TABLE OF CONTENTS

Cover Story: Colors of Courage

Currently Showing/Coming Soon

First Saturday Tour

Saturday Speaker Series

Out in the Gardens: Hydrangeas

Tips from Kip: Watering Tips

Emily on Education

Voices from the Archives:
Claude King

From the Library: Alone

Featured Artist:
E.C. Prudhomme

Featured Artwork:
Tapestry F

Did You Know?

From the Vaults

Information, Please

Worth the Trip

Worth Quoting

Norton Information

Colors of Courage: Patients Who Paint

Without art, the crudeness of reality would make the world unbearable.
-George Bernard Shaw

A patient at Shreveport’s Feist-Weiller Cancer Center, Margaret sits in a hospital bed in a dimly lit room, her head covered in a colorful scarf. Although a drug to combat her disease slowly drips into her veins, she hums a little as she lightly touches brush to paper. While she fights for her life, her mind is elsewhere – concentrating on the scales of a dragon, or the petals of a flower, or the rainbow eaves of a house. Margaret sighs and says, “I find that as I paint I am removed from the world of worry, sadness, pain, cancer, chemotherapy, needles, etc., and transported to a worry-free world of bright colors and pleasure.”

The R.W. Norton Art Gallery is proud to pair with Arts in Medicine (AIM) to present the special exhibition, Colors of Courage, June 9 to July 18. Twenty-three works of art will be on display. Admission to the exhibit, as well as to the museum, is free.

AIM is a unique program now in its eighth year at the center, located at LSU Health Sciences Center. It offers patients the opportunity to re-create art works by the Old Masters while receiving treatment in an outpatient clinic setting. Jane Crandell-Glass, founding director, coordinates both artists and volunteers in offering patients a meaningful activity that both reduces stress and produces beautiful paintings, which are displayed in hallways, clinics and lobbies of the Cancer Center and in the Hematology/Oncology unit of the University Hospital.

The process begins when a coordinating artist sketches an outline copy of a painting. The sketch is divided into nine to twenty 10-inch square grids, which are color-coded. AIM Volunteers take the squares into the chemotherapy outpatient clinic where patients are provided with brushes and paints to paint the grid while they receive treatment. Completed squares are combined to form the finished work, which is matted and framed with a plaque listing the names of those who participated.

And how do the patients respond when asked to copy a masterpiece? Joanne Osband, author of Art as Healing, states, “Although some people confess that they do not have any artistic abilities, it is my belief that artistic expression lies in all of us and requires a sense of trust and the freedom to allow the flowing for magic to happen. Using art as healing doesn't require you to be a ‘good’ artist.” Vicki, another Feist-Weiller patient agrees. “Painting makes it fun to come here and it helps to pass the time. I like seeing the paintings hanging when I come. I tease my family that I’m working on masterpieces,” she comments.

At the Norton, a descriptive brochure accompanies the exhibition. A scavenger hunt challenges the young or young at heart to find the matching original works scattered throughout the museum. Visitors will also have the opportunity to listen to the voices of the artists themselves with the Norton’s Guide by Cell audio feature. Using any cell phone, patrons can reach a voice mailbox to make each painting speak from the heart. Finally, Crandell and Jennifer DeFratis, Tour and Special Events Coordinator for the Norton, will lead jointly a tour of the exhibition on June 19 at 2 p.m., exploring the significance of the paintings to the art world and to the lives of the patients.

Though the diagnosis of cancer can be devastating, the AIM program hopes to offer a little relief for patients and family members alike. Medicine may heal the body, but it is art that may heal the soul. As Florence Nightingale wrote, “Beautiful objects and brilliancy of colour are actual means of recovery.” Join us as we fly our Colors of Courage.

--Jennifer DeFratis, Tour and Special Events Coordinator

Currently Showing

Alex Dzigurski:
Poet of Land and Sea
April 27 - August 1, 2010

If you’ve long admired the two works in our permanent collection by seascape artist Alexander Dzigurski, you’ll love our special exclusive exhibit coming April 27. Alex Dzigurski (1911-1995): Poet of the Land and Sea showcases eighteen paintings representative of the artists’ work. Dzigurski painted for more than sixty years. While his body of work documents his journey from Serbia to America, it also reflects his passion both for his native land as well as for America--a haven of peace for an artist, his art, and his family. Some have likened his work to the soaring strings of symphony, with Dzigurski using his brush like a conductor’s baton. His subjects include the deep, blue fjords of Norway, the walled city of Dubrovnik on the Dalmatian coast, the soar of Glacier National Park, and other mountains, shorelines, and shrines found throughout Europe and America. “He was such a great, gregarious person,” Alex Dzigurski II, of Mountain View California, an artist in his own right, comments of his father. “He loved this country very much. He was joyful about what he did. That desire and passion comes through in his work.”

--Gary D. Ford, Staff Writer

My Darlings

Under the Magnifying Glass:
Fifty Miniatures by Wes and Rachelle Siegrist
May 4 - July 25, 2010

Two of the finest living practitioners of the art of miniature painting are represented in the first solo exhibition by husband-and-wife team Wes and Rachelle Siegrist. As modern miniaturists, their subject matter encompasses a variety of genres, including wildlife, portraiture, and still-lifes. Miniature art is defined as works consisting of fewer than 25 square inches drawn at what is usually a one-sixth scale; however, most of the works by Wes and Rachelle are less than 15 square inches, or smaller than 4 inches by 4 inches and designed on a one-twelfth scale. Rachelle has won Best of Show in two of the Miniature Art Society of Florida’s Annual International Exhibitions, as well as the Robert and Leslie Starks Memorial Award three years in a row, while Wes has won First Place in Opaque Watercolor in the 2004 Annual International Miniature Show among other awards. The Siegrists tell us, “We aspire to be remembered not as much for the artwork we left behind as we do for the impact we made on our world and peers in elevating and establishing the genre of miniature art of the Revival Period.”

--Gary D. Ford, Staff Writer

Arts in Medicine:
The Colors of Courage
June 9 - July 18, 2010

Arts in Medicine (AIM) is a unique program that has been in operation at the Feist-Weilier Cancer Center at the LSU Health Sciences Center in Shreveport for eight years. It offers cancer patients the opportunity to re-create art works by the Grand Masters while receiving treatment in an out-patient clinic setting. Jane Crandell-Glass is the founding Director who coordinates both the artists and volunteers in their mission of offering patients a meaningful activity that both reduces stress and produces beautiful paintings which are displayed in in the hallways, clinics, and lobbies of the Caner Center and in the Hematology/Oncology unit of the University Hospital.

Coming Soon

Ansel Adams:
The Masterworks
August 17 - December 31, 2010

In his later years, Ansel Adams (1902 – 1984) chose a selection of his photographs that he felt represented the best of his life’s work. Called “The Museum Set”, the collection reveals the importance he placed on the drama and splendor of natural environments that might not have otherwise revealed their secrets to the casual passer-by. These forty-seven photographs represent a substantial portion of that collection. This is the third exhibition of Adams’s photographs the Norton has featured.

Nearby stands the exceptional work of an artist who flunked his entrance exams to art school, only to become known as the greatest sculptor since Michelangelo. Among eight works of Auguste Rodin, two bronzes portray universal themes of love. L’Eternal Printemps or Eternal Springtime and Le Baiser or The Kiss stand on tall pedestals alongside the pensive bronze La Penseur or The Thinker.

Visitors think deeply, too, when they step across the hall from Europe and alongside a work depicting the end of an era in the American West. In Inquest on the Plains, A.D.M. Cooper, an academically trained artist like Barye and Rodin, reveals his despair at the plight of the American Indian near the end of the 19th century.

The tour highlights other artists of the American West, including John Mix Stanley and Charles Schreyvogel before stepping into two galleries devoted to the 389 works of Charles M. Russell and the 155-piece display of Frederic Remington. With those two collections and other works of that era, the Norton ranks among the top museums in the nation in art of the American West.

Among other stops, the “Manly Man Tour” will pause in the Antiques Firearms Gallery, showcasing part of the museum’s collection of 787 rare rifles, pistols, and revolvers. Many on display are engraved, as well as adorned with inlays of precious metals, by the master gun engraver, the late E.C. Prudhomme of Shreveport.

In the Glass Courtyard, Marilyn Monroe makes a cameo appearance on the the “Manly Man Tour”. The sculpture Forever Marilyn, by J. Seward Johnson, Jr., captures the movie star in the famous scene standing on the air grate, skirt billowing around her from the film The Seven Year Itch.

Join as as we redefine what makes a man.

--Gary D. Ford, Staff Writer

Both Rachelle and her husband Wes Siegrist have been painting miniature art since 1996. The couple first got to know each other when Rachelle was Wes’s student at the Highland Art Museum in 1989. They married in 1990 and have shared a studio ever since.

Rachelle Siegrist has won the Robert and Leslie Starks Memorial Award, given to the best artist under age 36, three years in a row (2001,2002, and 2003) and in 2004, won Best of Show at the 30th Annual International Miniature Show. Wes Siegrist has won his own share of awards, including First Place In Opaque Watercolor in 2004 Annual International Miniature Show.

Join us for this lecture by Wes Siegrist on The History of Miniature Art and David J. Wagner, Ph.D. on Nature in Art History, immediately followed by a Gallery Walk of the Special Exhibition Under the Magnifying Glass: Fifty Miniatures by Wes and Rachelle Siegrist, conducted by the artists themselves. Wes and Rachelle Siegrist and David J. Wagner, Curator/Tour Director, will also hold book signings after the presentation.

--Jennifer DeFratis, Tour and Special Events Coordinator

One Saturday each month, the Norton will host a local, regional, or national expert speaking on a variety of subjects in formats ranging from formal presentations to informal seminars to walking tours. Upcoming speakers will cover a broad range of subjects including gardening, popular literature and film, influential historical and cultural figures, musical history and interpretation, and food in art. Like the Norton itself, these events are free to the public. Please check the calendar of events regularly for the next in our Saturday Speaker Series.

As big as popcorn balls, hydrangeas burst forth bloom in early summer, bringing shades of lavender, pink, purple, and blue to the botanical gardens. I love the big, green bushes as anyone can see when they stroll through our gardens, where fifteen varieties of French hydrangeas (Hydrangea macrophylla) bloom.

Some consider hydrangeas a little old-fashioned, but they add so much robust greenery and color, and look good most anywhere you plant them, even beside a gorilla. We flanked Mountain Silverback, one of our outdoor sculptures, with pink and blue hydrangeas.

As you stroll, you’ll also see hydrangeas in the Upper Shade Garden near our employees’ parking lot, and along the stream that splashes down the hillside. Stroll down beside it to the pond, then follow the brick path north. You’ll pass another outdoor sculpture, Destiny of the Red Man, as you walk up and over the hill to find more hydrangeas flourishing alongside Japanese maples in our Hillcrest Maple Garden.

Next, sniff the air and follow the scent to our Fragrance Garden. Phantom hydrangeas grow among sweet olive, witch hazel, fragrant sasanqua, hostas, and others plants with natural perfume.

Oakleaf hydrangeas seem a little wild, and, with their oak-like leaves, feel right at home our soaring forest. They’re also great for any garden, and add color to two seasons. Instead of round balls of blooms like French hydrangea, oakleaf hydrangeas in late spring bear elongated clusters of white flowers, then deepen in color to a pinkish-purple hue as they age.

In autumn, the eight-inch-long leaves turn red. So do the flowers of our “Alice” oakleaf hydrangeas. At the Norton, you can look down as well as up for fall color.

Hydrangeas thrive here in our filtered morning sun and light afternoon shade. Our soaring oaks and pines, our tall azaleas and other thick bushes, provide just such conditions.

In the home garden as here, hydrangeas like filtered morning sun and light afternoon shade. You’ll need to add organic material when you plant hydrangeas, and don’t forget to mulch. Hydrangeas grow best in rich porous soil, in which content may sometimes determine color. Strongly acidic soils produce a bluer bloom, while more alkaline conditions produce pinks and reds.

You’ll want to prune to shape the bushes. Cut off old blooms when they finish flowering.

Why do I love hydrangeas? They’re low maintenance, they bloom easily, and they remind me of my grandmother. What better reasons to grow a garden?

--Kip Dehart, Landscape Director

As the sun beats down this summer, gardeners are lugging around hoses and setting up sprinklers to keep plants nourished with water.

I have two rules of thumb in watering. One, do it early in the morning. Two, if it’s dry, water it. I water in the morning soon after rising, when plants are waking up, too, and need the moisture after a long, hot day and night.

We all want to conserve water, however, while giving our plants the moisture they need. Here are some water-wise ways towards a greener garden.

• Cut back on grass. I like a pretty lawn, too, and here at the Norton, we maintain grassy areas. Grass, however, sucks up more than its share of water, so you might consider reducing the size of your lawn. Spread a ground cover, or build a wooden deck above grass you once mowed, trimmed, and watered.

• Consider the lay of the land. Watch your sprinkler’s distribution and re-position it when you see waste, such as a small Lake Ponchatrain filling up in your driveway, or water running down slopes or off heavy, clay soils. Re-adjust your rate of application, water in short intervals, and allow time for soaking into soils. A ground cover planting or a terrace may help minimize runoff from a slope.

• Invest in a timer. Once you position your applications correctly, set a timer that turns water on and off, and applies more precise amounts your plants need.

• Choose plants and their placement wisely. Think of your garden in “hydrozones” by grouping plants according to their water needs. Place those plants with high water needs nearest your house, and ones with lesser demands farther away. It will save you from dragging hoses to far corners of your garden.

• Come see our Southwest Garden. We made lemon from lemonades when we cleared an area, located right behind the museum, where Bermuda grass on clay soil demanded a lot of water. In its place we created our new Southwest Garden. This xeriscape (a style of landscaping requiring little or no irrigation) now grows with plants that sip instead of slurp. Most think of such Southwestern gardens as hot, flat plots and plants with sharp edges and stickers. We shaped our garden into berms, built a waterfall over rock, and added plants with beautiful blooms, such as Eastern Blue Star and Desert Willow. Its sun-brilliant beauty presents a nice contrast to the rest of our green, shaded gardens, and saves precious water.

--Kip Dehart, Landscape Director

Jen and Wiley, 2002

didn’t even flinch), and she was brave enough to touch our four-foot crocodile. This puppet was so large, I would slip it over my head and would scissor my arms to operate its huge jaws. Her eyes grew wide as her hands traveled the length of Croc’s snout, but she giggled in delight when she discovered his ferocious teeth were made of spongy foam.

That spark of recognition, that moment of understanding is what I strive to achieve in my tours of the R.W. Norton Art Gallery. I believe everyone who walks through our doors deserves to understand and appreciate the art on display. It has been my joy to serve the children of Shreveport and the surrounding areas with tales of American history, cowboy artists, European painting techniques and more.

But how to you get that AHA! moment with someone who can’t see the art?

Recently, after traveling with Emily Meyers, our director of education, to the Louisiana School for the Visually Impared in Baton Rogue, my brain was wrapped around that exact question. We learned many valuable tips and techniques, but had yet to put them into practice.

It was actually Margaret Harris and the Louisiana Association for the Blind who reached out to me. On a stormy Friday in April, I conducted my first tour for the blind – a Bronze Sculpture Tour. My first gaffe came quickly, when I announced after my welcome and introduction, “Please follow me this way....” After an awkward pause, Margaret informed me that if I would speak as I moved, the group would follow my voice. And so, walking backwards and talking constantly, I led the ladies through the art gallery, walking sticks in tow. I introduced each piece as we approached it. Then, standing beside the work, I asked them to place their hands on the sculpture. Our first stop was in the Remington Gallery with the bronze The Horse Thief. Hands carefully explored:

“Ooh, that’s a skinny pony – I can feel his ribs!”
“The ground is muddy. If you step in that, it’ll suck your boots clean off.”
“What’s this at the Indian’s side – a knife?”

She was correct – it was a small bronze knife.

We continued with Augustus Saint-Gaudens’ The Puritan in the American History Gallery, then into the Glass Courtyard for Forever Marilyn, the life-sized statue of Marilyn Monroe. One lady blazed to life: “This is the scene where she’s standing on a grate in the New York City and steam blows her dress up! I remember seeing that movie!” She had lost her sight late in life, but this tour sparked a memory of a dark movie house from long ago.

We wound our way through the European Gallery (touching the nude statues elicited a few giggles), the Bonheur Gallery, and finally, the Fairy Tale Gallery. The tour lasted around 45 minutes, but felt so much shorter. Time flies when you’re having fun.

I would call our first tour for the blind a success, and I am proud to announce that should a sight-impaired person visit our establishment, we now have works that they may explore with their hands. We are hoping to add texturized paintings to our repertoire too, so that our blind patrons may feel their way around our landscapes and portraits, while the sighted may explore the works in a different dimension.

Here at the Norton we are expanding our programs to incorporate more and more facets of the community, and to share our gifts with a larger audience. We strive to reach those who enjoy, create, want or need art in their lives. And we wish to accommodate everyone. After all, where the eyes are blind, one must look with the heart.

--Jennifer DeFratis, Tour and Special Events Coordinator

Mr. King, a radioman first class who served on transport ships, entered Japan after the war, and was appalled by conditions on the ground.

Those people were all starving to death there, eating out of garbage cans, kids, and everybody. Money was piled up there; ten-foot high pile of money, currency. Yens or whatever they called them. But it wasn’t any good. You couldn’t buy nothing. There wasn’t anything to buy there. Nobody even fooled with money. Just piles of it and nobody ever even cared about it because there was not one single thing you could buy if you had all that money. They were all starving there; little ol’ kids running around digging in the garbage cans trying to find a scrap or two. Starving dogs, everything. I don’t know how they held out as long as they did.

Mr. King returned to Shreveport and his musical career. His 1962 song, "Wolverton Mountain", spent nine weeks atop Billboard charts. He is among nearly 500 men and women from the Shreveport area who graciously gave their time to tell us their life stories of service and sacrifice. We’re presenting these stories as part of our Oral History Project, an ongoing effort to interview veterans of conflicts from World War II to the present. We also continue to collect interviews from eyewitnesses to the civil rights struggle, pioneers of the energy industries, and those who created “the Shreveport sound” in music.

Click here to view additional photographs and to listen to the audio of the interview with Mr. King. If you or someone you know would like to share stories with us, please call (318) 865-4201, or contact ohp@rwnaf.org.

--Gary Ford, Staff Writer

And here I was, near the axis of the world, in the darkness where the stars make a circle in the sky. At that moment the conviction came to me that the harmony and rhythm were too perfect to be a symbol of blind chance or an accidental offshoot of the cosmic process; and I knew that a Beneficent Intelligence pervaded the whole. It was a feeling that transcended reason, that went to the heart of a man’s despair and found it groundless.

--Richard E. Byrd, Alone

There is an old saying that “blood will tell”, and in the case of Richard E. Byrd, it certainly seems to be true. Born in 1888 to Virginia aristocracy, Richard Byrd could trace his accomplished ancestors all the way back to the Renaissance. The Byrds were among the earliest settlers in Virginia, quickly became among the wealthiest landowners, and remained active in politics and the news media. After the family lost almost everything in the Civil War, Richard and Evelyn Bolling Byrd encouraged their three sons, Tom, Dick (Richard), and Harry, to restore the family name and prestige.

Richard expressed a sense of adventure from an early age, traveling alone to the Philippines when only eleven. While another brother, Harry, rose as a political star, Richard entered the military, earning his wings as a naval aviator in 1916 and commanding U.S. air forces in Canada during World War I. A reconnaissance cruise to Greenland left him fascinated with polar exploration. After participating in several failed Navy attempts to fly over the North Pole, Byrd secured private funding for his own attempts. On May 9, 1926, the 38-year-old aviator, accompanied by fellow pilot Floyd Bennett, took off from an airfield in Spitsbergen, Norway. The two returned earlier than expected, but nevertheless announced that they had successfully flown over the Pole. Though skeptics expressed their doubts, Byrd became an American hero, complete with ticker tape parade.

Next, he announced his intention to become the first to fly over the South Pole and claim Antarctica for America. His expedition, which included three planes, 95 dogs, 42 men, and 650 tons of supplies, left by ship in the fall of 1928, taking two months to reach the destination set for the base camp Byrd christened “Little America”. From there, he and pilot Bernt Balchen made the first flight over the South Pole on November 9, 1928. After 14 months, Byrd and his men headed home, where he was promoted to the rank of admiral and once again given a hero’s welcome.

By 1933, he had funding for a second Antarctic expedition further inland. Though the original plan included three men settling in for winter at the “Advance Base”, eventually Byrd decided to go it alone at the 9- by 13-foot cabin for five months. His book Alone tells the harrowing story of how an initially optimistic but cautious Byrd slowly descended into despair, failing at first to realize that his damaged heater was steadily poisoning him with carbon monoxide. Once he understood the problem, the bedridden and by-then brain-damaged Byrd had to decide how long he could run the heater each day without further injuring himself. In the meantime, he continued to make his weekly radio contact transmitting his daily observations back to colleagues at Little America. Finally unable to disguise his condition after four months, he was rescued by a crew that itself was almost lost to the cruel Antarctic winter.

Returning to the U.S. six months after his rescue, the 47-year-old Byrd was said to have aged prematurely and was haunted by what he saw as the failure of his mission. He wrote Alone as a candid account of his experience, including both the mundane details necessary to survival under extreme conditions and the emotional struggles involved in dealing with his solitude and illness. Alone is now considered a classic of the annals of exploration and has remained consistently in print. Before his death in 1957, Byrd led four more Antarctic expeditions, but none ever captured his or the public’s imagination in the way those four lonely months under uniquely perilous circumstances have continued to do.

--Everl Adair, Director of Research and Rare Collections

Bergman 6.5 mm Automatic Pistol, detail

Prudhomme finally began his professional career as an engraver in 1946 at age 35. Because of his long and careful “apprenticeship”, he was successful almost immediately. His former profession doubtless aided his mastery by building his strength and agility. More than simply scratching on metal, engravers actually dig out the metal and produce what is more a relief than a drawing. Engraving in the hard metal of guns is also far more difficult and requires different tools than working in softer metals like gold and silver, though these are sometimes inlaid into the incised lines on Prudhomme’s more intricate and elaborate work. Producing what are in effect small sculptures, the former wrestler established himself as a master whose work is known worldwide.

Among the many fine pieces by Prudhomme in the Norton’s gun collection are a Bergmann 6.5 mm Automatic Pistol with high relief scroll engraving with gold inlays and steel-engraved elk, deer, and the head of a mountain goat (1961); a Colt .45 Single-action Revolver with a semi-relief scroll engraving with green and yellow gold inlays of a buffalo, cowboy, Indian, teepees, and cougar head (1971); and a Winchester .22 Automatic Rifle with semi-relief scroll engraving, a semi-relief engraved sheep, and line-engraved buffalo, steer head, and Indian head. The Norton currently displays twelve guns engraved by this modern master on display in its Gun Collection Gallery in the South Wing. Prudhomme died in 1990.

--Everl Adair, Director of Research and Rare Collections

As the two city-states of Rome and Carthage (in modern-day Tunisia) began to dominate the areas surrounding the Mediterranean Sea in the 3rd century B.C., they naturally came into conflict. This resulted in three wars: the 1st Punic War (264 -241 B.C.), the 2nd Punic War (218 – 201 B.C.), and the 3rd Punic War (149 – 146 B.C.). Of the three, the one which has most captured the imagination of artists and writers is the 2nd Punic War because of its match-up between two brilliant military commanders: Hannibal of Carthage and Scipio Africanus of Rome. The reverence with which Renaissance rulers viewed these classic figures led King Francois I of France to commission a series of tapestries commemorating major moments in the 2nd Punic War. Based on cartoons drawn by Giulio Romano, the tapestries were woven in the famous Flemish workshops responsible for the great textile art of the Renaissance over a period of five years. Dating from the 16th century, these six tapestries are among the oldest works on display in the Norton.

Hannibal proved to be a military genius, invading Rome and consistently defeating the Roman legions for more than a dozen years. His victory at the Battle of Cannae is still studied in military academies and was one of the inspirations for the battle plan of General Norman Schwarzkopf Jr. in Operation Desert Storm to liberate Kuwait during the 1990-1991 Gulf War. However, Hannibal was never able to induce the Romans to surrender and in 203 B.C. left Italy when forces led by Scipio Africanus were threatening Carthage itself.

Called back from his successful yet futile conquest of the Italian countryside, Hannibal established his camp at Zama, five days west of the city. Spies he sent to check out Scipio’s camp were captured. Instead of executing them, Scipio gave them a guided tour and told them to report back to Hannibal. As a result, the two generals held a parley, one of the rare occasions in history in which two opposing military geniuses meet to discuss peace, a momentous event Giulio Romano commemorated in Tapestry F.

According to Greek historian Polybius (203-120 B.C.) Hannibal spoke first, saying that he hoped they could come to some accommodation:

I myself am ready to make the attempt, since I have learned by actual experience
How fickle is Fortune, how by a slight shift of the scale she brings about changes
of the greatest moment to either side, and how she sports with mankind as if her
victims were little children.
But I fear that you, Scipio, partly because you are very young and partly
because the whole course of events in Spain and in Africa has favoured your plans,
so that you have never yet experienced the ebb-tide of Fortune, will not be influenced
by my words, however much truth they may contain.

Scipio’s reply seems to vindicate Hannibal’s statement: “The fact is that you must either put yourself and your country unconditionally into our hands, or else fight and conquer us.”

The battle was joined the day after the parley. Scipio set up his troops in what would prove to be a brilliant formation that nullified the effect of the Carthaginians’ elephant charge and broke the inexperienced troops on Hannibal’s front line. Trapped behind that front line, his veterans were unable to push forward against the Romans, who lost only 1,500 in the fighting. The Carthaginians had 20,000 killed and another 20,000 captured, and were forced to accept the Romans’ harsh peace terms and the war officially ended in 201 B.C.

And what became of our intrepid commanders? Hannibal remained the commander of the much-reduced Carthaginian army and in 196 B.C. was elected a suffete (a magistrate). In that office he claimed that the debt to Rome could easily be paid if political corruption and pay-offs were eliminated. With that assertion he made political enemies, who charged Hannibal of stealing money from the state himself. They also accused him of plotting with Antiochus III of Syria against the Romans.

Hannibal fled into exile at the court of Antiochus III, while his home in Carthage was demolished and all his possessions confiscated. He paid for his sanctuary by commanding the Syrian fleet for Antiochus III in yet another war Rome won. One condition of peace forced the Syrians to hand over Hannibal, who escaped again, fleeing to the court of Prusias of Bithynia in 183 B.C. Titus Quinctius Flamininus, the local Roman commander, pressured Bithunians to extradite the Carthaginian. To avoid the ignominy of public display in Rome, Hannibal took poison. Flamininus was eventually disgraced for his role in the episode. The Romans, even in crushing their enemies, could admire them, and there was none they had admired so much as the man who had come closest to ending their imperial ambitions. Historian Tom Holland explains, “ . . . the Romans never forgot that in Hannibal, in the scale of his exertions, in the scope of his ambition, they had met the enemy most like themselves. Centuries later statues of him were still to be found standing in Rome.”

Hannibal’s admirable opponent also came to grief at the hands of his own countrymen. Africanus was only in his mid-thirties in 201 B.C. when his enemies soon made sure new legislation set the minimal age for consul at forty-two. Nonetheless, he was elected consul again in 194 B.C., but his political enemies stepped up their attacks. The leader of the movement against him was Cato the Elder, who made a point of driving out of the Senate all men he personally found unfit. In his most famous work, a manual on farm management, he recommended selling slaves too old to work in order to maximize profit. Yet he was highly venerated, and with Cato leading the charge, Scipio Africanus and his brother eventually were prosecuted in the courts for the apparent misappropriation of funds for the Syrian War. After both men refused to answer the charges with anything other than contempt, a depressed and disillusioned Scipio Africanus went into involuntary exile at his villa in Liternum and died in 187 B.C. Yet in his relatively short life, he had completely altered the nature of Roman warfare. British historian Dr. Adrian Goldsworthy notes: “He combined the traditional aggression of Roman commanders with careful preparation, planning and training. This was a combination which . . . would later make Rome militarily dominant for the best part of five centuries.” He knew and planned that outcome; according to Polybius, he told his troops before the Battle of Zama that they were fighting not only to beat Carthage, but also to insure the Roman domination of the world.

According to one tradition, Scipio Africanus and Hannibal did meet one more time, years later, at Ephesus, when Africanus was part of the Roman embassy to Antiocchus III. Africanus supposedly asked Hannibal to name the three greatest generals in history. Hannibal named Alexander the Great, Pyrrhus, and himself in that order. When Africanus asked him what he would have said had he been the victor at Zama, Hannibal smiled and said, in that case, he would have placed himself first, subtly flattering Africanus as well as himself.

--Everl Adair, Director of Research and Rare Collections

House on a Road by a Wooded Slope, Dutch Master Jacob van Ruisdael

We often use the term “old masters”, but how many of us are sure of what that means or exactly to whom the term refers? Some critics have recently suggested that the term is not appropriate or even politically incorrect, and instead promoted the use of the terms “early modern painting” or “post-medieval painting”. However, both of those suggest more about what it’s not than what it is. So, for most of us, the term old masters is still the best expression for a particular style and ideology that held sway from the Renaissance to the 18th century. What else do we know? First, let’s get rid of that “politically incorrect” suggestion of patriarchy some feel is attached to the term by pointing out that not all the old masters were men. Artemisia Gentileschi, Judith Leyster, Elizabetta Sirani, and Lavinia Fontana are just a few of the female artists considered old masters. The master in the term has everything to do with ability and nothing to do with gender.

There are several criteria by which we do identify these artists. For one, they all worked within a continuity of craft that was the result of lengthy apprenticeships with the masters who came before them. Hence, their work emerged out of a solid tradition and technique. Virtually none among them, in the manner of 19th and 20th artists like Paul Gauguin, “simply decided to paint”, and they never valued self-expression over craft.

A second attribute is their devotion to naturalism, an insistence on depicting the world as we believe we actually see it. This is less self-evident as well as rarer than it may seem. As scholar James Gardner points out:

“. . . the great majority of visual culture, from the Upper Paleolithic down to the present day, has tended toward abstraction, patterning, and, above all, the schematic representation of reality. But the old masters, from their very inception, were drawn to the realness of the external world more consistently than artists in any other culture or epoch, more even than in classical antiquity . . ."

Another quality introduced by the old masters is what poet Matthew Arnold called “high seriousness”. Medieval artists submerged their identities to the political and religious hierarchies of their time. Modern artists often make a cult of self-consciousness and self-expression. Not so on both counts for the old masters. They strove to create works that, by virtue of their content and artistry, engendered public acclaim and would speak to posterity while securing their reputations. Cimabue makes sure his name is known; Giotto makes his goal to surpass him in fame. The old masters have become household names, so it’s important to remember that not all artists of the period made the grade; some were parochial, some naïve, some simply bad.

Ultimately, the most telling criteria of the old masters is the formal integrity of their work. In their paintings and sculpture, they married technique and purpose to content in such a way that the art created its own reality. It became its own world. We don’t have to know about 17th century Dutch politics to appreciate Rembrandt’s Night Watch, or be intimately familiar with the Old Testament to be enraptured by Michelagelo’s David. These are works that simultaneously reveal their time and transcend it. And that is why they continue to speak to and inspire us today.

--Everl Adair, Director of Research and Rare Collections

in the pan beside the barrel. The flash in the pan penetrated a small hole in the breech and lit the main charge. This is just as cumbersome and time-consuming as it sounds. Troubles with keeping the match lit and the cartridge set were likely why the musketeers put the firearms aside and became famous for their fencing.

The musketeers, with their deeds and distinctive costumes, however, fired French imaginations. They dressed in broad-brimmed plumed hats and handsome sword sheaths, draped a cross belt hung with twelve short wooden cylinders containing individual powder charges, and topped the ensemble with loose-swinging surcoats. The Mousquetaires Gris, the original company formed in 1622, wore gray surcoats, while a second company, formed in 1666, became known as the Mousquetaires Noirs for their black surcoats.

In addition to Louis XIII’s musketeers (the ostensible subject of Dumas’s The Three Musketeers), another company was created for his advisor and the power behind the throne, Cardinal Richelieu. Later, both companies were re-organized to serve Louis XIV, and it was this unit in which the famous D’Artagnan served.

Yes, Virginia, there really was a D’Artagnan (though he lived half a century later and had none of the adventures of Dumas’s hero). Charles Ogier de Batz de Castelmore, Comte d’Artagnan (1611 – 1673) served as captain of the musketeers for Louis XIV and also as a spy for the king and Cardinal Jules Mazarin, Richelieu’s successor. Ironically, D’Artagnan was killed by a musket ball through the throat at the Siege of Maastricht during the Franco-Dutch War.

Because positions in the musketeers were only available to aristocrats, their numbers tended to ebb and flow along with their military abilities. Louis XVI disbanded them in 1776. Attempts to revive the company in 1789 and 1814 quickly failed. Thus, the famous French musketeers existed for only a little more than a century. Nonetheless, they established themselves in the popular imagination as a permanent symbol of both courage and style.

Because we’re featuring one of the Norton’s tapestries in this month’s newsletter, we thought you might want to learn a little about the care and preservation of textiles. Among the most sensitive artifacts in museum collections, textiles need careful attention. This is true of your own textiles, such as antique quilts and samplers, purchased or handed down from older generations, as well as textile artworks for your homes. Cloth, old or new, is vulnerable to light, humidity, and temperature. It’s also susceptible to damage from dirt, insects, mould, and abrasion. In short, textiles are the problem children of any collection, but well worth the extra maintenance.

Light can damage textiles in several ways – either from its intensity, its proportion of ultraviolet (UV) radiation, or the length of exposure to it. Consequently, textiles should be kept in as dim

a light as possible.

The UV in daylight and direct sunlight is the major cause of textiles fading or becoming brittle. Consequently, windows should be curtained or shuttered in any rooms where tapestries, quilts, samplers, or other textile pieces are on display. Also try to keep any light bulbs far enough away that neither their heat nor their candlepower has an impact. Like any artwork, textiles benefit from an occasional “rest” from light, so it helps if you can rotate pieces on display.

Brittleness in textiles can also be the result of low relative humidity, while high relative humidity can lead to the development of mold. Portable humidifiers and dehumidifiers help control the environment. Ideally, you should keep older and more delicate textiles in cold storage. However, we all like to look at the beautiful things we own, so for items you wish to display, set your thermostat between 68 and 75 Fahrenheit in summer, and 59 and 68 in winter.

Above all, regularly inspect and have your textiles cleaned by a competent specialist (in the case of textile art or older pieces including quilts, samplers, clothing, etc., be sure to consult with a textiles conservator rather than your local dry cleaner). This will eliminate or at least substantially reduce the chance of insect, mold, or chemical damage and allow you to enjoy your textile art in all its colorful glory.

--Everl Adair, Director of Research and Rare Collections

Walter Hopkins,
Norton Employee for 20+ years

the diversity of our community. In fact, included in the exhibition are a series of mostly black and white images that Neil made for a collection called Portrait 2000, Photographs of the People of Shreveport/Bossier City at the Turn of the Millennium. Part of the celebration of the millennium, these were 2000 portraits that Neil created of local residents, both famous and lesser known, including folks ranging from firefighters to ballerinas to Civil War re-enacters.

But it is the larger portraits in the front room that first catch your eye. In each case, Neil’s composition and color palette enhance our understanding and appreciation of his subject, whether it’s the haunting suggestion of other dancers swirling behind Carol Smitherman Anglin, the artistic director of the Louisiana Dance Foundation, the candy colors, curved frame, and old-fashioned toy lurking in the background of his image of writer, artist and filmmaker William Joyce, or the vibrant hues and objets d’art that are captured in the foreground of his high-angle shot of SRAC executive director Pam Atchison. I have to confess a personal fondness for his portrait of “Chicken Man About Town” Andy Shehee (Andy, Neil, and I first knew each other in our callow youth at Byrd High School and even then I would have appreciated a portrait of Andy complete with rooster on shoulder). But for me the richest and most striking photograph in its capture of character is Neil’s image of the Norton’s own Walter Hopkins. Done in black and white, it emphasizes the gentleness and generosity of a life well-lived with which those of us who work with Walter are so familiar.

Each photograph is accompanied by a statement from its subject which adds further insight into the image. No one could fail to be touched by the account of Auschwitz survivor Rose van Thyn – “All I can say is God wanted me to come back”, or the testimony of guitar player Buddy Flett as he strums the blues in a downtown alley – “I’m the luckiest man in the world because I’m supposed to be dead. It’s all gravy from here.” But it is perhaps artist Clyde Connell (1901-1998) who best sums up, not only her own experience, but also the experience of artists like Neil with her words:

I forget myself when I’m making art. I forget everything. I think that any kind
of work that lets you immerse yourself is good. The works enlarge because of
that immersion.

Immerse yourself in the wonderful portraits of Neil Johnson. It’s well worth the trip.

--Everl Adair, Director of Research and Rare Collections

FIRST SATURDAY TOURS
Regularly scheduled tours are offered on the first Saturday of every month at 2 p.m. No reservation is required for these First Saturday Tours. Groups of 10 or more are asked to call ahead so preparations may be made to accommodate the group on these particular tours. All tours, like admission to the Gallery, are free to the public. The next First Saturday Tour, The Manly Man Tour, will be on June 5th at 2 p.m.

SPECIAL EVENTS
Jane Crandell, Founding Director of Arts in Medicine, and Jennifer DeFratis, Tour and Special Events Coordinator for the Norton, will lead jointly a tour of the exhibition on June 19 at 2 p.m., exploring the significance of the paintings to the art world and to the lives of the patients.

GROUP TOURS
Eighteen group tours are offered at the Norton ranging from the 19th Century French Art History Tour to the Cowboy Artists Tour. Group tours are available by appointment year-round for groups of 10-30 and last approximately 45 minutes.

OUTREACH PROGRAM
The purpose of the community Outreach Program is to take art and art education to people through interactive presentations. Community Presentations consist of PowerPoint presentations to civic groups and assisted living facilities.

For more information on the programs offered or to schedule a tour or presentation, click here.

SATURDAY SPEAKER SERIES
One Saturday each month, the Norton will host a local, regional, or national expert speaking on a variety of subjects in formats ranging from formal presentations to informal seminars to walking tours. Upcoming speakers will cover a broad range of subjects including gardening, popular literature and film, influential historical and cultural figures, musical history and interpretation, and food in art. All events are free to the public. The next Saturday Speaker will be Wes and Rachelle Siegrist on June 12 at 2 p,m. They will present Artists' Talk: Under theMagnifying Glass.

ORAL HISTORY PROJECT
The R.W. Norton Art Foundation is pursuing interviews with those who were involved in America's effort to win World War II, whether in the military or on the home front. Each interview will be digitally recorded by the Gallery to be stored and used for historical purposes, and each interview subject will also be given a copy of this recording to share and preserve his or her memories for family and friends.

If you are interested in participating in or would like more information about the Oral History Project, please click here.

SUGGESTIONS AND IDEAS?
To offer us feedback or to suggest what you’d like to see in upcoming issues, please click here.

GALLERY LOCATION AND HOURS:
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Shreveport, LA 71106
318-865-4201
www.rwnaf.org
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Saturday and Sunday 1 to 5 p.m.
Closed Mondays and National Holidays

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