Protest
Against Nude Lamp On Governor's Desk
From Richard Leiby, The Washington Post, 12/19/04
In
Montpelier, VT officials at Washington’s Corcoran Gallery of Art
are protesting plans by Vermont Republican Governor James Douglas
to banish from his statehouse desk a lamp that replicates “The
Greek Slave,” a famed statue by Hiram Powers depicting a chained,
naked young woman. “Since 1873 the Corcoran Gallery of Art has
proudly counted one of Powers’ original Greek Slave sculptures
in its own collection and joins the White House and the US Capitol
as exhibitors of his work,” said David C. Levy, the Corcoran’s
director. Sculpted by the Vermont-born Powers in 1843, the statue
depicts a Greek girl enslaved by the Turks, and it became a symbol
of the state’s abolition movement. Vermont historians and preservationists
-- including Liz Jeffords, wife of Senator Jim Jeffords (I-Vt.)
and Polly Billings, wife of senior federal judge Franklin Billings
-- are petitioning the governor to reverse course.
The
Holistic Wisdom Corporation