Cornish Celebration Presentation Plaque

Augustus Saint-Gaudens

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

In commemoration of Saint-Gaudens’s twenty years in Cornish, New Hampshire, residents wrote, organized, and acted in the allegorical play "A Masque of ‘Ours,' the Gods and the Golden Bowl." It was performed on June 22, 1905, on the grounds of the sculptor’s house, Aspet, with the participants dressed as ancient mythological figures. Soon thereafter, Saint-Gaudens modeled a plaque to express his gratitude to the players and musicians. The text painstakingly records their names, while a classical temple framed by pine trees draped with stage curtains and masks recalls the setting. This large gilded version was a gift to the playwright, Louis Shipman, who wrote and directed the masque. Saint-Gaudens also distributed small silvered-bronze plaquettes that were individually inscribed to the participants, including one in The Met’s collection (08.216) presented to the painter Kenyon Cox.

The American Wing

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The American Wing's ever-evolving collection comprises some 20,000 works of art by African American, Euro American, Latin American, and Native American men and women. Ranging from the colonial to early-modern periods, the holdings include painting, sculpture, works on paper, and decorative arts—including furniture, textiles, ceramics, glass, silver, metalwork, jewelry, basketry, quill and bead embroidery—as well as historical interiors and architectural fragments.

Metropolitan Museum of Art