|
 | ||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
 | ||||||||||||||||
• Melville found inspiration in the work of Turner Melville found inspiration in the work of Turner Nothing about the exterior of Arrowhead suggests the epic novel "Moby-Dick" that Herman Melville would write there, save for sperm whale frontispieces adorning several of its doors. Inside, however, hang 13 prints of paintings by Englishman J.M.W. Turner, among the many collected by Melville, in an exhibition titled "Meditation and Water are Wedded Forever." Quoting "Moby-Dick" to name the exhibit recognizes Melville's debt to the oceanic myth and reality expounded in Turner’s art. The gallery room stands in contrast to the rusticated interior of the house. Save for an occasional pedestal topped by a potted plant, the stark white room reflects a spare elegance. The focus, quite clearly, is on the artwork. Planned in conjunction with an exhibition of Turner's work at the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, the presentation emphasizes the inspiration Melville drew from Turner’s work. According to Arrowhead Curator Catherine Reynolds, Melville would sometimes purchase an entire hardbound book because it contained a single print by Turner. Guest Curator Robert K. Wallace's notes, placed beside the prints, elucidate various parallels between the work of Turner and Melville. All of the paintings are set at sea; each manifests a distinct violence or chaos, sometimes lurking beneath the surface of the sea after a battle. "Regulus Leaving Carthage" and "Ancient Rome” both investigate the decline of great empires. In the early years of the transcontinental American Republic, historical examples of power and decay must have resonated with Melville. Reading manifest destiny into the Englishman Turner's work might seem suspect, but it explains perhaps the paintings’ resonance with Melville. To a white, freeholding American in 1850, his nation may well have represented the new Venice, Rome or Carthage depicted in their European antiquity by Turner. Through the same lens, the distorted, abstract ocean in "Snow Storm," in fact the single frame of a tempestuous sea, could have symbolized to Melville the intractable stasis of a nation half slave and half free, that would soon collapse against itself during the Civil War. The artwork appears to be naturalistic realism turned and twisted into curvaceous representations of the roiling, mutable ocean. Even static images of the sea seen in "The Fighting Temeraire" suggest in their placidity the movement described in earlier paintings. "Rain, Steam, and Speed" uses the figure of a steamboat chased by a rabbit to suggest that mankind has, by harnessing energy, sprung the bounds of ordinary animal travel. The awesome ability of humankind to travel quickly on the open sea was fast coming inland on rail lines. One might not need a familiarity with Melville's work to appreciate his taste in seascape art. However, the pictures do much to explain the creative gestation that produced "Moby-Dick." In concert with a tour of Melville's study, the prints indicate that even after he abandoned life as a sailor, the ocean often served as the object of Melville’s creative inquiry. As one of his children once observed, Melville often purchased prints of artwork before buying food. During a tour of the house, looking out the study window that Melville called, "my porthole," one can see in the shape of Mount Greylock the irregular curve of a sperm whale's back. It is then that one imagines Melville, with his collection of Turner seascapes, finding an ocean and a whale in the slope of the Berkshires. Arrowhead is located at 780 Holmes Road and is open seven days a week through October from 9:30 to 4:30. For more information, call the Berkshire Historical Society's offices at 442-1793. The exhibit runs through the summer season. |
||||||||||||||||
)
)
)
)
)
© 2010 New England Newspapers, Inc. |