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In
1890,
the painter
John Singer Sargent
accepted a commission
to create a series
of murals
for the

Boston
Public
Library

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Various artists
were commisioned
to decorate different
rooms of the library, and
Sargent chose to paint a
large corridor on the
third floor with a
vaulted ceiling
.

The
geometry
of the room is
similar to the old
lunchboxes that
have a Thermos
in the top
:

This
shows
the areas
of the ceiling
and walls that he
intended to paint,
and the year each
was completed
.

The areas on
the far end of
the room were
installed in
1903
.

Keep in mind,
the paintings
were on the
INSIDE
of
the
room
.

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The hall
leads to two
“special collections”
rooms; one of them
devoted to Spanish
Literature
.

This is significant
because Sargent originally
intended to paint a series of
illustrations depicting themes
in Spanish Literature, but after
the contract was signed an
idea began to form in
his mind around a
different
topic
.

His original contract
with the library gave him
“the greatest possible freedom
in the design and execution of
his work”, so his new plan
would have no problems
with approval, but to
complete the plan
he needed

MORE
SPACE
!!!

He requested an
additional contract
to paint three more
rectangular areas
on a lower wall
:

Please
think over
the question of the
decorations of the wall.
I am very anxious to do
it and will do it for
very little money.

Sargent’s letter to BPL
28 Sep 1893

His request was
approved
!!!

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1895

After working
on the project for
several years, Sargent
traveled from his studio
in London to the Boston
Public Library to install
the first set of
paintings
:

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Oh, the
project has
a religious
theme
???

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Sargent
tells us what
he was thinking
at the time
:

Of the portions
already completed
and which form the
beginning of the series,
a ceiling, a lunette and
a frieze, the subjects are
respectively polytheism,
monotheism, and
the Law and the
Prophets
.
The ceiling
is the first in
order as it is the
most primative form
of belief represented.

John Singer Sargent (1895)
“The Triumph of Religion”

Here are the two
ceiling panels
side by side
:

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I can’t imagine
seeing paintings
like these in my
local library
.

A portion of
those paintings
can be seen on the
arched ceiling in
this photo
:
Under the arch
he painted a scene of
“Israelites Opressed”
.

The civilizations
under pagan gods
(Egypt and Babylon)
enslaved the
Jews
.

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Beneath
the Pagan Gods
and the civilations
under them that had
oppressed the Jews,
Sargent painted the
“Frieze of Prophets”
.

A ‘frieze’ is a
long narrow
composition
.

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Sargent wrote
a short description
of the 1895 installation
(about two typed pages),
which gave us important
clues about what he was
thinking. He saw the time
of the Hebrew Prophets
as religion becoming
more subjective,
more personal
.
He saw it as the
“progress” of
religion
.

…
more personal relation
between the Godhead
and humanity.

John Singer Sargent (1895)

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As we explore the
rest of the mural cycle,
we should keep in mind that
the artist is not promoting a
specific type of religion or
criticizing any particular
form of religion
.

He has already
announced that his
mural cycle will illustrate
the “progress” of religion,
culminating in personal,
private experience
.

1903

Sargent
returned to
the library eight
years later to install
paintings at the other
end of the room. He
referred to the three
sections together as

“The Dogma of
the Redemption”
:

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The arched painting
depicts “Christian Trinity”
as the Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit sharing a single throne
.

This arched
shape in a domed
ceiling is called
a “lunette”
.

Beneath the lunette
he painted another frieze,
this one of angels. Six angels
hold elements of the crucifixion
(spear, nails, crown of thorns, etc)
and two more support a crucifix
.

The crucifix is not typical.
Adam and Eve are bound
to Jesus on the cross,
and hold chalices to
catch the blood
from Jesus’
hands
.

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1916

Thirteen years later,
Sargent returned to the
library for another
installation
.

Did the Trustees of the
Boston Public Library
imagine that this
project would
take over
25
years
?????

In the picture below,
Sargent has painted the
ceiling spanning over
the 1903 “Dogma”
trilogy
.

These photos don’t
reflect the size of the
work, but the central
gold medallion in this
painting is over eight
feet in diameter
:

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Here is a better look at both
sides of the ceiling portraying
“Fifteen Mysteries of the Rosary”
.

One side depicts the
Sorrowful Mysteries,
and the other side
Joyful Mysteries
:

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This end of the room
had niches in the wall in
the same relative positions
as the East and West Prophets
at the other end of the room
.

In
these niches,
Sargent painted
“Madonna of Sorrows”
to correspond with the
Sorrowful Mysteries,
and
“Handmaid of the Lord”
to correspond with the
Joyful Mysteries
:

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Sargent
painted six
more lunettes
installed along the
length of the room,
three on each side
.

Centered on one
side was a portrayal
of “Judgement”, with
“Heaven” to the right
and “Hell” to the left
:

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On the other side he painted
the “Messianic Era”, “Israel and
the Law”, and “Armageddon”
(Fall of Gog and Magog)
:

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Seven lunettes nine feet wide,
two niches over nine feet tall,
and an arch across the top
over eight feet wide
and thirty long
.

A stunning
acheivement
.

The “public” was
delighted
!!!

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1919

Three
years later,
Sargent returned
.

That’s
when the
trouble
began

He had planned a wide
central panel (landscape)
with smaller panels on
each side (portrait)
.

One of the side panels
he named “Synagogue”
(a culturally Jewish title)
.

In this painting he
portrayed a old woman
in a collapsed pose,
falling crown and
broken scepter,
blinded
:

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The other side panel
he named “Church”
(culturally Christian)
.

In this painting
he portrays a younger
woman in a regal pose,
seated as though on a throne,
supporting the figure of Jesus,
brilliant objects in her hands
:

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To this date
there had not been
significant complaint
about painting religious
images in a public library
(using public funding),
but the response to
this installation
was immediate
.

Rather than try to
to describe the reaction
of the public to Sargent’s
installment of “Church” and
“Synagogue”, here are quotes
both Jewish and Christian,
and also from the artist
:

If one were
an orthodox Jew,
a rabbi or a cantor, it
might be a little distasteful
to have this middle-age
fashion of depreciating
his ancient religion in
a building supported
by public taxation.

Frederick William Coburn
Boston Herald Art critic
October 1919

Protestants
should sympathize
with the Jews in their
feeling toward this picture.
It represents the Jewish
faith as decadent. As
Christians we are
ashamed of what
some Christians do.

Greater Boston
Federation of Churches
Massachussetts YMCA

A statement from
the artist himself:

I am
in hot water
with the Jews, who
resent my ‘Synagogue,’
and want to have it re-
moved, and tomorrow
a prominent member
of the Jewish colony
is coming to bully
me about it.

John Singer Sargent
writing privately to a
friend, October 1919

Maybe
it’s not fair to
quote from a private
letter, but Sargent had
not spoken about
it pubicly, so this
is all we have
.

Three
years later,
he was quoted in
American Art News
as saying,

No reflection on
the Jewish race
was intended
.

John Singer Sargent
1922

A resolution was passed
to have the paintings
removed, but never
acted upon
.

Synagogue was
defaced with ink,
and then restored
.

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It is now
years later
.

Where is the
central panel
?

Where is the
final painting
?

John Singer Sargent
has invested 29 years
into this project, at the
peak of his career, and
refers to it as his most
important work
.

Will he
finish it
???

no
.

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He
certainly
had enough
time to finish
…

We know
he had planned
a central panel
as early as
1893
.

Here is a
study of the wall
where he announced
“The Sermon on The Mount”
as the subject of the
final painting
:

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Sylvester Baxter,
publicist for the BPL
mural cycle, wrote
:

Sargent
has yet to
show us what
he himself deems
most godlike, the
best is reserved
for the last.

Sylvester Baxter, publicist

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The Sermon on the Mount
appears only once in the bible,
in the gospel according
to Matthew (ch5-7)
.

Jesus preaches
to the multitudes,
teaching them to
love God and to
love each
other
.

In a letter
sent in 1893,
Sargent referred
to this final painting
as the “central idea”,
the “culmination”,
the “keynote of
my affair”
.

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Did Sargent believe
that the
Triumph of Religion
was the
Sermon on the Mount
???

Did the controversy over
Church and Synagogue
cause him to doubt
himself
?

Was he changing
his mind about
the finale
?

Was he
reconsidering
triumph
???

We
can’t know
.

This sketch shows
what he originally
had in mind
:

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but
he stalled
…

six
years
passed
…

stalemate
.

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He
died in
1925
.

John Singer Sargent’s
contemporaries considered him
“America’s Greatest Living Painter”
.

What he painted at the library
is beautiful and meaningful;
“his most important work”
.

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so,
what’s

The
Triumph
of Religion

???

I think the idea that
Sargent most wanted
to share in this series
of paintings was
that religion is
PERSONAL
.

Sargent’s
Frieze of Prophets
illustrates a time when
religion moved from the
idea of mankind being
helpless victims of
remote gods,
to
something
more subjective;
each prophet unique,
and living his life in
a more personal
relationship
with God
.

He saw
a later movement
from a communal Hebrew
religious society to a more
secular society, where each
member enjoys private
religious freedom
.

In the Sermon
on the Mount, Jesus
teaches that each of us
has personal responsibility
for spiritual life, and invites
us to actively participate in
relationship with God
.

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One of the
highest aspirations
of our society should be
to construct and maintain
a system in which each person
has the freedom to decide for
himself what he believes, the
freedom to keep it private,
and the freedom from
persecution for it
.

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I learned about
Sargent’s masterpiece
while reading the book,
“Painting Religion in Public”
by Sally M. Promey
.

In
closing,
I’m going to
steal this quote
from her because
she knows more about
this subject than I ever will
:

Ultimately,
the Triumph of Religion
represents Sargent’s public
recommendation for the
privacy of modern
religious experience
.

Sally M. Promey,
“Painting Religion in Public”
Princeton University Press

There’s a lot packed
into that simple
sentence
.

IMAGES:
Courtesy of the
Boston Public Library

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thanks for visiting
come back soon

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