Urn of Life explained

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 in height, in diameter,^[1] and weighs approximately .^[2]

Following years in storage, the museum thoroughly cleaned the urn and returned it to public exhibition in 2012.^[2]

History

Anton Seidl, the 47-year-old Hungarian-born musical director of the New York Philharmonic and conductor of the Metropolitan Opera, died unexpectedly in 1898. A group of Seidl's friends and colleagues commissioned Barnard to create a burial urn to hold Seidl's ashes.

Barnard had made a spectacular debut at the 1894 Paris Salon, and his Struggle of the Two Natures in Man had entered the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1896.^[3] In 1891, he had modeled a chimneypiece decorated with high bas-relief figure groups illustrating Scandinavian myths.^[4] For the new commission, he modeled a series of clay sketches on the themes of life, death and religion, and incorporated these into what became The Urn of Life. Seidl's family initially declined the proposed urn because of its heroic size.^[5]

Barnard carved The Urn of Life in marble, 1905 - 1906. He developed five of its figure groups - The Mystery of Life,^[6] The Visitation, The Birth,^[7] Solitude, Musician Dying^[8] - into independent works.^[9]

The Urn of Life,^[2] Musician Dying, The Visitation, and The Birth were shown in the 1908 one-man exhibition of Barnard's work, at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.^[10]

The Mystery of Life, Musician Dying, The Birth, and Solitude were exhibited at the 1913 Armory Show in New York City, along with The Prodigal Son, from Barnard's Pennsylvania State Capitol sculpture groups.^[11]

Barnard reworked the urn in 1918, about the time of America's entry into World War I. He sold the unfinished sculpture to the Carnegie Museum of Art in 1919.^[12]

Barnard later wrote that his work on The Urn of Life influenced the choices he made for the Pennsylvania State Capitol sculpture groups.

Figure groups

Nineteen figures in seven groups encircle The Urn of Life, depicting life events and allegories.^[13] Barnard's descriptions of the figure groups come from his papers at the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution:

• The Mystery of Life.^[14] The shrouded figure of Mystery holds an egg-shaped urn, while flanked by a man holding a tool and a woman holding flowers.
• The End of Life. As a grieving couple surveys the recumbent body of an old man, an angel appears.
• Musician Dying (also called The Dying Poet).^[15] A collapsed young man comforted by a female figure.
• The Birth (also called Family Group).^[16]
• Labor and Love. A standing woman rests her hand on the head of a kneeling and toiling 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."^[17]
• The Visitation. A kneeling man kisses the brow of a recumbent woman who has just given birth, while a guardian angel holds their newborn babe.^[18] Above them is a sculptor, "hewing out [the angel's] wing from the solid rock, - which is the only way we ever get our wings!"^[19]

Marble versions of Solitude are at the Taft Museum of Art in Cincinnati, Ohio;^[20] Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York;^[21] 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.^[14] Marble versions of The Birth, The Visitation, and Musician Dying were shown in the 1963 centenary exhibition of Barnard's work,^[16] but are currently unlocated.^{[7] [8]}

Burial urn

Following the rejection of a heroic size urn, Barnard carved a smaller and simplified version for Seidl's widow:

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.^[23]

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 and Auguste Seidl,^{[24] [25]} and is housed in the Fresh Pond Crematory and Columbarium in Queens, New York City.^[24]

Notes and References

1. https://collection.cmoa.org/objects/89226709-11fe-4ecd-880d-0ec7123ea2e6 Urn of Life
2. Michael Belman, "Restoring the Urn of Life," CMOA blog, November 26, 2012.
3. Donna J. Hassler, "George Grey Barnard (1863  - 1938)," American Sculpture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Volume I, Thayer Tolles, ed., (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1999), p. 421.
4. Harold E. Dickson, "Barnard and Norway," The Art Bulletin, vol. 44, no. 1 (March 1962), pp. 55-59. from JSTOR.(subscription required)
5. https://books.google.com/books?id=69o6AQAAMAAJ&dq=urn+of+life+barnard&pg=PA655 "An American Sculptor,"
6. https://siris-artinventories.si.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=U574788580UL5.4294&profile=ariall&source=~!siartinventories&view=subscriptionsummary&uri=full=3100001~!30875~!46&ri=7&aspect=Keyword&menu=search&ipp=20&spp=20&staffonly=&term=Barnard,+George+Grey&index=.AW&uindex=&aspect=Keyword&menu=search&ri=7 The Mystery of Life
7. https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/93511532/ The Birth
8. https://siris-artinventories.si.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=15E49D4848T66.451&profile=ariall&source=~!siartinventories&view=subscriptionsummary&uri=full=3100001~!15953~!23&ri=1&aspect=Keyword&menu=search&ipp=20&spp=20&staffonly=&term=Barnard,+George+Grey&index=.AW&uindex=&aspect=Keyword&menu=search&ri=1 Musician Dying
9. Library of Congress, Catalogue of Copyright Entries, Part 4, Works of Art, (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1908), pp. 495-496.
10. J. Nilsen Laurvik, "George Grey Barnard," The International Studio, vol. 36, no. 142 (December 1908), pp. xxxix-xlvii.
11. Milton Brown, "Armory Show 1913 Complete List," from New York Historical Society.
12. https://siris-artinventories.si.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=15747L28P0539.4250&menu=search&aspect=Keyword&npp=50&ipp=20&spp=20&profile=ariall&ri=&term=&index=.GW&aspect=Keyword&term=Barnard%2C+George+Grey&index=.AW&term=Urn&index=.TW&term=&index=.SW&term=&index=.FW&term=&index=.OW&term=&index=.NW&x=12&y=12 The Urn of Life
13. https://books.google.com/books?id=vEMzAAAAMAAJ&dq=barnard+urn+of+life&pg=PA95 "George Grey Barnard,"
14. https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/mystery-life-1081# The Mystery of Life
15. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston / Thirty-Third Annual Report / For the Year 1908 (Cambridge, MA: The University Press, 1909), p. 102.https://books.google.com/books?id=KohAAAAAYAAJ&dq=George+Grey+Barnard+dying+poet&pg=RA1-PA102
16. Harold E. Dickson, George Grey Barnard: 1863  - Centenary Exhibition  - 1963, (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University, 1964).
17. Katharine Metcalf Roof, "George Grey Barnard: The Spirit of the New World in Sculpture," The Craftsman (magazine), vol. 15, no. 8 (December 1908), Gustav Stickley, editor & publisher, p. 278.
18. Ernest Knaufft, "George Grey Barnard: A Virile American Sculptor," The Review of Reviews, vol. 38, no. 6 (December 1908), p. 691.
19. Leslie Conner, "George Gray Barnard: An Interpreter of Life," The Wellesley Magazine, vol. 7, no. 8 (May 1909), p. 354.
20. https://siris-artinventories.si.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=157UA522T5997.732&profile=ariall&source=~!siartinventories&view=subscriptionsummary&uri=full=3100001~!297019~!84&ri=5&aspect=Browse&menu=search&ipp=20&spp=20&staffonly=&term=Barnard,+George+Grey,[phone],+sculptor.&index=AUTHOR&uindex=&aspect=Browse&menu=search&ri=5 Solitude (Taft Museum)
21. https://siris-artinventories.si.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=157UA522T5997.732&profile=ariall&source=~!siartinventories&view=subscriptionsummary&uri=full=3100001~!15948~!19&ri=5&aspect=Browse&menu=search&ipp=20&spp=20&staffonly=&term=Barnard,+George+Grey,[phone],+sculptor.&index=AUTHOR&uindex=&aspect=Browse&menu=search&ri=5 Solitude (Vassar College)
22. https://siris-artinventories.si.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=157UA522T5997.732&profile=ariall&source=~!siartinventories&view=subscriptionsummary&uri=full=3100001~!29671~!44&ri=5&aspect=Browse&menu=search&ipp=20&spp=20&staffonly=&term=Barnard,+George+Grey,[phone],+sculptor.&index=AUTHOR&uindex=&aspect=Browse&menu=search&ri=5 Solitude (Chrysler Museum)
23. The Music Trade Review, vol. 41, no. 26 (December 30, 1905), p. 27.(PDF)
24. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/73344036/anton-seidl Anton Seidl (1850 - 1898)
25. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/142058888/auguste-seidl Auguste Kraus Seidl (1854 - 1939)