The grandest Madison Square Garden : art, scandal, and architecture in Gilded Age New York / Suzanne Hinman.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hinman, Suzanne, author.

Contributor:

Anne and Joseph Trachtman Memorial Book Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Architecture and society.

History.

New York (State)--New York.

New York (State)--New York--Madison Square Park.

Architecture and society--New York (State)--New York--History--19th century.

Architecture and society--New York (State)--New York--History--20th century.

Madison Square Garden (New York, N.Y. : 1890-1926).

White, Stanford, 1853-1906.

White, Stanford.

Saint-Gaudens, Augustus, 1848-1907.

Saint-Gaudens, Augustus.

Buildings.

Genre:

History.

Authors' inscriptions.

Physical Description:

xiv, 451 pages : illustrations, map, plan ; 24 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Syracuse, New York : Syracuse University Press, 2019.

Summary:

November 1891, the heart of Gilded Age Manhattan. Thousands filled the streets surrounding Madison Square, fingers pointing, mouths agape. After countless struggles, Stanford White - the country's most celebrated architect - was about to dedicate America's tallest tower, the final cap set atop his Madison Square Garden, the country's grandest new palace of pleasure. Amid a flood of electric light and fireworks, the gilded figure topping the tower was suddenly revealed - an eighteenth-foot nude sculpture of Diana, the Roman Virgin Goddess of the Hunt, created by Augustus Saint-Gaudens, the country's finest sculptor and White's dearest pal. This book tells the remarkable story behind the construction of the 1890 Madison Square Garden and the controversial sculpture that crowned it. Set amid the magnificent achievements of nineteenth-century American art and architecture, the book delves into the fascinating private lives of the era's most prominent architect and sculptor and the nature of their intimate relationship. The author shows how both men pushed the boundaries of America's parochial aesthetic, ushering in an era of art that embraced European styles with American vitality. Situating the Garden's seminal place in the history of New York City and the entire country, this book brings to life a tale of architecture, art, and spectacle amid the elegant yet scandal-ridden culture of Gotham's decadent era.

Contents:

List of illustrations

Acknowledgments. Prologue: November 2, 1891. Part 1 On Madison Square: July 1887 : The "red-haired trial"

On Madison Square

A practical education

Enter Augustus Saint-Gaudens

Women, horses, and a curse? Part 2 Building a palace of pleasure: August 1889 : The walls come down

Continental influences

Laying plans

In the office and out

The walls go up

Diana defrocked

Baked earth

An irksome spring

Opening night

More of the pieces. Part 3 The virgin and the tower: March 1891 : On the model stand

The tower rises

Diana, doing and making

Oriental fantasies

The virgin installed

Diana reigns

Up under the stars

A home in the white city

A second Diana

Within the tower. Part 4 Epilogue: the last of the story : Diana redux

A murder at the garden

The tower falls

The last of the story. Notes

Selected bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Notes:

Athenaeum copy inscribed by the author.

Athenaeum copy: Albert M. Greenfield Memorial Fund.

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Anne and Joseph Trachtman Memorial Book Fund.

Other Format:

Online version: Hinman, Suzanne, author. Grandest Madison Square Garden.

ISBN:

9780815611103

0815611102

OCLC:

1077869545