Sherry Chandler

Hiram Powers’ Greek Slave

They say Ideal beauty cannot enter
The house of anguish. On the threshold stands
An alien Image with enshackled hands,
Called the Greek Slave! as if the artist meant her
(That passionless perfection which he lent her,
Shadowed not darkened where the sill expands)
To so confront man’s crimes in different lands
With man’s ideal sense. Pierce to the centre,
Art’s fiery finger! and break up ere long
The serfdom of this world! appeal, fair stone,
From God’s pure heights of beauty against man’s wrong!
Catch up in thy divine face, not alone
East griefs but west, and strike and shame the strong,
By thunders of white silence, overthrown.

– Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Hiram Powers’ Greek Slave created quite a sensation when he finished it in 1843. It was exhibited in Europe at the Crystal Palace, and it went on national tour in the U.S. in 1847-48. You can read some of the reaction at the link.

The statue refers not to ancient Greeks enslaved by Romans but to the Greek revolution against the Turks in the 1820s – the revolution in which Lord Byron died. A locket and a cross dangle in the draperies just under the girl’s thumb. (The locket supposedly signifies her lost family.) You will also find the backstory Powers invented by following the link but this appears to be all about the higher purity of this Christian girl, a theme that inspired the antebellum States so deeply that they were able to overlook the nudity.

Browning, with her “not alone / East griefs but west,” is rude enough to point out that those States also have a slavery issue – a fact that wasn’t mentioned much over here in connection with this statue.

I suppose my sensibilities are too modern and cynical but I find the statue and poem slightly creepy, if not downright pornographic. Certainly highly sentimental, both.

[Addendum: This may be an appropriate place to say Rest in Peace, Miss Rosa Parks. I can't think of anyone who deserved the Capitol Rotunda more than this ordinary citizen who performed an extraordinary act. Let us hope that we don't manage to turn her, too, into an icon that we can use to congratulate ourselves on our own righteousness.]