John Russell Pope (1873-1937) was a Neo classical American architect mostly known for his designs of the west wing of the US National Gallery of Art (figure 4.10), the US National Archives (figure 4.11), the American Pharmaceutical Association (figure 4.12), and the Jefferson Memorial (figure 4.13).328 After studying medicine for almost three years at college, Pope went to Columbia University to study architecture in 1891. With his graduation from Columbia University in 1894, he won the McKim Travelling Fellowship and the first prize awarded by the American School of Architecture in Rome in 1895, which offered him a great opportunity to spend 18 months in Rome. By
325
Milliarakis. The Seizure of the Parthenon Sculptures, p. 35.
326
See 2.4.2 Metaphorical Meanings, p. 60.
327
See 1.4 The Idea of Context, pp. 28-37.
328
Bedford, M. Steven. John Russell Pope: Architect of Empire, New York: Rizzoli International Publications, 1998, p. 7.
128
the end of 1896, Pope left Rome to enter the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He returned to New York in 1900, and after several years in the office of Bruce Piece, an American architect of many of the Canadian Pacific Railway’s Château-type stations and hotels, Pope began his own practice which lasted about 34 years. With diverse architectural designs in practice, ‘his domestic and monumental architecture established him as a leader in the development of a highly refined and restrained classicism that came to distinguish American architecture from that of its European counterparts’.329 329 ibid., p. 10.
Figure 4.9 Russell Pope Figure 4.11 US National Archives (Source: Bedford, M. S. John Russell Pope: Architect of Empire, 1998, p. 7.)
Figure 4.9 Russell Pope
(Source: Bedford, M. S. John Russell Pope: Architect of
Empire, 1998, p. 5.)
Figure 4.12 American Pharmaceutical Association (Source: Bedford, M. S. John Russell Pope:
Architect of Empire, 1998, p. 7.)
Figure 4.13 Jefferson Memorial (Source: Bedford, M. S. John Russell Pope: Architect of Empire, 1998, p.
129
Even though Pope’s initial success was the Lincoln Birthplace Museum completed in 1911, it was not until 1929 that the completion of the initial phase of the Baltimore museum marked the beginning of a flood of commissions for him to participate in the designing of at least nine museums over the next eight years.330
In the first year, after successfully completing the design of the expansion of the New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Cloisters, Pope was recognised by the British as developing a
‘unique form of classicism’.331
Therefore, he was chosen by Joseph, first Baron Duveen (1869-1939), connoisseur and English art dealer, as the architect for the installation of the Gallery housing the Parthenon sculptures in the British Museum as well as the modern foreign sculpture wing of the Tate Gallery, London. By June 1930, Pope submitted the plans of the Duveen Gallery (figure 4.14, figure 4.15). As commented by Director Sir George Hill, the gallery was ‘so immense that the rest of the British Museum could be regarded as a dog house’.332
The Duveen Gallery was designed as an I-shaped hall. The Ionic Frieze was incorporated into the walls of the long central section, ‘while the pediments were to be freestanding in end rooms reached by a flight of steps flanked by a pair of Doric columns in antis, and decorated with the metopes raised in plinths’.333
330 ibid., p. 170. 331 ibid., p. 174. 332 ibid., p. 182. 333 ibid., p. 182.
Figure 4.10 US National Gallery of Art (Source: Bedford, M. S. John Russell Pope: Architect of Empire, 1998, p. 7.)
130
Invited to comment on the design, three professors of ancient arts objected both on the grounds that the building dominated the sculptures, and that the sculptures were assembled misleadingly; for instance, ‘the style of the metope plinths made the metopes appear to be steles, the use of a single pedestal base for the pediments, and the elaborate paving of the galleries’.334 After five years of negotiation, the Duveen Gallery was scaled down by half, the Ionic Frieze was displayed on a pedestal surrounding the walls of the central Gallery rather than being incorporated into the walls, the metope plinths were reduced to simple shelves, and the pediments were displayed on separated pedestal bases in relatively accurate positions. The floor decoration was reduced to a Greek Key and Flora pattern. In addition, the installations of two groups of Doric columns in front of the small galleries were reduced to one group with two Doric columns standing in front of the small Galleries, and two flights of the steps were reduced to one flight connecting the central Gallery and the small Galleries. Another revision could be found within the roof. The solid area along the four edges of the roof could be believed to represent the style of the original marble roof above the Ionic Frieze. However, the final presentation of this area on the roof as continuous single squares highly reduced the effect of this aspect (figure 4.16).
334
ibid., p. 182.
Figure 4.15 Proposals for the Duveen Gallery (Source: Bedford, M. S. John Russell Pope: Architect of Empire,
1998, p. 183.) Figure 4.14 Proposals for the Duveen Gallery
(Source: Bedford, M. S. John Russell Pope: Architect of Empire, 1998, p. 183.)
131
Construction began in 1937 and the Gallery opened to the public in 1939. During the Second World War, much of the British Museum, including the Duveen Gallery, was damaged by the bombing; however, the sculptures were fully protected in a safe place. It was not until 1962 that the Duveen Gallery opened to the general public with its intention of providing permanent housing for the Parthenon sculptures collection.
As part of the Ancient Greek collection, the location of Duveen Gallery is at the end of the Ancient Greek artefacts, which occupied areas of the west wing on the museum’s ground floor (figure 4.17). The Duveen Gallery consists of five sections: the main Gallery is composed of three sections with two small sections at each end and one long section in the middle; the information Gallery is composed of two sections on each side of the Gallery entrance (figure 4.18). Approximately eight metres high, the main Gallery functions as the space for display of the original Parthenon sculptures contained in the Elgin Marbles since 1962. The information Galleries have been used since 1949 with various illustrative materials on the sculptures in the main Gallery and
Figure 4.17 British Museum ground floor - red: Duveen Gallery; yellow: side galleries. (Source: Anon, British Museum
Map, 2008, edited by researcher) Figure 4.16 Final proposal for the Duveen Gallery (Source:
Bedford, M. S. John Russell Pope: Architect of Empire, 1998, p. 184.)
132 other fragments of the Parthenon sculptures.
In the main Gallery, the original Parthenon sculptures contained in the Elgin Marbles are commonly known as the Ionic Frieze, the metopes and the pediments (figure 4.19). The Ionic Frieze is approximately 75 metres of the original 160 metres long Ionic Frieze, 15 of the original 92 panels of the metopes, and 17 figures of the east and west pediments in the Parthenon Temple. In the central area of the main Gallery, the Ionic Frieze, approximately 1,400 millimetres above the Gallery floor, is displayed along the walls of both long sides. The metopes and the pediments are displayed in transepts at each end Gallery. The metopes are hanging on the wall surrounding the pediments at eye level, and the pediments are displayed on separate pedestals in the middle areas in relation with their original positions.
Figure 4.18 Plan of the Duveen Gallery - light grey: main gallery; dark grey: information gallery. (Source: Cook, B.F. The Elgin Marbles, 1984, p. 91, edited by researcher)
Figure 4.19 Plan of the Duveen Gallery - red: pediments; blue: metopes; yellow: Ionic Frieze. (Source: Cook, B.F. The Elgin Marbles, 1984, p. 91, edited by researcher)
133