The Adams Memorial is a grave marker located in Section E of Rock Creek Cemetery, Washington, D.C., that features a cast bronze allegorical sculpture by Augustus Saint-Gaudens. The shrouded figure is seated against a granite block, which forms one side of a hexagonal plot, designed by architect Stanford White.
Erected in 1891, the monument was commissioned by author/historian Henry Adams (a member of the Adams political family) as a memorial to h...
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The Adams Memorial is a grave marker located in Section E of Rock Creek Cemetery, Washington, D.C., that features a cast bronze allegorical sculpture by Augustus Saint-Gaudens. The shrouded figure is seated against a granite block, which forms one side of a hexagonal plot, designed by architect Stanford White.
Erected in 1891, the monument was commissioned by author/historian Henry Adams (a member of the Adams political family) as a memorial to his wife, Clover Hooper Adams. Adams advised Saint-Gaudens to contemplate iconic images from Buddhist devotional art. One such subject, Kwannon (also known as Guan Yin, the Bodhisattva of compassion), is frequently depicted as a seated figure draped in cloth. In particular, a painting of Kannon by Kanō Motonobu, in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and shown to Saint-Gaudens by John LaFarge, is said to have played a major role in influencing the conception and design of this sculpture. Saint-Gaudens may also have been influenced...
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