I am always looking for subject matter and inspiration for my Missives. This week I saw an announcement for a new wing at the New York Historical Museum (formerly known as the New-York Historical Society). It is the oldest museum in the city founded in 1804 by private individuals concerned with preserving the past. The title of the institution’s new wing, The Tang Wing for American Democracy, made me think of art created to stir in emotions to the cause of democracy and despotism.
Athens is regarded as the cradle of democracy and the Parthenon on the Acropolis its greatest architectural representation. It was commissioned by the statesman Pericles between 447 and 438 BC as a tribute to Athenian Democracy and its triumph over Persian invaders. The city’s radical experiment with rule by the people is represented in the Parthenon frieze with images of common people together with the gods as had never before been depicted in a major temple.
Two great cultures the Roman and Greek existed side by side for a time. In In times of crisis citizens of the Roman Republic elected a dictator giving him ultimate power, but only for a term of 6 months. Julius Caesar, however, had himself named dictator for life, which, of course, ended with his assassination on the Ides of March 44 BC. In 2007 a life size bust was discovered in the Rhone River near Arles. Dating it between 49 and 46 BC, researchers believe it to be the only surviving portrait of Julius Caesar sculpted during his lifetime. Subsequent Roman emperors continued to disseminate multiple copies of their portrait busts as propaganda throughout the Empire.
Centuries later another experiment in democracy was founded in the United States, and it did not start smoothly, especially on the frontier of this country. A good example of this in action is an 1854 in a painting by George Caleb Bingham, "The County Election", now in the St. Louis Art Museum. Bingham did a series of these paintings. You can see that the people did not vote in voting booths but out in the open where they had to declare their vote publicly.
Aleksandr Mikhailovich Gerasimov (Russian, 1861-1963) painted Vladimir Lenin (1870-1924) as an orator in “Lenin on the Tribune”. Lenin only ruled after the Russian Revolution in1917 until his death in 1924 but during that time He established a one-party state, dismantled democratic institutions, and used secret police to violently suppress political opponents.
Eugène Delacroix painted, probably his most famous painting, “Liberty Leading the People” aka “Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité” in 1830. The July Revolution toppled the despotic King Charles X. You can see the aristocrat with his top hat on the left of Liberty and the commoner youth on the right fighting together for the same cause.
I remember as a young boy watching military parades during and after the Korean war. They were exciting and even as a 10-year-old I felt great civic pride. Needless to say, dictators use parades to stir that feeling in the people. Here is the image by poster artist Ludwig Hohlwein (1874–1949) showing Hitler leading a parade disseminated by the German postal service as the cover of a telegram folder.
Why not end with the ultimate symbol of Democracy the Statue of liberty. It was created in the Greco-Roman style by Frederic-Auguste Bartholdi as a gift from France in 1886. It was not only a symbol of friendship but also to celebrate the centennial of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The idea was conceived in 1865 but fund raising in France was delayed by the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871), and then the Americans who were to build the pedestal struggled to raise those funds. Creating an icon takes time!
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