Ginevra
1865–68
Medium
Marble
Dimensions
68.2 × 48 × 26.7 cm (26 13/16 × 18 7/8 × 10 1/2 in.)
Classification
sculpture
Department
Arts of the Americas
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
107863
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
This statue depicts the title character of the poem “Ginevra,” from the 1822 book Italy by the English poet Samuel Rogers. In the poem, 15-year-old Ginevra disappears on her wedding night; her remains are discovered 50 years later in a chest, where she had hidden as a prank and accidentally trapped herself. Tragic literary heroines were popular subjects for 19th-century sculptors and painters because they appealed to the melodramatic and moralistic sensibilities of Victorian society. Two other w...
About the Artist
Hiram Powers · 1805–1873
Comment on works: sculptor