Donato's Dance of Eternal Spring
16" x 12"
Acrylic & Oil on board
SOLD
This painting was started plein air at Italian Lake in Harrisburg, PA and finished in my studio. Below is a history of this sculpture...very interesting reading.
One
of the most famous legends about chocolate
maker Milton
S Hershey
involves a fountain that he bought for his mansion in Hershey,
Pennsylvania
in the early 1900s.
The
story goes that when Hershey saw the 'Dance of Eternal Spring'
fountain with its three nude nymphs, it so offended his conservative
Pennsylvania
Dutch
tastes that he refused to have it placed on the grounds of his home.
In
all fairness, the fountain is
beautiful and the model
the sculptor
chose for the three nymphs was one of America's great beauties
of the day... Madeline Stokes.
Born
Amanda Straw in Fishing Creek Valley just north of Harrisburg in
1875, she changed her name to Madeline Stokes after moving to
Philadelphia
and taking to the vaudeville stage. She was a much sought after model
into her late 30s, gracing the cover of numerous magazines. Alexander
Caldwell II used her as a model for a sundial
in Philadelphia's Fairmount Park and her likeness graces a mural in
the governor's reception room in Pennsylvania's
State Capitol.
She also is said to have danced in the nude at a night club in New
York City
for $5 a night.
Scandalous.
No wonder Mr Hershey didn't want the statue in his garden.
However,
the truth behind the story might have more to do with Hershey's
legendary Pennsylvania Dutch tendency to be conservative with his
money than with his conservative tastes.
In
1909, Hershey hired Philadelphia sculptor Giuseppe Donato to produce
a fountain for his garden. Hershey and Donato supposedly agreed to a
final price of $3100 and Hershey made a $2000 downpayment. When the
work was completed, the bill was for $31,000 - 10 times the original
agreement.
Whatever
his reasons, Hershey refused to pay for the statue and Donato
eventually won a $24,000 decision in court. Surely the legal defeat
left a bitter taste in the sweets-maker's mouth and that statue sat
in a crate at the Hershey railroad station until 1920 when he donated
the it to Harrisburg
City's Reservoir Park.
It
remained there for 18 years until the J Horace McFarland Rose Garden
at the Polyclinic Hospital opened. There it became a tradition
for the seniors of the School of Nursing to clothe the nymphs in
lingerie
the night before graduation.
In
1971
the hospital paved over the rose garden to make a parking lot and the
fountain was moved to another city park. At the July 16 unveiling at
Italian Lake was a special guest, Madeline Stokes herself1.
If you have any questions or wish to purchase contact PAT. If you would like to see more of my paintings, please visit my website at:
www.patkoscienski.com
1Sadly,
she died a year later at the age of 98.
