( – promoted by Sue Prent)
Thanks to my intrepid colleague, BP, for alerting me to this development.
Just a month to the day since we talked about it here on Green Mountain Daily, the Times Argus (paywall alert!) reports that the infamous lamp is back on the Governor’s desk.
I am, however, a bit puzzled by a statement apparently made on Friday by David Schultz, the Statehouse curator:
“I was kind of wondering why no one had inquired yet,”
Just call me “No One.” I never did receive a response to my e-mailed query sent to the Friends of the Statehouse, who, in the course of statehouse renovations during the Dean administration, commissioned and paid the $2,500. cost of the lamp.
Anyway, she’s back; and Civil War historian and author Howard Coffin said it best:
“Aside from being a symbol of human freedom and a protest against slavery, it’s a beautiful depiction of the female body,” Coffin said. “And that is not going to trouble the present governor, apparently.”
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Since there is a “new sheriff in town,” l thought it would be fun to take a brief walk down memory lane to the earliest years of the Douglas administration.
How many folks remember the former governor banishing a certain lamp featuring the work of celebrated Vermont-born sculptor, Hiram Powers? The classical sculpture in question was created in the mid-nineteenth century and represents a nude Greek slavewoman in chains. Though it created something of a stir way back then, it has since become arguably the most popular example of American neo-classical sculpture. The figure of the Greek Slave was a fixture in the Vermont Statehouse for more than a century, prompting many lively discussions, as it had become a symbol of the anti-slavery movement in America. Vermont was rightly proud of it’s native son.
Fast-forward to the dawn of the 21st century when Friends of the State House were in the midst of carefully restoring Vermont’s jewel to its earlier glory. Among the features of the restoration was the creation of a lamp fashioned from the famous statue, that would proudly illuminate the Governor’s desk. All well and good as planned during the Dean administration, the Friends’ thoughtful enhancement ran afoul of the new Governor when it was installed on his desk in 2004.
Governor Douglas had the lamp removed because, as press-secretary Jason Gibbs told inquirers, he didn’t want to have to explain it to a visiting third-grader. Gibbs hastily added that there was a fear that the lamp might be knocked-over and broken. I guess there must have been plans for a lot of arm-wrestling on the Governor’s desk top. Gibbs clearly hadn’t gotten up-to-speed yet since it didn’t even occur to him to go for the excuse that representing a woman in chains might be objectionable from some stand-points.
Governor Douglas didn’t want to have to explain a symbol of the anti-slavery movement to curious schoolchildren! Wow! Word quickly got around that what the Governor actually objected to was the “dishabille” of the statue. She was naked! Welcome to the revisionist and thoroughly air-brushed world of the Bush Republicans.
My household of artists, having had more than one scrape with censorship, followed this charade with great interest.
Some of you habitues of the State House can probably tell me whatever happened to that infamous lamp. I’d love to know if Governor Shumlin has restored her to her intended domain. Given her history, she would be the fitting symbol for a new and enlightened administration.
the real travesty here is that someone took a perfectly good sculpture and chotchkied it into a lamp.
What was wrong with the art as it was?
…can you text on it?
When Douglas did this I remember wondering if he was inspired by Attorney General John Ashcroft.
At the US Justice Dept.Ashcroft had the partially bare chested 12′ high lady justice statue covered with drapes at a reported cost of $8,000.00.
At a historic estate. The garden had a nude male statue at one end. It was very, very clear (from all the way at the other end of the formal reflecting pool) that the statue had been modified at some point in its history to cover a certain body part with a leaf-like agglomeration of clay blobs.
This, of course, had the ironic effect of calling one’s attention to the very body part they were trying to hide, without actually hiding its contours. If they’d simply left it alone, it’s likely most people wouldn’t have given that portion of the otherwise very nice sculpture’s anatomy a second glance.
I e-mailed the Friends of the State House and have so far received no reply.
‘Anybody know what became of it?
I was in the statehouse about four weeks ago. I don’t know what the lamp discussed here actually looks like, but I did spot a lamp in the Cedar Creek room that was a naked woman (made out of black material) with little brass chains dangling from her wrists.
…a Sarah Palin lamp. But it’s plastic. And it doesn’t work. And, fortunately, it doesn’t talk anymore–used to scare the dog. I think maybe Salmon would want it for his campaign.