Liberal Arts Blog — The Sunflower Castle On The Beacon Hill Flats, The Courtyard Of The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, The Boston Public Garden Foot Bridge
Liberal Arts Blog: Friday is the Joy of Art, Architecture, Design, Film, Fashion, and All Things Visual Day
Today’s Topic: The Sunflower Castle on the Beacon Hill Flats, the Courtyard of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, the Boston Public Garden Foot Bridge
Today, the theme is whimsical places in Boston. I have chosen three. What would yours be? How about little magical places in other cities or towns you may well know more intimately than the rest of us do.
But first a re-cap for those new to the blog.
Last time (3/7) three iconic “men in black” — Bing Crosby as a priest in “Going My Way” and “The Bells of St. Mary’s,” the superhero Zorro, and the singer Johnny Cash. Two weeks ago (2/28) three historic churches of Boston (Old North Church and St. Stephens Church in the North End and Old South Meeting House on Washington and Milk in downtown Boston. The week before (2/21), four iconic structures by the architect Peter Harrison (1716–1775) — Christ’s Church on Zero Garden Street in Cambridge, King’s Chapel (Boston), the Touro Synagogue (Newport, RI). and St. Paul’s Chapel (NYC). The week before (2/14) the North Bridge, the Minuteman statue, and the 1836 Monument in Concord. And the week before that (2/7) a triptych of three iconic comic strips — Peanuts, Dilbert, and Calvin and Hobbes. The week before (1/31), a trio of a Madonna and Child (Botticelli), a Crucifixion (Murillo), and a Resurrection (Piero della Francesca). Five weeks ago (1/24), the same Botticelli combined with a dark Shel Silverstein (“Now I have a plan”) and a pop art masterpiece of Robert Indiana (“Eat, Die, Hug, Err.”)
Now let’s get down to business: the castle, the courtyard, and the foot bridge.
Experts — please chime in. Correct, elaborate, elucidate.
THE SUNFLOWER CASTLE — A SMALL BLOCK AWAY FROM THE CORNER OF CHARLES STREET AND MT. VERNON STREET ON BEACON HILL — almost across the street from the Charles Street Meeting House
1. Located on the “Flats” of Beacon Hill, on land reclaimed from the Charles River in the early 19th century.
2. “This project, one of the first large-scale land-making projects in Boston, cut down the top of Mount Vernon — one of the three peaks of the Tri-Mount — and moved it to the mud flats. This area was bordered by an abutment of pilings to retain the fill. Additional fill came from mud dredged from the Charles River. Almost 200 “pick and shovel” men, along with teams of oxen, spread the fill until it ranged from six to fourteen feet across the flats.”
3. Originally built in 1840, the house was renovated in 1878 in the Queen Anne’s style — characterized by “bold and unconventional color schemes” as well as “asymmetry, contrast and elaborate decorative motifs.”
NB: “A large wooden carving of a sunflower painted in bright yellow and green hangs under the eave above the front door. Beneath it, in the center of a windowed gallery you see a carving of a black griffin.”
Do not under any circumstances, miss walking down Mt. Vernon Street from the State House to the River, passing through Louisburg Square and the second Harrison Gray Otis House on the hill and the Church of the Advent on the flats.
THE COURTYARD OF THE ISABELLA STEWARD GARDNER MUSEUM — from orchids (February-March) to nasturtiums (April) to hydrangeas (May-June) to chrysanthemums (Septmber-October)
1. The museum was built from 1898 to 1901 in the style of a Venetian palace by Isabella Stewart Gardner (1840–1924). And was opened to the public in 1903.
2. The theft of several masterpieces from the art collection in 1990 is perhaps the most infamous art theft in history.
3. Stolen items included a Vermeer, a Manet, and a Rembrandt.
NB: Both John Singer Sargent (1888) and Anders Zorn (1894) did portraits of Ms. Gardner. But to me the most stunning painting in the museum is “El Jaleo” by Sargent. Do not under any circumstances graduate and leave town without visiting the Gardner.
THE BOSTON PUBLIC GARDEN FOOT BRIDGE — and don’t miss a ride on the swan boats or the sculpture of the ducklings commemorating the classic “Make Way for Ducklings” (Robert McCloskey)
1. “Built in 1867, it was the world’s shortest functioning suspension bridge before its conversion to a girder bridge in 1921.”
2. The “Swan Boats” have been operating since 1877 — from the second week in April to the weekend after Labor Day.
3. The Swan Boats were inspired by the opera, Lohengrin, in which a “gallant knight” rescues “the damsel by riding a swan across the lake.”
NB: The pilot of the boats sits on “a brass seat on top of a paddlebox concealed by a swan.”
https://aknextphase.com/sunflower-castle-beacon-hill-flat/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isabella_Stewart_Gardner
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Make_Way_for_Ducklings_(sculpture)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Make_Way_for_Ducklings
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swan_Boats_(Boston,_Massachusetts)
QUOTE OF THE MONTH
“Make your own Bible. Select and collect all the words and sentences that in all your readings have been to you like the blast of a trumpet.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
My spin — then periodically review, re-rank, and exchange your list with those you love. I call this the “Orion Exchange” because seven is about as many as any human can digest at a time. Game?
LAST FOUR YEARS OF POSTS ORGANIZED THEMATICALLY
Updating PDFs: 2023 — Google Drive
ATTACHMENTS BELOW:
#1 A graphic guide to justice (9 metaphors on one page).
#2 “39 Songs, Prayers, and Poems: the Keys to the Hearts of Seven Billion People” — Adams House Senior Common Room Presentation, (11/17/20)
NB: Palestine Orion (Decision) — let’s exchange Orions, let’s find Rumi’s field (“Beyond all ideas of right and wrong, there is a field. Meet me there” Rumi, 13 century Persian Sufi mystic)
YOUR TURN
Please share the coolest thing you learned recently or ever related to art, sculpture, design, architecture, film, or anything visual.
This is your chance to make someone else’s day. And to cement in your own memory something cool or important you might otherwise forget. Or to think more deeply than you otherwise would about something that is close to your heart.
