Urn of Life: Difference between revisions

Musician Dying and The Birth

Forgiveness and Solitude

The Visitation

The Urn of Life (modeled 1898-1900, carved 1905-1906) is an allegorical sculpture by George Grey Barnard in the collection of the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States.^[1] Carved from white Carrara marble, it is 37.875 in (96.20 cm) in height, 32.25 in (81.9 cm) in diameter,^[1] and weighs approximately 1,650 lb (750 kg).^[2]

Barnard was moved by the unexpected 1898 death of Anton Seidl, the 47-year-old Hungarian-born musical director of the New York Philharmonic and conductor of the Metropolitan Opera.^[3] A group of Seidl's friends and colleagues commissioned the sculptor to create a heroic size urn to hold Seidl's ashes.^[4] Barnard modeled a series of clay sketches on the themes of life, death and religion, and incorporated them and prior works into what became The Urn of Life.^[3] Seidl's family initially declined the proposed work because of its size.^[5]

Nineteen figures in seven groups encircle the urn, depicting life events and allegories.^[6] Counter-clockwise, from the front:

• The Mystery of Life features the veiled figure of Death holding an egg-shaped urn, while flanked by a submissive man and a reluctant woman.^[3]
• The Widow depicts a grieving mother holding a toddler, as the child's guardian angel surveys the recumbent body of her dead husband.
• Musician Dying (also called The Dying Poet)^[7] features a collapsed young man cradled by a mother figure. He holds a winged lyre symbolizing "the music of the soul."^[8]
• The Birth (also called Family Group) depicts the contentment of a young father, mother and infant.^[8]
• Forgiveness depicts a standing woman reaching out to a kneeling man.
• Solitude depicts the estrangement of Adam and Eve after the Fall of Man—"They are man and woman, together yet alone, divided by that same barrier that even the closest of earthly love is powerless to break down entirely."^[9]
• The Visitation depicts a kneeling husband kissing the brow of his recumbent wife, who has just given birth; a young Angel of Life holds their newborn babe.^[10] Above the group is a mature angel, "hewing out his wing from the solid rock,—which is the only way we ever get our wings!"^[11]

Barnard carved The Urn of Life in marble, 1905–1906.^[12] He developed five of its figure groups—The Mystery of Life,^[13] The Visitation, The Birth,^[14] Solitude,^[15] Musician Dying^[16]—into independent works.^[17]

The Visitation and The Birth were shown in Barnard's one-man exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, November–December 1908.^[18] Musician Dying was not listed in the catalogue,^[18] but also was loaned to the exhibition.^[7] The Mystery of Life, The Birth, Solitude, and Musician Dying were exhibited at the 1913 Armory Show in New York City, along with The Prodigal Son (from Barnard's Pennsylvania State Capitol sculpture groups).^[19]

Barnard make minor alterations to the urn in 1918, following America's entry into World War I.^[20] He sold the still unfinished sculpture to the Carnegie Museum of Art in 1919.^[12]

Marble versions of Solitude are at the Taft Museum of Art in Cincinnati, Ohio;^[21] Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York;^[15] and the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, Virginia.^[22] A marble version of The Mystery of Life is at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C.^[3] Marble versions of The Birth, The Visitation, and Musician Dying were shown in the 1963 centenary exhibition of Barnard's work,^[8] but are currently unlocated.^[14][16]

• 
  The Mystery of Life (modeled 1895-1897), Smithsonian American Art Museum
• 
  The Birth (modeled 1897), unlocated
• 
  Musician Dying (modeled 1898-1900), unlocated
• 
  Solitude (Adam and Eve) (carved 1905-1906), Taft Museum of Art

Following the rejection of a heroic size urn, Barnard carved a smaller and simplified burial urn in 1905:

Urn for Siedl's Ashes: A memorial subscribed for by his friends on view at Steinways.
A memorial urn to contain the ashes of Anton Seidl has been placed, temporarily, in the Steinway
Building in East Fourteenth street, and Thursday [December 27, 1905] there was a private view
of the urn for subscribers.
Former associates and friends of Herr Seidl may see it by applying to Steinway & Sons until
January 6. The urn was designed and carved by George Grey Barnard. It bears sculptured
figures of a dying youth with a harp and of Mystery bearing a small urn of Life.^[4]

The egg-shaped burial urn is carved from white marble, and features two figure groups—Musician Dying and The Mystery of Life. It holds the ashes of Anton Seidl^[23] and his widow, Auguste,^[24] and is housed in the Fresh Pond Crematory and Columbarium in Queens, New York City.^[23]