Fraternity-Testvériség, 1963 (40. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1963-07-01 / 7. szám

8

FRATERNITY

In 1927, Finta received a commission from Supreme Court Justice Victor J. Dowling and banker Alexander Konta to do a bust of Cardinal Hayes.2 It is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The face of the Cardinal emanates the profound dignity of a high church man. The searching eyes, under bushy eyebrows, penetrate into the very soul of the visitor. The features reveal the noble spirit of the priest. If we feel the sculpture with closed eyes, we can detect variations of the surface at fractions of a square inch. The shading of hair and eyebrows reproduced in wdiite marble shows Finta’s superb handling of light effects.

The same year Finta completed a relief plaque of Emory Holloway, the professor and writer who won the 1926 Pulitzer Prize for his biography of Walt Whitman. Holloway, who devoted a lifetime to interpreting Whitman’s poetry, was himself extraordinarily gifted. Almost alone, he raised Whitman from the depths into which public opinion had cast him. At the age of 30, the self-taught 19th century poet and writer had already possessed the ripe wisdom of age which he expressed in Leaves of Grass. His love poems were entirely impersonal yet a prudish public had seen in them only the “heroic nudity” and objected to his treatment of nature in the human body. Hollowmy, who recognized the nobility of Whitman’s spirit beneath the epicurean surface, had himself, Finta believed, been marked by his close association with Whitman’s work. On receiving the commission, Finta first studied the traits common to both men and sought to express the imprint of Whitman’s spirit on Holloway’s face. He achieved his aim with remarkable success.

The Holloway plaque is a relief profile in bronze: protruding forehead, firm nose, wide nostrils, a somewhat longer line between nose and lips, a fine upper lip, full lower lip, flat ears and

2 Ibid.