Pandora, 1864

  • Chauncey Bradley Ives, American, 1810-1894

Marble

  • various dimensions

Founders Society Purchase, Gibbs-Williams Fund and Edward T. Rothman Fund

82.28

Department

American Art before 1950

Representing the Greek myth of Pandora, this is Ives’s most famous work. The first version of the subject, produced in 1851, was the hit of the Crystal Palace Exhibition in London in 1862. In this second version, Ives made changes in the shape of the jar and in the tilt of the subject’s head. The classical ideal for which Ives aimed is most obvious in the face and hair, whereas the rest of the figure emphasizes nineteenth-century naturalism. Pandora is shown the moment she can no longer resist the temptation to open the jar, thereby unleashing into the world all the ills that beset humanity. She saved only Hope, which lay at the bottom of the jar. Thus, though victims of every evil, we always retain hope.

Inscribed, on base: C.B.IVES.FECIT. | ROMAE.1864

Mr. Almon W. Griswold (Elmwood P.O. (or Hancock Junction), New Hampshire)

1923, New Hampshire Historical Society (Concord)

1982-present, purchase by the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

Tuckerman, Henry T. Book of the Artists. New York, 1867, p. 382. Craven, Wayne. Sculpture in America. New York, 1968, p. 286. Gerdts, William. American Neo-Classics Sculpture. New York, 1973, pp. 54-55 (fig. 6). Exh. cat., Hirschl and Adler Gallery. New York, 1982, pp. 24-25, no. 7 (ill.). Bulletin of the DIA 61, 3 (1982-1983): p. 11 (ill.). Clark, H. Nichols. A Marble Quarry: The James B. Ricau Collection of Sculpture at the Chrysler Museum of Art. New York, 1997, pp. 98-121 (ill.).

Chauncey Bradley Ives, Pandora, 1864, marble. Detroit Institute of Arts, Founders Society Purchase, Gibbs-Williams Fund and Edward T. Rothman Fund, 82.28.