Archive for Supreme Court Building
2023 – MacNeil & Fasces at the Supreme Court
Posted by: | CommentsThe Hermon MacNeil’s sculpture of the
East Pediment contains a hidden fasces.
~ The Fasces (located to the left of Confucius) rests on the shoulder of the man holding the boy. They represent the enforcement of the law and its passing on to coming generations.
A Fasces is a bound bundle of wooden rods, sometimes including an axe with its blade emerging. The fasces is an Italian symbol that had its origin in the Etruscan civilization and was passed on to ancient Rome, where it symbolized a magistrate’s power and jurisdiction. Wikipedia
~ Is There a
2nd Fasces?
~ The Female figure to the right is resting another bound form on her shoulder.
I had imagined it was a Sheaf of grain with leaves extended to the right. There is also a young girl (half visible to her right). Again the presence of the YOUTH suggests ‘the “Carrying on” of civilization through a internal knowledge of right and wrong’.
But being bound as a fasces,
it shares that same symbolism of
power and jurisdiction”
MacNeil described the right side or the Pediment as
tempering justice with mercy, allegorically treated”.
Visitors often miss the East Pediment of the Supreme Court Building because it is located at the rear of the building. This sculptural group was designed by Hermon A. MacNeil (1866–1947), an artist who studied under the masters of classical architecture and design. Cass Gilbert (1859–1934), the architect of the building, worked closely with MacNeil from 1932 to 1934 to create the thirteen symmetrically balanced allegorical figures. MacNeil submitted the following description of his work to the Supreme Court Building Commission:
“Law as an element of civilization was normally and naturally derived or inherited in this country from former civilizations. The ‘Eastern Pediment’ of the Supreme Court Building suggests therefore the treatment of such fundamental laws and precepts as are derived from the East. Moses, Confucius and Solon are chosen as representing three great civilizations
and form the central group of this Pediment.Flanking this central group—left—is the symbolical figure bearing the means of enforcing the law. On the right a group tempering justice with mercy, allegorically treated. The ‘Youth’ is brought into both these groups to suggest the “Carrying on” of civilization through the knowledge imbibed of right and wrong. The next two figures with shields; Left – The settlement of disputes between states through enlightened judgment. Right—Maritime and other large functions of the Supreme
Court in protection of the United States. The last figures: Left—Study and pondering of judgments. Right – A tribute to the fundamental and supreme character of this Court.Finale—The fable of the Tortoise and the Hare.”~
Fasces is a bound bundle of wooden rods, sometimes including an axe with its blade emerging. The fasces is an Italian symbol that had its origin in the Etruscan civilization and was passed on to ancient Rome, where it symbolized a magistrate’s power and jurisdiction. Wikipedia
Related posts:
- SUPREME COURT – Arrival at last! (16.7) “Slow but steady wins the race.” So said Aesop in…
- Moses, Confucius, and Solon at Supreme Court (16.5) The East Pediment of the Supreme Court of the United…
- Hermon MacNeil’s Supreme Court Sculptures: ~ ~ ~ Moses Revisited ~ ~ ~ (16.3) When the Supreme Court justices considered whether the Ten Commandments…
- Hermon MacNeil’s Supreme Court Sculptures: ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ The Tortoise & the Hare Revisited ~ ~ ~ (15.2) At each corner of the East Pediment of the…
- JOURNEY TO SUPREME COURT: ~ Finds plenty of Sculpture along the way in Washington D.C. … (14.4) I recently visited our nation’s Capitol with family. Sculpture and…
- Tortoise and Hare taken to Supreme Court (13.6) Hermon MacNeil has taken the Tortoise and the Hare to…
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After the adoption of the US Constitution in 1789 and for the next 146 years, the United States Supreme Court had no permanent home. Briefly from 1789 to 1800, the Federal Government functioned out of Philadelphia, and then New York City until the permanent Capitol was built in the District of Columbia. Finally, in 1800 the U.S. Federal Government moved into Washington, D.C.
Painting: “British Burn the Capitol, 1814,” Allyn Cox, 1974, Corridor, House wing, First Floor.
The Supreme Court of the United States, however, changed its meeting place a half dozen times within the Capitol. After the British burned the Capitol in the War of 1812, the Court convened in a private home. Eventually, from 1860 until 1935, the Court sat in what is now known as the “Old Senate Chamber.”
Hermon Atkins MacNeil (1866 -1947)
Cass Gilbert architect (1859 – 1934)
Though considered a co-equal branch, the Judicial function seemed a “nomadic” tenant of space in the growing Capitol until 1929. A former President, who later served as Chief Justice, changed that itinerant existence.
Chief Justice Wm. Howard Taft 1921
In 1929 Chief Justice William Howard Taft, who had been President of the United States from 1909 to 1913, persuaded Congress to end this arrangement and authorize the construction of a permanent home for the Court. Architect Cass Gilbert was charged by Chief Justice Taft to design “a building of dignity and importance suitable for its use as the permanent home of the Supreme Court of the United States.” [Gilbert and Taft were both Ohioans and life long friends.]
Neither Taft nor Gilbert survived to see the Supreme Court Building completed. Construction proceeded under the direction of Chief Justice Hughes and architects Cass Gilbert, Jr., and John R. Rockart. The construction, begun in 1932, was completed in 1935, when the Court was finally able to occupy its own building.
Hermon MacNeil and Architects
Hermon MacNeil trained in Paris at the Ecole de Beaux Arts with both sculptors and architects. He later won the Reinhart Prize and again studied with architects and sculptors from 1896 to 1899 at the American Academy in Rome.
The New York Architectural League wanted an award medallion to present to architects and sculptors. They commissioned Hermon MacNeil to create a suitable medal. Photos of MacNeil’s original clay masters may be viewed here: [CLICK HERE]. These clay were reduced onto the steel dies used press the final medallions pictured below.
Later A. A. Weinman and Hermon MacNeil were both awarded this commemorative creation. Weinman designed the Walking Liberty half dollar and the Mercury dime
The actual medal presented to Weinman is pictured below. It resides in the webmaster’s private collection.
New York Architectural League Medal. Designed by Hermon MacNeil this is the actual medallion awarded to A. A. Weinmann. https://www.pafa.org/museum/collection/item/medal-honor-sculpture-architectural-league-new-york Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts
Hermon MacNeil and Cass Gilbert
MacNeil added sculptures to at least two of Cass Gilbert’s many buildings and monument projects.
-
United States Supreme Court 1928-1935[9] Washington, DC -
St. Louis Art Museum 1901-1904[12] Saint Louis, MO
MacNeil & the Supreme Court Building
The Supreme Court website suggests Gilbert was directly involved with the sculptor’s designs.
Cass Gilbert, the building’s architect, worked closely with MacNeil from 1932 to 1934 to create the thirteen symmetrically balanced figures above the Corinthian portico.
The central marble figures on this rarely noticed eastern pediment depict the theme “Justice – The Guardian of Liberty.” Sculptor MacNeil’s central figures represent three great Eastern civilizations from which our laws are derived. These figures portray lawgivers: Moses (receiver of Hebrew Ten Commandments) flanked by Confucius (Chinese philosopher and teacher) and Solon (Athenian lawmaker, statesman, and poet). Confucius is on the viewers’ left, Solon to the right, both flanking Moses with his hands on two separate tablets. 1
MacNeil & the St. Louis Art Museum (Palace of Fine Arts).
To view this collaboration from 1912: CLICK HERE
Photos:
- Painting: “British Burn the Capitol, 1814,” Allyn Cox, 1974, Corridor, House wing, First Floor. (https://www.aoc.gov/explore-capitol-campus/blog/most-magnificent-ruin-burning-capitol-during-war-1812)
- “The East Pediment” https://www.supremecourt.gov/about/east_pediment_11132013.pdf. SEE ALSO: “Religious Symbols Inside & Outside the U.S. Supreme Court Building”. Assembled by Nathaniel Segal 2014 http://nathanielsegal.mysite.com/TenCommandments/10SupremeCourtBuilding.html
- This Unique “New York Architectural League” Award Medal links H. A. MacNeil & A. A. Weinman. Posted by: | here on Sept. 01, 2022 https://hermonatkinsmacneil.com/2022/09/01/this-unique-new-york-architectural-league-award-medal-links-h-a-macneil-a-a-weinman/
- “New York Architectural League Medal” ~Original Clay Models saved from the MacNeil Studio ~ 1947 Posted by: | here on Sept. 16, 2022 https://hermonatkinsmacneil.com/2022/09/16/new-york-architectural-league-medal-original-clay-models-saved-from-the-macneil-studio-1947/
Research Sources:
- Cass Gilbert Society: Selected Works. Retrieved at https://www.cassgilbertsociety.org/works/ on May, 20, 2023
- Cass Gilbert Society: Biography. Retrieved at https://www.cassgilbertsociety.org/architect/bio.html on May, 20, 2023
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Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg ~~~ has DIED this evening!
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Ruth Bader Ginsburg has died.
She was the first Jewish female, AND only
the second woman, ever to be confirmed onto the
US Supreme Court.
– – – – – – –
One year before her birth,
Hermon Atkins MacNeil
sculpted the East Pediment of the
Supreme Court Building
with Moses, the Jewish Lawgiver as its central figure.
“JUSTICE THE GUARDIAN OF LIBERTY” Hermon A. MacNeil’s sculptures of Moses, Confucius, and Solon on the East Pediment of the Supreme Court Building in Washington, D.C.
Ruth Bader was born while MacNeil created his design.
MacNeil started the East Pediment in 1932.
Ginsburg was born on March 15, 1933.
The Pediment with Moses as its center was finished in 1934.
On August 10, 1993, Ruth Bader Ginsburg took
her Oath as a US Supreme Court Justice
NOW, 27 years later, she has died.
She shaped the LAW
for generations of American Citizens.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Justice Ginsburg: 
Throughout her lifetime, she was a brilliant servant of gender equality and of minority rights.
She knew what it was to be discriminated against as a woman, as a mother, and as a lawyer.
She fought gender discrimination whether it affected women or men.
All these obstacles only served to make her a fierce advocate, a potent judge, and a voice to be heard.
Though diminutive, she became a giant on the court.
Her opinions were cogent and powerful, whether in the majority or voicing a minority opinion.
She was also the “first Jewish female” to sit on this supreme bench.
Moses, Confucius, Solon East Pediment of Supreme Court Building – Washington D.C.
“JUSTICE THE GUARDIAN OF LIBERTY
is the title under MacNeil’s work on the East Pediment.
MacNeil’s ‘Tortoise’ on the north corner of his east pediment sculpture
MacNeil’s ‘Hare’ on south corner of east Pediment sculpture.
The first and the eleventh figures at either end of MacNeil’s grouping of “Justice the Guardian” are a Hare and a Tortoise that bring to mind Aesop’s Fable that wisely reminds us that:
“Slow and steady wins the Race.”
It is a moral that RBG took as a legal strategy
MAY JUSTICE CONTINUE TO PREVAIL …
… even if slow and steady …
MacNeil didn’t intend his sculptures to have religious connotations. Explaining his work, MacNeil wrote, “Law as an element of civilization was normally and naturally derived or inherited in this country from former civilizations. The ‘Eastern Pediment’ of the Supreme Court Building suggests therefore the treatment of such fundamental laws and precepts as are derived from the East.” ( http://architecture.about.com/od/greatbuildings/ss/SupremeCourt_7.htm )
Shocked Mourners gather in honor of the Life of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg moments after her passing
Related posts:
- Tortoise and Hare taken to Supreme Court (6) Hermon MacNeil has taken the Tortoise and the Hare to…
- Moses, Confucius, and Solon at Supreme Court (6) The East Pediment of the Supreme Court of the United…
- JOURNEY TO SUPREME COURT: ~ Finds plenty of Sculpture along the way in Washington D.C. … (6) I recently visited our nation’s Capitol with family. Sculpture and…
- SUPREME COURT – Arrival at last! (6) “Slow but steady wins the race.” So said Aesop in…
- Hermon MacNeil’s Supreme Court Sculptures: ~ ~ ~ Moses Revisited ~ ~ ~ (5) When the Supreme Court justices considered whether the Ten Commandments…
- Hermon MacNeil’s Supreme Court Sculptures: ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ The Tortoise & the Hare Revisited ~ ~ ~ (4)
Related Images:
I never met Hermon MacNeil.
I never met my maternal grandfather, Tom Henry McNeil.
ALL OF LIFE and our family histories are filled with people we HAVE NEVER MET.
In 2014 I wrote an article for the MacNeil Clan Magazine,
The Galley.
I include the the pages and the text of that article below in this post:
The photos can also be viewed in this previous post.
Hermon Atkins MacNeil – American Sculptor – (1866-1947)
MacNeil Clan history, like all family history, is filled with people we have never met. One MacNeil who has always fascinated me is Hermon Atkins MacNeil. Researching “Uncle” Hermon has also led me to another amazing man, Robert Lister MacNeil. Both men were present when the Clan MacNeil Association was formed ninety-three years ago.
MacNeil kinsman.
On May 26, 1921, the Clan MacNeil Association of America was organized in New York City. Central to that moment were Robert Lister MacNeil, (The MacNeil of Barra – 45th Chief of the Clan), and Hermon Atkins MacNeil, a sculptor, who served as the clan’s first president. At that time, Robert Lister was 32 years of age, a practicing architect in New York City, and a veteran of the First World War. He had succeeded to the chiefship of the Clan MacNeil just six years earlier. His dreams of the Isle of Barra and restoring Kisimul Castle (as told in his book The Castle in the Sea) were but faint hopes that would await decades and the efforts of many MacNeils for their accomplishment.
Dan “Neil” Leininger in a MacNeil kilt at Kisimul Castle, Isle of Barra, Scotland 2014. WHAT A TOUR it was!!!
His other kinsman was Hermon Atkins MacNeil. Hermon was the older of the two, an accomplished sculptor, also practicing in New York City, he had already created a myriad of statues, sculptures, monuments, as well as, the U.S. Standing Liberty Quarter first minted in 1916. Although these two MacNeils were 23 years apart in age, they were both trained in Paris at the Ecole des Beaux Arts, a school for architects and sculptors in the Classic Greco-Roman styles. A lasting bond between them formed through their shared artistic talents, professional skills, and years of Clan MacNeil activity.
Hermon MacNeil designed a bronze plaque that was unveiled and dedicated on May 28, 1928 on the campus of Flora MacDonald College in Red Springs, NC. The plaque commemorated the 1735 landing of Neil MacNeil of Jura, Scotland with 350 followers. This group made up mostly of clan members landed at the Cape Fear Settlement in North Carolina. The plaque was placed on a red granite stone and marked another clan project shared by these two men.
In his later years, Robert Lister stated: “Hermon was an outstanding sculptor and one of my dearest friends all the rest of his life.” In 1970, six years after publishing those words, Robert Lister MacNeil died at the age of 81. Twenty-three years earlier (in 1947), Hermon Atkins MacNeil had died, also at the same age of 81. All of the above was discovered as I “searched for Uncle Hermon.” I never met either of these two MacNeil men. The more I learn of them both, the more striking I find the parallels in their lives.
MacNeil roots. The third MacNeil man that I never met was my own grandfather, Tom Henry McNeil (1860-1932). Whenever my mother spoke of her father or of her “Uncle Hermon,” I would see a certain smile on her face and a sparkle in her eye. Emotionally, recalling her McNeil memories seemed to take her to “a very pleasant place.” On the MacNeil family tree, her father and Hermon MacNeil were first cousins. But “Uncle Hermon” was what the whole family always called him and what he always considered himself to be. Though she did not share them often, my mother’s stories instilled in me a sense of “wonder” about these two “MacNeil” men.
Genetically, my mother gave all of us six children her MacNeil biology, but when I first realized that my parents also gave me the middle name of “Neil,” I felt some extra portion of my Scottish ancestry. That feeling has only grown as I get older. My grandfather McNeil died before I was born. I was just two years old when Hermon MacNeil died. Now as an old man myself this MacNeil heritage and my memories of the sparkle in mother’s eyes have expanded my interest in these three MacNeils, and in the many other MacNeils that I have yet to meet.
MacNeil pursuits. So I am pursuing my MacNeil Clan interests in several ways. In 2010 I formally began searching for “Uncle Hermon” by building a “digital gallery” of the life and work as a sculptor. I built HermonAtkinsMacNeil.com, a website dedicated to making his sculpture and career available to the world. A web search of the name “Hermon MacNeil” will take you there. His sculptures, statues, monuments are scattered from Washington, DC to Portland, Oregon, and from New York City to Gallup, New Mexico. Now this virtual gallery features over 500 photos and 125 stories of Hermon MacNeil’s life and work. There you can see his statues of George Washington from Washington Arch, NYC; Ezra Cornell at Cornell University, William McKinley at Columbus, Ohio; Abraham Lincoln at Champaign, Illinois; Pony Express at St. Joseph, Missouri; Pere Marquette in Chicago; and monuments in Philadelphia, Charleston, Albany, and Flushing, and dozens of other cities.
In 2013 I became a member of the Clan MacNeil Association of America. I did not know its existence until I saw the 1928 news story of the MacNeil plaque dedication in Red Springs. For the last three yearsI have shared “MacNeil stories” at our annual family reunion of my siblings and our children and grand children. In August 2013 I went to my first Highland Festival. My nephew in Colorado told me about the attended the Longs Peak Scottish Irish Highland Fest in Estes Park. What a great celebration of Celtic pride and heritage.
Donna and I have booked our spots on the 2014 MacNeil Clan Tour of Scotland. We reserved our passage before I received the Fall/Winter issue of The Galley with Rory MacNeil’s invitation to the World Gathering of the Clan MacNeil on the Isle of Barra from August 4-7, 2014. We hope to meet some of you there this summer.
- I joined Clan MacNeil Association I have attended the 2013 Estes Park Highland Fest
- I have booked spots for Donna and I on the 2014 MacNeil Clan Tour of Scotland
- I continue to research HAM
Related Images:
Hermon MacNeil Featured in “The Galley”
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Dan Leininger holds the “Galley” for Summer 2014 with MacNeil’s “Pony Express” statue on the cover and an 8 page feature story inside.
“Clan MacNeil Connections and Hermon Atkins MacNeil”
The current issue of the Clan MacNeil Association of America magazine has a feature story on Hermon Atkins MacNeil by webmaster, Dan Leininger
The Galley edited by Vicki Sanders Corporon titles Dan’s story as “Clan MacNeil Connections and Hermon Atkins MacNeil.” The feature and photos fill 8 pages in the “Galley” issue for Spring/Summer 2014.
Ezra Cornell statue at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY was dedicated in 1918 after WWI. Page 19 of the “Galley” (This Photo from Cornell University is Courtesy of Chris Carlsen).
Page 20 of the “Galley” for Summer 2014
The featured photos include the East Pediment of the Supreme Court Building in Washington, D.C. (with a detail close-up of Moses, Confucius, and Salon); The George Rogers Clark monument in Vincennes, IN at the site of his victory over the British in 1779; Confederate Defenders of Charleston, SC; the Young Lawyer Abraham Lincoln in Champaign, IL; General George Washington on the Washington Arch, NYC, NY. Also in this article are photos of the grouping Coming of the White Man in Portland, OR; The WWI Angel of Peace Monument in Flushing NY; and a bust of Dwight L. Moody (who MacNeil sketched during the 1893 Chicago Worlds Fair.
Page 18 of the “Galley” for Summer 2014
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SUPREME COURT – Arrival at last!
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“Slow but steady wins the race.”
So said Aesop in the fable of the “Tortoise and the Hare.” And those are the two last figures that Hermon A. MacNeil placed as ‘bookends’ on either end of the East Pediment of the US Supreme Court Building. On our recent visit to Washington, D.C., we slowly made our way to the Supreme Court Building, we walked steadily around to the East Pediment (back side) passing the barricades for all the current landscape construction.
There, hidden high on the seldom-seen back side of **Cass Gilbert’s last architectural achievement, rests the eleven marble figures of Hermon A. MacNeil’s tribute to “Justice: The Guardian of Liberty.” Unless you walk around the building you will miss this massive work of art.
Moses, Confucius, and Solon represent three great world civilizations. Moses (receiver of Hebrew Ten Commandments) is in the center. To his right is Confucius (Chinese philosopher and teacher). To Moses’ left is Solon (Athenian lawmaker, statesman, and poet). MacNeil explained his work as follows:
“Law as an element of civilization was normally and naturally derived or inherited in this country from former civilizations. The ‘Eastern Pediment’ of the Supreme Court Building suggests therefore the treatment of such fundamental laws and precepts as are derived from the East.”
This trio of law makers are framed on left and right by three pairs of allegorical figures. The rest of the grouping is as follows:
“Flanking this central group – left – is the symbolical figure bearing the means of enforcing the law. On the right a group tempering justice with mercy, allegorically treated. The “Youth” is brought into both these groups to suggest the “Carrying on” of civilization through the knowledge imbibed of right and wrong. The next two figures with shields; Left – The settlement of disputes between states through enlightened judgment. Right – Maritime and other large functions of the Supreme Court in protection of the United States. The last figures: Left – Study and pondering of judgments. Right – A tribute to the fundamental and supreme character of this Court. Finale – The fable of the Tortoise and the Hare.“
East Pediment description: CLICK HERE
** NOTE: “Gilbert, Sr. died in 1934, one year before the completion of the Supreme Court Building by his son, Cass Gilbert, Jr. MacNeil and Gilbert first collaborated in 1904 at the Saint Louis World’s Fair. That “Palace of Fine Arts” on Art Hill now houses the St. Louis Art Museum.”
The three MacNeil sculptures above the main entrance of Cass Gilbert’s ‘Palace of fine Arts’ are examples of the Beaux Arts style of World Fairs of this era. (http://www.slam.org/).
For more on Supreme Court Building See Also:
1. https://hermonatkinsmacneil.com/2010/05/29/tortoise-and-hare-taken-to-supreme-court/
2. https://hermonatkinsmacneil.com/2010/08/07/moses-confusius-and-solon-at-supreme-court/
For more on Saint Louis World’s Fair See Also:
1. https://hermonatkinsmacneil.com/2010/08/06/macneil-sculpture-st-louis-art-museum/
3. https://hermonatkinsmacneil.com/2011/03/12/expositions-and-worlds-fairs-hermon-a-macneil/
