The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1908-01-02
WOMEN ANGELS A We BEEN
MADE INTO SEXLESS ANGELS
sculptor Sorghum, Accepting the Conventional Artistic Notion
Made Feminine Figures for a Cathedral and When the
Oivines Protested They Should Be Men. He
Chiseled Out All Signs Of Their sex

new York, Special: Scu!ptors hay
neen at work with chisels and mai
1ets upon the faces and forms of IN
q that adorn the new Cathedra
OF 81. job the Divine cutting ava,
the lines OF softness and delicacv AM
giving the figures a more virile an
pearance. W
Ihey were women, these angels. A.
suen lhey represented the ideal of Al
angel which the sculptor, Gutzon Bor.
gum mad conceived. Now thew are
sexless; neither men nor women-ius
angels. Us
Women angeis!" cried the commit
tee of reverend and learned ministers
Of the Protestant Episcopal church,
when they went to inspect the figures
which Mr.. Borglum had carved. There
are no women angels. All the angels
are men. This will never, never do"
In vain the sculptor showed them his
p~recedents. In vain he cited the angels
of Perugino, of Fra Angelica and of
U w American French many of
which are evidently ome His rev.
erend and learned critics cared nothing
Tor precedent, all angels We're male;
the bible always referred to an angel
as he" the very word angel was mas
culfne In ell languages In which there
are distinctions of gender.
All the world took up the discussion
ana many comments greeted the stern
attitude of the reverend and learned
critics. But these gentlemen had the
final word. Mr.. Borglum had to make
his angels over to suit them.
is why the rounded busts of
the statues have been hacked off; that
Is why the waving locks have been
cut down; that is why the soft contours
of the faces have been made more
angular.
Toasting his toes before The fire In
his studio in East Thirty-eighth street,
Gutzon Borglum-for whom this con-
troversy. has earned the sobriquet
THE Angel Child" laughed merrily
when asked to talk about the trans
formation OF his angels.
The controversy was absurd" he
said: ut was so absolutely ridiculous
that I can hardly find an excuse for
speaking of 1t at all.
When / made those angels I did a
piece of work which involved as much
study. as much serious. heartfelt con-
temptation n consideration as the
modelling OF a Virgin or other sacred
figure. I ~endeavored to draw an angel
not a man, nor a woman, but an an
gel. In modelling these figures / made
what TO me expressed the highest, best
n mos sacred of all ideals. 1t was
to impart to those faces and forms, as
nearly as possible. a semblance to
something divine. something that when
we.look at IT we feel, Here is the figure
OF an angel, here is n representation in
form of a perfect being which
mas been carried in the Imagination Of
since his brain was capable of
comprehension. 1t was to me the pro-
auction Of an ideal l had cherished in
hl!dhcod 1t was the result of finan-
rial i~dealization.
10 say i was shocked when form.
1gure and contour of face were object
sd 70 onitlle ground that there were too
eminine, because there were no wom-
IN angels, .and that these must be made !
@ io2K like men. is bu mildly express I
ng my state of mind. JTp to that mo- !
had you asked me whether NV :
angels We're men or women L could not !
told you, and the material side of ,
ne question brought 50 abruptly to NV :
was n shock. ,
Wnat did I do about the new mod !
lis? Well, in the beginning I absolute r
y swept aside all question OF my max '
iE the figures men 1 could not con h
idef the question of sex in the prodnc- a
ION or such work. Making the new de- Ii