand he holds the ninth oil cup, the Shamah, and in his right a sword. “Thou shalt make holy garments for Aaron they brother for glory and for beauty.” (Exodus 28:2)

Hanukkah lamp (1706-32)(Johan Adam Boller)

In the early Eighteenth Century, Johan Adam Boller (1706-32), a member of a famous silversmith atelier in Frankfort, created a Hanukkah lamp that resembled the shape of a menorah rather than the bench type Hanukkah lamp mostly seen in houses. The eight stems are decorated with alternating flowers, knobs and bells. The description of the Golden Menorah God gave to Moses states that seven stems should have intermittent almond blossoms with rings of other leaves and petals. Judith is placed at the top, and at the lower point of the shaft a rampant lion holds a shield with deer and a bird engraved on it. Four roundels at the base with scenes of Rebecca meeting Abraham at the well, and three scenes from the life of Jacob, her son represent new images. Also new are cloisonné enamels and the use of color in the roundels and in some of the flowers. Hanukkah lamps were often wedding presents, and symbols of the family were frequently included.

Dreidel

A game using a dreidel is another part of the Hanukkah celebration. A dreidel is essentially a top that each person spins to win gelt, a small Jewish coin first minted in the Middle Ages. Like the yearly donation of shekels to Holy Temple, gelt was given to teachers as a thank-you gift for sharing their knowledge. Today gelt is more familiar seen as gold foil covered chocolate coins adorned with symbols of Judaism. On the four sides of a dreidel are the Hebrew letters nun, gimel, hay and shin which explain something about the game. In Yiddish nun stands for nothing, gimel for all, hay for half, and shin for put in. When put together into a Hebrew phrase they stand for “a great miracle happened there” which brings us full circle, referencing the miracle of the eight days of light.

To my Jewish friends, particularly Dena, Happy Hanukkah.

Beverly Hall Smith was a professor of art history for 40 years.  Since retiring with her husband Kurt to Chestertown six years ago, she has taught art history classes at WC-ALL and Chesapeake College’s Institute for Adult Learning.  She is also an artist whose work is sometimes in exhibitions at Chestertown RiverArts and she paints sets for the Garfield Center for the Arts.

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Looking at the Masters: The Story of Saint Nicholas

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Who was St Nicholas?  St Nicholas’s feast day is celebrated on December 5 in the Eastern Orthodox Church and December 6 in the Roman Catholic Church in the west. He was born in the Greek city of Patara on March 15, 270 CE and died on December 6, 343 CE. Patara was a vibrant coastal city on the southwest coast of Lycia, the Mediterranean coast of modern day Turkey. His parents were wealthy, devout Christians.  According to legend he was an exceptional child who preferred to memorize scripture and go to church. The priesthood was a logical vocation.  The factual details of his life are minimal, but over time legends of his kindness and charity, his ability to intervene in serious situations saving lives, and his many miracles increased his growing popularity. He became known as Nicholas the Wonderworker and the patron saint of sailors, merchants, archers, repentant thieves, prostitutes, brewers, pawnbrokers, unmarried people, students, coopers, fisherman, pharmacists, and especially children. Clearly stories about his life and after-death miracles grew substantially.

St Nicholas (16th century Greek Icon)

 Nicholas was made the Bishop of Myra in a unique way. When the Bishop of Myra died, the priests could not decide how to choose a new Bishop.  In a dream, the most respected of the priests was told that the first priest to enter the church the next morning was to be made Bishop. He went to the church and stayed up all night to be there in the morning. Nicholas, who had been away, arrived early in the day and went first to the church to pray. As the first priest to enter the church, he was proclaimed Bishop of Myra. Nicholas was canonized a saint in 1466. His depiction is generally determined by whether the artist is Eastern Orthodox or Roman Catholic. St Nicholas is depicted with a halo, holding the Bible and with giving a blessing with his right hand.  As a Bishop he is can be depicted wearing a cassock with mitre and Crozier.  

Nicholas giving a sack of gold (14th century Italian fresco)

Nicholas’s acts of charity began after his wealthy parent’s death, and he felt the need to dispose of his inheritance. His first act of charity was to help a neighbor who unfortunately had lost most of his money and could not afford dowries for his three daughters. In the dark of night, Nicholas went to the house and dropped a sack of gold through the window. The father was able to provide a dowry for his eldest daughter. Nicholas repeated the nighttime visit with a second sack of gold. The father and daughters told everyone about the mysterious gifts, and the father was determined to find out who the benefactor was. When the sack of gold arrived for the third daughter, her waited and watched.  Seeing Nicholas, he followed him and praised him for his generosity and kindness in providing for his daughters and saving them from prostitution.  Nicholas pledged him to silence and assured him the gift was from God.

Nicholas saving sailors from the storm at sea (Byzantine fresco)

On a voyage by Nicholas to the Holy Lands a great storm came up arose. The Golden Legend by Jacobus Voragine ( 1228-1298) records that the sailors called out to Nicholas,  “Servant of God, if what we have heard of thee is true, let us make trial of it at this moment.” Nicholas replied “You called me, here I am.” Nicholas assisted with the sails, ropes, and tackle and the storm ceased.  He told them to thank God, not him.

Miracle of the Grain (Lorenzetti, A. 1332-34, Italian)

 A famine broke out in Myra in the years 311 to 312 CE, and the people were close to starving.  Nicholas was made aware of an Imperial ship in the harbor loaded with grain, Nicholas talked with the ship’s captain.  The ship’s cargo of grain had been weighed in the city of Alexandria was headed to the Emperor in Constantinople.  The weight of grain was assured and it must reach Constantinople.  Nicholas convinced the captain that some of the grain could be offloaded in Myra and the captain and crew would not be punished.  Persuaded, the captain gave Myra enough grain to feed the population for two years and enough to sow for the next year’s harvest.  When the ship arrived in Constantinople, the weight of grain was equal to the original weight; nothing was missing.

Nicholas of Myra saves the lives of condemned prisoners (Byzantine)

While visiting other parts of his diocese, Nicholas he was called back urgently to Myra because its ruler, Eustathius, had wrongly condemned three innocent men to death, and their execution was imminent. Hurrying back, Nicholas arrived as the executioner held his sword over the head of one of the prisoners.  Nicholas either commanded the executioner to  put down his sword, or as shown in the painting,  he grabbed the sword with his bare hands.  The unjustly accused men were released and proved innocent.  One version says that Eustathius later confessed his sin to Nicholas,  and after a completing a penance was absolved.

Nicholas Resurrects Three Children (Nicholas Book of Devotions, 1577 French)

Nicholas became especially venerated for his help to children.  In one rather peculiar, but frequently reported story, Nicholas was again faced with a looming famine.  On passing by an inn, Nicholas was offered a meal of pork by the inn keeper.  Observing the pork in the pickling barrel, Nicholas realized the meat was not pork, but children.  The inn keeper had cut them into small pieces and was pickling them to sell as pork. Nicholas immediately restored the children’s bodies and brought them back to life. 

In a true story, Nicholas was imprisoned for five years during the reign of Diocletian (r 284-316 CE) who was trying to rid the Roman Empire of Christians.  Nicholas was released when Constantine became Holy Roman Emperor, adding Holy to the title as he made the Empire Christian.  A disputed legend puts Nicholas at the First Council of Nicaea (325 CE). It was called by Constantine to settle the Arian heresy that Christ was not God in flesh brought by Bishop Arius.  Nicholas purportedly slapped Arius and as a result put into chains, stripped of his robes, and imprisoned.  He prayed all night, and the next morning when they came to his cell, he was dressed in his Bishops robes, unchained, and sitting quietly reading.  Constantine freed him and restored his Bishopric. The result of the First Council of Nicaea was to repute the Arian heresy, and the Nicene Creed was written.  Nicholas was credited by some accounts as having signed the document.

Saint Nicholas Day is celebrated today mostly in European countries.  On December 6, children put a pair of shoes by the hearth, and St. Nicholas comes during the night and secretly places small gifts in them.  His legend lives on today. St Nicholas has become known to Americans as Santa Claus.  How this transformation happened will be the subject of a SPY article on December 17.

Beverly Hall Smith was a professor of art history for 40 years.  Since retiring with her husband Kurt to Chestertown six years ago, she has taught art history classes at WC-ALL and Chesapeake College’s Institute for Adult Learning.  She is also an artist whose work is sometimes in exhibitions at Chestertown RiverArts and she paints sets for the Garfield Center for the Arts.

 

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Looking at the Masters: Of Turkeys and Thanksgiving

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The truth about Ben Franklin and the turkey:  No he did not recommend it for the National seal.  According to notes, he proposed “Moses standing on the shore, and extending his hand over the sea thereby causing the same to overwhelm pharaoh who is sitting in an open chariot.”  The motto he suggested should read “Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to God.” In a private letter to his daughter, he praised the turkey as “a much more respectable bird and a true original native of America,” while he denigrated selection of the eagle because he thought the design looked more like a turkey.  Ben was probably not aware of the Seventeenth Century Dutch painters’ still lives with turkeys. Such paintings were few and far between, and often the turkey’s head and wing feather were decorations on turkey tureens.

Monet “Turkeys” (1877)

Claude Monet painting “Turkeys” (1877) was commissioned by Ernest Hoschede, art collector and critic, and one of Monet’s best patrons.  “Turkeys” was one of four paintings that depicted the four seasons at Hoschede’s estate of Rottenburg in Montgeron.  They were to hang in the drawing room. The estate house can be seen in the background.  In typical Impressionist style, Monet uses little white paint to color the turkeys feathers.  Instead he uses colors of the rainbow; purple, indigo, green, yellow, orange and red the colors of sunlight when it shines through a prism. Brisk brush strokes were employed to show movement.  The green lawn complements the red wattles of the turkeys. Monet did not often paint animals, but he certainly made these turkeys appealing.

Pissarro  “Turkey Girl” (1884)

Camille Pissarro was called the grandfather of Impressionism.  He was much older than Monet and Degas, and others, and he took all of them under his wing with open friendship, advice, encouragement, and sometimes financial aid.  In the 1880’s he reverted to an earlier theme which Degas described as “peasants working to make a living.” “Turkey Girls” (1884) is one of several that depict girls working with sheep or goats or harvesting. Pissarro depicts a flock of black and brown turkeys which the girl is keeping in line with a stick.  Apparently this flock of turkeys is more interested in eating than roaming.  

Tanner, “The Thankful Poor”

Jennie Augusta Brownscombe was born in Honesdale, Pennsylvania.  Her mother Elvira Kennedy was a descendant of a Mayflower passenger.  Jennie became an active Daughter of the American Revolution and the Mayflower Descendants.  After studying painting in America and Paris, she became a painter, teacher, lecturer, and commercial artist for New Woman magazine.  “Thanksgiving at Plymouth” (1925) is the result of the Colonial Revival Movement that began in the 1880’s as industrialization, urbanization, and immigration increased.  Americans became increasingly conscious of their history.  Although most often seen in architecture and decorative arts, Browncombe and other artists became interested in Colonial history as a source for their subjects. This painting is her second version of this subject, the first titled “The First Thanksgiving” (1914).  After diligently researching the subject found in available resources, she produced one of the most popular paintings on the subject.  Unfortunately her sources were not very accurate, but fit well the American imagination.  The picture also depicts a young mother and her children in the forefront.  Women artists, previously thought inferior, worked to overcome this idea. Brownscombe sold reproduction rights for her paintings, and they were seen on calendars, greeting card, reproductions.

Tanner, “The Thankful Poor”

Henry Ossawa Tanner was born in Pennsylvania.  His father, a former slave, was an African Methodist Episcopal bishop.  His mother was a runaway slave who came to Pennsylvania via the Underground Railroad.  The family was well respected and Tanner was educated.  He studied in Paris, and as a result of French racial tolerance, he was able to do well, ultimately achieving an international reputation.  He painted mostly religious and genre subjects.  Two of his genre paintings showing the hardships of African American life, “The Thankful Poor” (1894) and “The Banjo Lesson” (1893), were not popular at the time, but they are now among his most famous works. In 2020, with the pandemic causing major disruptions in the world, specifically with the long food lines for so many, it seemed appropriate to include this painting. It is a thoughtful and simple reminder of what is important at Thanksgiving.

Lee  “Thanksgiving “    (1935)    28×40’’

Doris Emerick Lee was born in Aledo, Illinois. After studying art in Illinois, Kansas, and San Francisco, she painted murals for the United States Treasury, created art works for Life Magazine, she settled in Woodstock, New York where she established an art colony.  She remained in Woodstock for the rest of her life.  “Thanksgiving’’ (1935) (24’’x40’’) became a subject of articles in newspapers across the nation after it was exhibited at the Chicago Art Institute and won the prestigious Logan Purchase  Prize. The United States was in the midst of the Great Depression; the theme and style of the painting had immediate appeal nationwide.   “Thanksgiving” is depicted in Lee’s specific genre style.  Everyone could enjoy the delightful hustle and bustle of cooking the turkey, rolling out the pie dough, setting the table, and preparing the carrots and cauliflower.  The family dog licks up bits of food fallen from the oven, while a little girl, bloomers exposed, drops a treat for the cat. A new arrival is removing her hat, a young boy smiles in anticipation, and twins in a high chair cheer for joy.  A critic described this as “fresh, with the charm of innocence.” Lee’s nostalgic image depicts love of family, and despite the quaint style, it represents America at its best.

Despite our world situation in 2020, hopefully these paintings will bring the reader some peace and joy. A Happy Thanksgiving to readers. Stay well and stay calm.  

Beverly Hall Smith was a professor of art history for 40 years.  Since retiring with her husband Kurt to Chestertown six years ago, she has taught art history classes at WC-ALL and Chesapeake College’s Institute for Adult Learning.  She is also an artist whose work is sometimes in exhibitions at Chestertown RiverArts and she paints sets for the Garfield Center for the Arts.

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Looking at the Masters: Peter Paul Rubens  

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Rubens was born in Antwerp, when it was under the Spanish Inquisition to root out Protestants.  The family fled to Protestant Germany, where Rubens grew up in Koln.  His father died when he was ten years old, his mother returned to Antwerp and the Catholic Church.  Rubens was engaged as a page to a Countess:  he learned courtly manners which would be extremely useful in his life.  Artistically talented, he was apprenticed in the Antwerp painter’s guild of St. Luke.  

Rubens proved to be an exceptional artist, was highly appreciated by the Catholic Church, kings, and nobles in Belgium, Italy, and Spain.  He was well received where ever he traveled, and his work was constantly in demand.  He maintained a large teaching studio,  and many of his students, including Anthony Van Dyke, became extremely successful.  With his great popularity and growing wealth, he was able to purchase and maintain a fine house, marry the woman he loved, and raise several children.  His personality and conversation were also much sought after, and when he traveled to foreign courts to complete commissions, he was often there on a diplomatic mission as well. 

His artistic style helped to initiate the Baroque.  His competence with an exceedingly wide range of subject matter from religion to mythology and portraiture was unique.  One particular subject matter which he reintroduced was wild animal paintings.  In Europe at this time, commoners hunted animals such as deer, rabbits, and birds for food.  Paintings depicting kings and nobles in hunting clothes were popular, but their hunts were for pleasure and trophies.  The larger world of Africa and the East was opening up; and with new colonies and an increase in trade, brought knowledge of a variety of strange and exotic animals.  Collecting these animals was the province of the very wealthy.  The Archduke of Brussels had several lions, tigers and others in his collection.  Rubens visited these animals frequently.  

“Daniel in the lions Den”  (1614-16)         

“Daniel in the Lions Den” (1614-16) (88’’x130’’) (National Gallery of Art) was commissioned by Sir Dudley Carleton, the English Ambassador to The Hague in Belgium.  The painting was such a success that Carleton commissioned several other works from Rubens, and eventually became a dealer for his art.  Carleton was also a good friend to the famous Duke of Buckingham, referenced by Dumas in his novel The Three Musketeers. In exchange for the painting, Rubens acquired over one hundred pieces of classical sculpture from Carleton’s collection and amount of money. Rubens was a great collector.

The story of Daniel (Daniel, 6: 1-28) depicts the Jewish prophet’s punishment for not worshiping the gods of Persia. Daniel is imprisoned in the lions den for a night, with the expectation that he would be dead by morning.  We see the various bones of other inhabitants of the den.  The lions are spectacular, and it is easy to see why this painting had such an impact on viewers. The lions were modeled on a species known in North Africa and Morocco as Barbary Lions, which served as models for lions in art from Ancient Egypt to the Nineteenth Century, and now almost extinct.  Rubens saw them in the Spanish governor’s menagerie in Brussels.  Some are sleeping and some resting, but two are snarling. The viewer can admire the brilliant painting of the smallest details.  

“Daniel in the Lions Den” (detail)

Daniel is depicted in prayer to God to protect him. In the Baroque manner, the viewer is placed in the heart in heart of the action and as a result of the size of the painting the viewer is close in size to Daniel and the lions. The Seventeenth Century Baroque style of painting does not present the meditative and quiet scene of the Renaissance style of the Fifteenth Century. In the intervening Sixteenth Century the Protestant Reformation put the Catholic Church on the defensive.  To counteract the Protestant movement, the Catholic Baroque, style, largely initiated by Rubens, generated all the emotional techniques available to artists. Rather than a clear blue sky and sunlight, Rubens and others created dark and brooding skies, or when inside, the dramatic change from the light pouring down on Daniel, to the extreme darkness of the den.  Another typical Baroque touch is the bright red cloak laid under Daniel.  Darkness creates mystery and the unknown, and the color red, the color of blood and fire, creates emotion. This painting, on display at the National Gallery, in Washington, DC, is not to be missed.

“Hippopotamus and Crocodile Hunt” (1615-16)

“Hippopotamus and Crocodile Hunt” (1615-16) (98’’ x 126’’) was commissioned by Maximilian, Duke of Bavaria for his summer residence.  Rubens probably went to Rome to see the dead hippo preserved in brine for his model.  With the Nile River and reeds and palm trees as background, three Arab riders on astride powerful Arabian horses spear the hippo.  They are assisted by two servants, one fallen and possibly dead, and the other attacking the charging hippo with a knife.  In the middle of this melee is the crocodile, mouth open with razor sharp teeth, nears the fallen servant.  Two loyal hunting dogs assist in the fight.  A white dog surges in from the left to attack the hippo, while a black dogs grabs and bites the crocodile’s tail.  The viewer is at the center of the hunt and the hunt which is moving forward in the composition as it explodes across the front of the canvas.  

The composition is dynamic.  Every outline is curved, and diagonals energize each form.  The hippo is at the center of the canvas at the high point of the triangular composition formed by the dog and man with the knife on the left and the injured man and the crocodile’s tale on the right.  Above this center grouping are the riders on horse back forming a semicircle that behind the aforementioned triangle.  Everything moves from the flying fabric, horse’s manes, rearing legs of horses, blowing reeds, and dark clouds moving across the blue sky.  Rubens’s use of color draws the viewer across the canvas; he uses white, red, and a variety of yellows to highlight the movement of the figures.  The more subtle use of green and blue, black and brown, move from left to right and back to front.  Rubens is a master of composition.  Nothing is static.  

Lion Hunt” (1617)

         “Lion Hunt” (1617) (148.2’’x 98’’) is another hunt painting commissioned by Maximilian of Bavaria.  Rubens comments, “I have almost finished a large picture, entirely by my hand, and in my opinion one of my best, representing a Lion Hunt, with the figures life-sized.”  The hunts Rubens painted were influenced in part by tales told by noble men who had witnessed or participated in such hunts.  The male hunt participants are generally exotic types, Arab and African, and their servants. Rubens’s “Lion and Wolf Hunt” (1617-18) was purchased by King Charles I of England.  Beyond hunts with exotic animals, Rubens painted scenes with local animals such as “The Wild Boar Hunt” (1618-20) and scenes from mythology such as “The Hunt of Meleager and Atalanta” (1616-20), also know as “The Caledonian Boar Hunt,” and scenes of the goddess Diana and her nymphs hunting deer.

“Lion Hunt” (detail)

Rubens’s numerous Old Testament, New Testament, mythologies, and portraits hang in almost every museum, large or small, across the world.  He had a large and talented number of apprentices who worked with him on many of his paintings.  Never-the-less, he designed, oversaw, corrected, and painted the crucial parts of all of the work.  

With his beloved first wife, Isabella Brandt, he had three children.  He was grief stricken at her death.  A loving family man, witnessed by the numerous tender drawings and paintings of his family, he found love again with Helen Fourment who bore him a daughter several months after his death.  Rubens was unique among artists.  Not only was he an extremely popular and wealthy painter he enjoyed two successful and happy marriages.  It has been said of Rubens that he was definitely the right man for the right time.

Beverly Hall Smith was a professor of art history for 40 years.  Since retiring with her husband Kurt to Chestertown six years ago, she has taught art history classes at WC-ALL and Chesapeake College’s Institute for Adult Learning.  She is also an artist whose work is sometimes in exhibitions at Chestertown RiverArts and she paints sets for the Garfield Center for the Arts.

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Looking at the Masters: Ran Hwang

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Ran Hwang was awarded an MFA (1997) in realistic art from of the School of Arts, Chang-Ang University in S. Korea. The same year she moved to New York City where she received a BFA in 2000 from the School of Visual Arts in New York. Immigration issues prevented her from returning home when her parents died in Korea. “They are always in my heart.” To earn a living she worked in the New York’s garment district; she drew designs for embroidery patterns which were then transformed into machine made patterns. Hwang noticed boxes of unused buttons stacked in a corner and asked if she could have them. The answer was “take as many as you want.” Something about the buttons drew her, and the germ of an idea grew.

Hwang’s idea came to fruition in 2001. Her work was inspired by her Korean culture and the practice of meditation in Zen Buddhism. Working in her studio on 9/11, Hwang witnessed the destruction of the World Trade Center. She saw “tiny people falling from the upper floors” and could see the ashy remains for months after. “From that point my thoughts deepened around life and death, creation and demolition.” The tiny faces of people with staring eyes piling up on the sidewalk became the abandoned buttons. The buttons, like tiny faces with eyes, represented the millions of nameless people that make up human society. She would recycle the buttons that represented people and would in affect reincarnate them for a new life. The buttons also reflected the global women’s labor force whose intensive work was and has been a reality; many of them being Asian. Hwang makes her images from buttons individually hammered with pins into board, “the perfect material to connect anything. The pin is a relationship.”

Rest II (2009)

Hwang uses her art to create a sense of peace and beauty that counterbalances the chaos and ugliness in the world. “Rest II” (2009) (108’’ x 60’’) resembles Guanyin, the Buddhist goddess of mercy and compassion. This figure, without specific details to identify her as Guanyin except for the relaxed seated pose, depicts a figure at ease and at rest. The gentle downward curves of the buttons and beads create a sense of calm and quiet. The grouping of buttons and beads subtly shimmer and generate a peaceful elegance. The work is mesmerizing.

Sweet in Yean (2010)

“Sweet in Yean” (2010) refers to rebirth. The term Yean means to bring forth young, a specially to sheep and goats. There are no sheep or goats in this work, instead there are several panels of trees incrusted with brilliant red flowers. Hwang comments, “My immense wall installations are extremely time consuming and repetitive manual work. This is a form of meditative practice that helps me find my inner peace. I hammer thousands of pins into a wall like a monk, who, facing the wall, practices Zen.” Many of her works depicts birds such as the American eagle and the Asian phoenix, while others depict clusters of flowers on tree branches, another Asian theme. Her titles reflect the positive ideas she hopes the viewer will experience. “Whimsical Dreams” (2011), “Healing Blossoms” (2012), “Healing Temple” (2015), and “Love Blossoms” (2019) are some examples. She has a number of assistants working for large installation. In large installations, Hwang frequently leaves loose buttons on the floor below the work, perhaps to cause the viewer to think some had fallen off, or possible as a subtle reminder that petals eventually drop from real flowers. Life and death form a cycle.

“East Wind” (2012)

“East Wind” (2012) (6’ x 10’) depicts a created reflection of the Old Palace of Seoul, Korea. Hwang made two different pieces for this work, each approximately the same size, and both taking five months to complete. She scanned old photographs into her computer and manipulated them to create the design she wanted. Most of the buttons in Hwang’s works are not pinned flat to the board, rather they are pinned at various levels and are left loose to allow them to create shadows and to shiver in order to change the light patterns.

Ode to Second Full Moon II

Hwang has created a number of very large installations involving two long panels which form a walkway. As the viewer moves through a long passage of button walls, changing video images are projected and color lights and music create a dynamic panorama. These installations deal with life cycles and generate a slowly changing cycle of growth, decay and regeneration. Her use of large bird images of buttons are also used to discuss the idea of freedom, confinement and release.

“Ode to Second Full Moon II” (2013)

Hwang uses a variety of types and colors of buttons in her works. Nature is a frequent reference. “Ode to Second Full Moon II” (2013) (39.5’’) is an example of her smaller works. Although smaller in scale, they are made with the same labor-intensive and meditative process. The detail of this work clearly illustrates the technique and intensity of Hwang’s process.

“Beginning of the Bright” (2015)

For the UNESCO building in Paris, Hwang executed “Beginning of the Bright “(2015) (106.5 x 86’’), a work combining images of the Arc de Triomphe and the Eiffel tower. The work is made from handmade hanjo paper that is made from the skin of mulberry trees. This paper making process dates from the Fourth and Fifth centuries in Korea. The paper could be used for drawing, but it could be fashioned into suits of armor, lamps and windows. “I used buttons made out of hanji. The components are actually Korean vowels and consonants. I think there’s a triumphal arch in everyone’s mind. So, if you look closer at the arch, I used a lot of ‘ㅎ’ [a letter of the Korean alphabet pronounced like an ‘h’ in English]. The sound of laughter usually begins with the letter ㅎ – haha, hihi, hehe, hoho. Sometimes, people laugh out of happiness or sadness or anger. The piece has three to five layers of hangi. The toughness and softness of the texture and the [white] color of hanji really seem to reflect the heart of the Korean people. So I combined hanji and [the letters of] Hangul, the Korean alphabet.” Hwang created this work in conjunction with Korea’s 2015 celebration of the creation of the Hangul alphabet.

“Beginning of the Bright”, (detail)

Hwang has several exhibitions planned for 2021 and 2022. She has exhibited internationally and has made specific pieces for several companies. In 2017 she created an enormous permanent installation titled “Healing Garden” for the stairway of Royal Caribbean’s cruise ship Anthem of the Sea. In 2021 she will be a participating artist in Facebook’s Artist in Residence Program at its headquarters in New York City.

Some of her works purchased by individuals and museums will endure. However, many of her large installation pieces will be dismantled. She says that taking down her work is “heartbreaking” but “death is part of life.” Always conscious of the heartbreak of 9/11, she recognizes that the cycle of life is the reality. “And that is how it is for exhibitions that are gone. They remain in our hearts.”

Beverly Hall Smith was a professor of art history for 40 years.  Since retiring with her husband Kurt to Chestertown six years ago, she has taught art history classes at WC-ALL and Chesapeake College’s Institute for Adult Learning.  She is also an artist whose work is sometimes in exhibitions at Chestertown RiverArts and she paints sets for the Garfield Center for the Arts.

 

 

 

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Looking at the Masters: William Hogarth

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 William Hogarth was born and raised in London’s East End, a poor and rough part of London.  His father was a failed Latin school master and writer who also failed at his other pursuits and spent four years in Fleet Prison for debtors. Hogarth and his mother had to hold the family together.  At sixteen Hogarth was apprenticed to a goldsmith and was able to engrave images on coats of arm and booksellers plates.  His drawing and engraving skills developed quickly.  He was able to transition to making prints, and in 1720 he set up his own print shop.  Hogarth’s knowledge of art came from his extensive study of European prints.  He began attending drawing classes in 1724 at St. Martin’s Lane school in the home of Sir James Thornhill.  Five years later he eloped with Thornhill’s daughter Jane.   Theirs was a happy marriage, but they had no children. 

Outgoing and personable, Hogarth enjoyed the social and intellectual life of London.  His good friends included writers, musicians, liberal intellectuals, and actors.  Among them was David Garrick, the famous actor, playwright, and theater manger of the Drury Lane Theatre. However, Hogarth’s childhood experiences and the struggles of the poor never left him.  He walked the London streets observing and remembering everything.  He told of his unique skill of “retaining in my mind’s eye without drawing on the spot whatever I wanted to imitate.” Hogarth knew the low life and the high society of London. His art, whether painting or prints, was satirical, comical, and critical of the morals of his time.

Hogarth not only was a portrait painter and printmaker but also was an extremely creative writer.  He had much in common with English writers such as Samuel Johnson, Henry Fielding, Daniel Defoe, and Jonathon Swift; and he was a precursor to Charles Dickens.  He is famous for his paintings that tell moral stories which he wrote. In “A Harlot’s Progress” (1730) (six paintings), Moll/Mary Hackabout, an innocent young country girl, comes to London looking for honest work and eventually ends up as a prostitute. “The Rakes Progress” (1731)(8 paintings) , tells of Tom Rakekwell,  the handsome and lazy son of a rich merchant, who eventually looses all his money through gambling and other pursuits of pleasure and ends up in Bedlam, the insane asylum.  As a result of the popularity of these paintings, Hogarth engraved them, thereby increasing their popularity by making them cheaper and readily available for sale.

“An Election Entertainment” (plate 1)

Hogarth’s “Humours of an Election” (1754-55) (40’’ x 50”) (4 paintings), was inspired by a local election in 1754 for a seat in Parliament in Oxfordshire. The race was between the conservative Tory and the liberal Whig parties, and was a popular topic of discussion in London newspapers, broadsheets, coffee houses, and bars. With the exception of a few historical references, Hogarth does not satirize specific people and events from the Oxfordshire election.  Instead he sets the scenes in the imaginary town of Guzzledown, and he creates a host of both comic and satirical characters to illustrate vices such as bribery, intimidation, and mayhem, all widely associated with corruption in British elections.  

“An Election Entertainment” (plate 1) depicts Whig party candidates on the left of a large table stretching horizontally across the room. The Mayor of Guzzledown is on the right. The horizontal table was intended to remind the viewer of da Vinci’s “Last Supper” and to make an obvious comparison and contrast. The Whig candidates, on the left, are putting up with unwanted attention from their constituents.  The younger Whig candidate, blue coated and wearing the white wig, is tolerating the kiss of a large, ugly and possibly pregnant woman named Doll Tearsheet.  A small child holds onto his hand and is stealing his ring, while a man standing behind him is trying to light his wig on fire. Seated next to him at the table, the other candidate in the grey wig and dark green coat is being hugged and breathed on by two old and probably drunken men. 

An orange Tory campaign banner behind the Whig candidates declares “Liberty and Loyalty.”  It has been stolen from the protestors outside. Various and sundry characters crowd the room talking, eating, and drinking.  It is Hogarth at his best, and may remind the viewer of the bar scene in “Star Wars.” A small group of musicians in the center behind the table provide the entertainment.  On the wall above them a painting of a royal has been slashed.  

Outside the back window, and unfortunately hard for the viewer to see, an anti-Semitic Tory mob is carrying the effigy of a bearded Jew, labeled No Jews.  The Whig government had recently passed a law allowing greater freedom for Jews that was unpopular with the Tories. The mob also carries bricks and staves which they throw through the window at the Whigs inside, and a few men inside throw furniture out the window at them. They carry two banners:  “Liberty” and “Give us our Eleven Days.”  This second banner refers to the adoption in 1752 of the Gregorian calendar which resulted on September 3, 1752, becoming officially September 14, 1752.  They lost eleven days of their lives. 

At the far right of the table, the town Major has become sick from over indulging in oysters. He is being bled as a cure. In the lower right hand corner, one of the bricks thrown from outside has hit the election agent attired in dark red, in the head; he has dropped his registry book and turned over a wine bottle. At front center another injured man is being treated by someone poring gin over his wound.  In front a young boy makes punch in a barrel.  There is always much left to discover in Hogarth’s works. This piece is the most discussed from the “The Election” series.  

“Canvassing for the Vote” (plate 2)

Set outside of the Royal Oak Inn, which serves as Tory headquarters, “Canvassing for the Vote” (plate2) depicts both Whigs and Tories engaging in bribing, coercing and otherwise doing whatever it takes to get votes. Centered in the composition is the skeptical inn keeper being plied with money from both Whig and Tory. His hands are out of sight as he accepts money from each. Above his head is the inn’s sign, a gold framed sign depicting a Royal Oak and mostly covered by a temporary sign making fun of the Whigs.  Punch, a character from the commedia dell’arte, pushes a wheelbarrow full of coins that he tosses to a crowd, one member of which looks like a witch.  Next to them a Tory looks up and flirts with two young ladies on a balcony.  Is he interested in votes or something else?  Outside the door of the Inn, a large carved British lion eats a French fleur-de-lis.  A soldier looks out the door. The military does not take sides in elections. To the two men at the right side of the painting are identified as sailors. They are smoking and playing a game with tiles. The distant scene on the right has been described as an anti-Semitic crowd.

“The Polling”   (plate 3)

In “The Polling” (plate 3) voters are lining up to cast their vote. On a porch the Whig party sits behind an orange flag and the Tories behind a blue flag.  One must go up the steps to the porch to vote. On the right side, a peg legged Whig voter is trying to vote by putting has hook on the book as he swears to his identity.  His right to vote is being challenged; as the law says he must put his hand on the book to swear the oath, the metal hook is being questioned.  Next to him, the Tories are bringing a mentally disturbed man to vote. Next in line, the Whig’s are bringing a dead man in his shroud to vote. In the background a carriage with the seal of Britannia on the door has broken down.  The lady inside is furious.  Oblivious to everything, the coach drivers are playing cards. This image has been interpreted as “emphasizing the message that political negligence and mismanagement have imperiled the nation.”

“Chairing the Member” (plate 4)

The Tories have won and they are pursuing the British tradition of “Chairing the Member” (plate 4).  A parade of supporters follows behind the chair and others are feasting and celebrating in the building at the left.  Unfortunately the new member is about to fall from the chair as the group encounters a pitched battle between a Tory supporter in the white shirt fighting with a Whig supporter with an orange cockade on his hat. The Whig is holding a chain attached to a black bear ridden by a monkey. Also blocking the path to the gate is a donkey laden with barrels.  On top of the wall leading to the gate of the church, two chimney sweeps urinate on the monkey and the bear. The decorative sculpture usually found on top of a gate post is a skull and crossbones.  Leading this strange group is a blind fiddler.  The blind leading the blind is the obvious reference.

At the bottom left of this unique group, a sow and three piglets race across a brick bridge. This image has been recognized as referencing the miracle of the Gadarene swine from Matthew 8:28.  Jesus and his disciples encounter half naked men who were possessed by demons.  Jesus exorcises the demons, turning the men into swine at their request and they “ran violently down a steep place into the sea where they perished in the water.” Gadarene is defined as involving or engaging in a headlong or potentially disastrous rush to something.  To complete the chaotic scene a goose flies directly over head of the new member. Is the goose cackling?  In each scene in the series much is going on and there are clearly many references to circumstances of the times.  The viewer does not need to understand Hogarth’s references to enjoy and appreciate his overall message.  Hogarth’s works have been called modern moral subjects.

Often the center of controversy for obvious reasons, Hogarth pointed out problems and issues many would have preferred hidden.  Hogarth also was a compassionate and concerned citizen. He brought to Parliament the issue of copyright.  His prints were so popular they were being duplicated without his permission. The copyright law, called the Hogarth Act was passed in 1735. Yes, it protected his earnings but also benefited all artists.  He followed in the footsteps of his first art teacher and established the St. Martin’s Lane Academy.  It was one of the precursors to the Royal Academy. 

Hogarth’s portrait of “Captain Coram” (1740) was celebrated in London as Coram was a noted philanthropist and founder of the Foundling Hospital in London.  Hogarth was active in contributing to and promoting the hospital.  When the building was completed in 1745, he persuaded a group of fellow artists to contribute paintings with uplifting subjects to decorate the building.  This collection of paintings was the first public exhibition of contemporary art in London and proved to be a major step toward the founding of London’s Royal Academy of Art in 1768.  

Beverly Hall Smith was a professor of art history for 40 years.  Since retiring with her husband Kurt to Chestertown six years ago, she has taught art history classes at WC-ALL and Chesapeake College’s Institute for Adult Learning.  She is also an artist whose work is sometimes in exhibitions at Chestertown RiverArts and she paints sets for the Garfield Center for the Arts.

 

 

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