Portrait of a Romanesque Capital 1946

John Taylor Arms made this etching of a Romanesque capital in 1946. Arms was an American artist known for his meticulous and detailed prints of architecture, often of European churches and cathedrals. His work reflects a deep engagement with the past, but also a very modern sensibility, one interested in how the institutions of culture preserve and transmit history. The image shows a close-up of a carved capital, likely from a church or monastery, featuring grotesque figures typical of the Romanesque style. Romanesque sculpture often served a didactic function, teaching religious lessons to a largely illiterate population through visual means. In the early to mid-20th century, art institutions began to promote certain types of art over others. Arms’s choice to depict this subject matter through the relatively new medium of etching speaks to his artistic project: to capture the essence of historical forms through modern techniques. Understanding Arms's position within the artistic and cultural debates of his time requires considering how his work both reflected and challenged the prevailing norms of the art world, something we can investigate through archival research and by studying the art criticism of his day.