Cornish Celebration Presentation Plaque 1905

Curator: Standing before us, we have Augustus Saint-Gaudens' "Cornish Celebration Presentation Plaque," crafted in 1905. This remarkable artwork resides at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. It's cast in bronze, executed as a detailed relief. Editor: It strikes me as a neoclassical tableau, almost theatrical. The golden bronze lends it a mythic grandeur, like something recovered from an ancient, hallowed site. Curator: The piece does embody neoclassical elements in its structured composition and use of allegory. This work was a commission commemorating the Cornish community. We can delve into how immigration from Cornwall in England has shaped industries here in America and brought a lot of traditions. The use of classical architectural motifs suggests an effort to link this relatively new cultural contribution to a grander narrative. Editor: Note how Saint-Gaudens orchestrates a rather elaborate play of depths within the relief itself. See the positioning of architectural forms, and that foliage. It serves to pull the eye deeper into the composition while at the same time being restricted by the borders and shallow depths imposed by the medium itself. Curator: Indeed. And beyond pure aesthetics, the layout reflects Saint-Gaudens’ social awareness of that moment. By merging the grandeur of classicism with a contemporary story of the immigrant experience, he honored their presence. Saint-Gaudens actively sought to legitimize the everyday life of immigrant populations into grand narratives and histories. Editor: A brave new world deserves brave new histories. Though, there's that persistent classicism. Look at the symmetry! Is there any genuine possibility for a truly new story to be told via means of formal traditions that are, well, so blatantly self-conscious? Curator: The tension, precisely, fuels the drama! I feel that tension, both artistically and culturally. Perhaps what resonates today is not just the individual’s technical mastery but the inherent and ongoing debate this work seems to have embraced from its inception. Editor: Pointedly. I came ready to argue that "history is bunk," as some famous auto industrialist once blurted. Yet standing before it I'm again ensnared. So, well played. Curator: Likewise! This plaque encourages us to continuously question whose stories take center stage and how societies shape their narrative legacies.