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Zenobia in Chains

Sculpture

Zenobia in Chains

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Type: Sculpture(Opens in new tab)
Date: 1859
Accession number: 2007.26
Maker: Harriet Goodhue Hosmer(Opens in new tab) (American, 1830–1908)
Dimensions: height: 82 × 27 × 33 in. (208.3 × 68.6 × 83.8 cm.) mount: 58 1/4 × 64 1/4 in. (148 × 163.2 cm.)
Medium: marble
Description: Marble sculpture of the Syrian queen, Zenobia, depicting a female figure wearing a crown, robe, sandals, a chain and shackles.
Credit: The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. Purchased with the Virginia Steele Scott Acquisition fund for American Art

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Label text

Harriet Hosmer portrays Zenobia, the third-century queen of Palmyra (in present-day Syria) who was captured after leading a rebellion against the occupying Roman empire. Although defeated, the queen possesses a stoic bearing and wears elaborate court dress, complete with diadem. Only the chain and the slight tilt of her head betray her status. According to legend, when Emperor Aurelian saw Zenobia's dignity and beauty while shackled, he freed her.

Like the ancient queen she sculpted, Hosmer's life was defined by rebellion. In her twenties, she moved to Rome to become a professional sculptor, finding support within a circle of creative expatriot women that included sculptor Edmonia Lewis and actor Charlotte Cushman. These women broke nineteenth-century social expectations by living alone, pursuing artistic careers, and, in the case of Hosmer, being open about her queer identity. When Zenobia was exhibited in the Great London Exposition of 1862, male critics wrote that a woman could not have had the skill or strength to execute such a monumental work. Nonetheless, Hosmer became one of the most successful American sculptors--male or female--of her era.

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