Spiritual Currents and Manifest Destiny in the Art of Hiram Powers - Critical Essay

upon completing the plaster model for his California (Fig. 1) in 1855 Hiram Powers (1805-1873) remarked to a prospective patron that he spring [i]or[/i] leap on one leg [i]or[/i] footed his statue would be placed at the blot where gold had been initially discovered. [1] The notion that Sutter's Mill or, as Powers called it, "Sutter's run" would be the greatest in quantity appropriate site for a work that celebrated the promise of wealth that had lur with equal reason many adventurers to the newly formed state was not a passing fancy, for it reappears in his alphabetic characters with some frequency in later years. While sculpture is repeatedly commissioned to commemorate hallowed places, Powers stated that he "took the risk" of modeling California before receiving an order to do thus [2] The degree of risk entailed can be full appreciated by contemplating the location. A contemporary wrote that "Sutter's bight [flowed] in a little valley, settl by means of miners. A number of pavilions were pitched along the stream, and a certain quantity of log houses for the winter were in the proces of erection." [3] single can only imag ine by what means the men of this far off and rudimentary community (Fig. 2) would have accosted the arrival of Powers's naked figure. While Powers could reasonably anticipate that his America (Fig. 3) would be placed in the Capitol smooth though Congress had not allocated stocks at the time of its outset he began California with far fewer assurances. [4] His pursuit of this undertaking despite its dim visions suggests he was driven by dint of convictions that ran deeper than bare financial calculation. One means of discerning the larger implications of this episode is to view it in the connection of other works and the circumstances that encloseed their creation and exhibition. In doing thus we learn that the meaning of a particular piece was not fixed inalterably in the sculptor's mind at any single 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 overlooks a number of his statues before devo ting an stretch outed analysis to California as single of his most comprehensive statements about the nature of inspiration and its relationship to the supernatural.

The contribution made by the agency of Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772) to Powers's creative deliberations has received considerable attention. [5] This Swedish mystic sought to turn end for end the decline of Christianity by the agency of revealing the spiritual meaning hidden beneath the historical narratives of the Bible. [6] These tales appalled many inquiring minds, and for like individuals the symbolic readings presented by Swedenborg fortified faith against the assaults mountained by the philosophes. Anyone troubl by the agency of 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 advances to "keen-scented" persons. [7] The rules employed to validate such interpretations were to have a deep impact on the religious discourse promot through liberal thinkers in the nineteenth century

Swedenborg answered those who questioned his authority by the agency of remarking that his words came from the angels themselves. by means of 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 convers about the actual meaning of the Bible with angels and notables from the past. During dreams and reveries Swedenborg toured the several heavens, perceived occurrences that transpired at great distances, and performed similar minor miracles as reading minds and locating missing objects. These talents were procreateed by "influx," a psychic essential part that emanated from God and permeated all creation. Communication with the spirits was achieved by means of influx, but this contact was not random; sole when souls were united by the agency of mutual affection could the exchange take place. These affinities were called correspondences; all worldly beings corresponded to kindred entities in the spiritual realm by the agency of means of an influx that came either from heaven or hell. Hence, the resembl ance of the nearest world to this was perfect 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, spirits were placed immediately in proximity to individual another by their corresponding affective states. And, whether aware of the fact or not, mortals were also encircleed by communities of spirits drawn to them by dint of the similarity of their moral constitutions.

The last decades of the eighteenth hundred saw the establishment in the United States of Swedenborgian congregations, greatest in quantity of them organized under the auspices of the novel Jerusalem Church. [8] Powers embraced the religion in the early 1820 while he was living in Cincinnati and remained an adherent to the extremity of his days. [9] one time aware of the tenets of his faith, we can readily recognize their influence upon his thought. He believed in internal sight and wrote that slumber made the mind conducive to communications from the dead. [10] Indeed, individual brush with the paranormal about 1840 impressed him indelibly. He related that he was in bed when the space suddenly filled with a brilliant light that revealed sum of two units figures, male and female, clad in r or purple gown They gazed kindly on the artist's sleeping baby for a certain number of five minutes and then vanished as abruptly as they had appeared. While their lenient demeanor convinced Powers of their benign intentions, his wife's anxieties upon learning of the apparition were o nly allayed when no following misfortune befell the child. [11] Swedenborg's angelic guardians were repeatedly dispatched to protect dreamers from the infestation of evil spirits, [12] and these visitants answered to the description given similar beings, down to the colors of their robes. [13] Although Powers insisted he was wide awake during this particular numinous rencounter he also maintained that dreams warranted serious consideration; the material part might be dormant, he remarked, on the contrary the soul remained alert and at liberty to wander at will. [14]