Edward L. Pierce, Memoir and letters of Charles Sumner: volume 2

[111] and those English fellows at Rome. As men—as specimens of the human race to be looked up to and imitated—these are not to be mentioned in the same breath with our countryman. Three cheers for the Stripes and Stars! I have seen his ‘Washington’ and studied it very carefully, and we have talked about it a great deal. It is truly great,—far beyond my expectation. The likeness is capital, and will be recognized at once; but the expression and tone of the whole are truly grand. It is in every way equal to the ‘Nerva’ of the Vatican, before which we have paused several times in our walks through that glorious gallery. The ‘Washington’ of Chantrey is childlike in comparison with it. I admire the thought and devotion that Greenough has given to his subject, and his determination to do his utmost in order to render the statue all that it should be. He is doubtful whether he shall get it finished to his satisfaction within a year from now; and he will not part with it, so long as he can hope to amend it by further labor. The other piece upon which he is engaged for the Capitol is not yet entirely set up; as far as he has gone it is very fine. It is intended to represent the surprise of a white settlement by the Indians.¹ The group reminds me of the ‘Deluge,’ by Kessels,² the drawing of which, by the way, Greenough has never seen. On the ground is a mother clasping her child, in order to save it from the uplifted tomahawk of an Indian who stands over her, but whose hand is arrested by a fearless settler, who is represented on a rock so that the upper half of his body appears above the Indian. This subject has capacities of all kinds. The woman is on the ground, so that she does not conceal the Indian, who is naked (except an accidental fold about his loins), and the settler, who appears above the savage, restraining his fury, is dressed in a hunter's shirt and cap. The passions are various,—the child, the mother, the father, the husband, the savage, the defender, &c.; all these various characters being blended in the group. The ‘Abdiel’ is taken just as he has concluded his speech to Satan and is turning to leave him. It is a winged, heaven-born Achilles. The subject was suggested to Greenough by Washington Allston, years ago. The statue is about three or four feet high; but Greenough means to make one as large as the Apollo Belvedere. He has also done a beautiful little bas-relief for Mr. Salisbury,—the angel telling St. John not to address his prayers to him but to God; and is now engaged on a bas-relief for Miss Gibbs, to be put in a church at Newport; also busts of Franklin, of Marquis Capponi, &c. I have seen a good deal of Powers.³ He is very pleasant and agreeable. His busts are truly remarkable, close likenesses without coarseness or vulgarity,—without Frazeeism.I asked Greenough if he thought Powers could make a young Augustus. ‘If he had a young Augustus to sit to him,’ was the reply. At present he has not gone beyond bust-making. He has made two fancy heads which are quite pretty, but rather