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Spiritual Currents and Manifest Destiny in the Art of Hiram Powers - Critical Essay
Art Bulletin, The, Sept, 2000 by Charles Colbert
On completing the plaster model for his California (Fig. 1) in 1855, Hiram Powers (1805-1873) remarked to a prospective patron that he hoped his statue would be placed at the spot where gold had been initially discovered. [1] The notion that Sutter's Mill or, as Powers called it, "Sutter's run," would be the most appropriate site for a work that celebrated the promise of wealth that had lured so many adventurers to the newly formed state was not a passing fancy, for it reappears in his letters with some frequency in subsequent years. While sculpture is often commissioned to commemorate hallowed places, Powers stated that he "took the risk" of modeling California before receiving an order to do so. [2] The degree of risk entailed can be fully appreciated by contemplating the location. A contemporary wrote that "Sutter's Creek [flowed] in a little valley, settled by miners. A number of tents were pitched along the stream, and some log houses for the winter were in the process of erection." [3] One can only imag ine how the men of this remote and rudimentary community (Fig. 2) would have greeted the arrival of Powers's nude figure. While Powers could reasonably anticipate that his America (Fig. 3) would be placed in the Capitol even though Congress had not allocated funds at the time of its commencement, he began California with far fewer assurances. [4] His pursuit of this undertaking despite its dim prospects suggests he was driven by convictions that ran deeper than mere financial calculation. One means of discerning the larger implications of this episode is to view it in the context of other works and the circumstances that surrounded their creation and exhibition. In doing so, we learn that the meaning of a particular piece was not fixed inalterably in the sculptor's mind at any one moment; rather, it evolved continuously according to his beliefs about the operation of spiritual agents in the mundane realm. Beginning with a review of Powers's faith, then, this article surveys a number of his statues before devo ting an extended analysis to California as one of his most comprehensive statements about the nature of inspiration and its relationship to the supernatural.
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The contribution made by Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772) to Powers's creative deliberations has received considerable attention. [5] This Swedish mystic sought to reverse the decline of Christianity by revealing the spiritual meaning hidden beneath the historical narratives of the Bible. [6] These tales appalled many inquiring minds, and for such individuals the symbolic readings offered by Swedenborg fortified faith against the assaults mounted by the philosophes. Anyone troubled by the image of Jehovah breathing into the nostrils of Adam (Gen. 2:7), for example, could learn that this action really signified the heightened understanding that comes to "keen-scented" persons. [7] The methods employed to validate such interpretations were to have a profound impact on the religious discourse promoted by liberal thinkers in the nineteenth century.
Swedenborg answered those who questioned his authority by remarking that his words came from the angels themselves. By closing down the senses and opening an inner, spiritual faculty, he was capable of falling at will into an ecstasy. While in this condition he conversed about the true meaning of the Bible with angels and notables from the past. During dreams and reveries Swedenborg toured the several heavens, perceived events that transpired at great distances, and performed such minor miracles as reading minds and locating lost objects. These talents were engendered by "influx," a psychic essence that emanated from God and permeated all creation. Communication with the spirits was achieved by influx, but this contact was not random; only when souls were united by mutual affection could the exchange take place. These affinities were called correspondences; all worldly beings corresponded to kindred entities in the spiritual realm by means of an influx that came either from heaven or hell. Hence, the resembl ance of the next world to this was complete, except for two important qualities: neither time nor space as we know them existed in the spiritual realm. Relieved of the difficulties associated with travel in the mundane sphere, souls were placed immediately in proximity to one another by their corresponding affective states. And, whether aware of the fact or not, mortals were also surrounded by communities of spirits drawn to them by the similarity of their moral constitutions.
The last decades of the eighteenth century saw the establishment in the United States of Swedenborgian congregations, most of them organized under the auspices of the New Jerusalem Church. [8] Powers embraced the religion in the early 1820s while he was living in Cincinnati and remained an adherent to the end of his days. [9] Once aware of the tenets of his faith, we can readily recognize their influence on his thought. He believed in internal sight and wrote that slumber made the mind conducive to communications from the dead. [10] Indeed, one brush with the paranormal about 1840 impressed him indelibly. He related that he was in bed when the room suddenly filled with a brilliant light that revealed two figures, male and female, clad in red or purple gowns. They gazed tenderly on the artist's sleeping baby for some five minutes and then vanished as abruptly as they had appeared. While their gentle demeanor convinced Powers of their benign intentions, his wife's anxieties on learning of the apparition were o nly allayed when no subsequent misfortune befell the child. [11] Swedenborg's angelic guardians were often dispatched to protect dreamers from the infestation of evil spirits, [12] and these visitants answered to the description given such beings, down to the colors of their robes. [13] Although Powers insisted he was wide awake during this particular numinous encounter, he also maintained that dreams warranted serious consideration; the body might be dormant, he remarked, but the soul remained alert and free to wander at will. [14]
