William Wetmore Story (American, 1819–1895)
Semiramis, 1872–1873
Marble
54 1/2 x 34 1/2 x 65 1/2 in. (138.43 x 87.63 x 166.37 cm)
Gift of Morynne and Robert E. Motley in memory of Robert Earl Motley, Jr., 1942–1998, 1999.117

William Wetmore Story was one of America’s leading 19th-century sculptors, whose works compare favorably with those of Hiram Powers and Horatio Greenough. Artistically inclined from youth, he dabbled in drawing and sculpting, and developed into a prolific and respected writer and poet. He was a gifted amateur playwright and a respected critic of art, music, theater, history, and philology. His close friends included Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, James Russell Lowell, and later, Henry James.

Story did not begin to sculpt professionally until 1845. Like most aspiring sculptors of his day, he traveled to Rome for training and to develop the workshop of Italian sculptors who would assist with later commissions. There he and his family took apartments in the Palazzo Barberini, becoming the social headquarters of the expatriate arts community in Rome. Story’s early attempts at idealized portraiture fell flat, but his burgeoning interest in female figures from history and myth attracted considerable positive attention. He spent close to two decades sculpting brooding female subjects fraught with psychological tension and sexual or emotional turmoil. His fascination with tales of intrigue, deception, and tragedy guided his choice of subjects. The power of his sculptures rests in his ability to probe the psychological depths of his characters and give visual form to those troubled souls.

Semiramis was a historical Assyrian queen of Babylonian birth who lived and reigned around 800 B.C. By the 18th century the legends associated with her life had eclipsed her actual accomplishments as queen, notably due to the popularity of Voltaire’s eponymous play, written in 1784. His version of her life centered on palace intrigue, notably the beautiful queen’s affair with Assur, and her plot to have him poison her husband, the king. As he dies, the king implores a trusted friend to take his son, Ninias, away from the palace to save his life. Although Semiramis ruled Babylon well for fifteen years, during that time she was stricken with guilt over the murder of her husband and the loss of her son. Her lover Assur, however, plots Semiramis’s death after she refuses to marry him and install him as king. To foil his plans, she arranges to marry a young warrior, who is in fact her son, whom she mistakenly believes to be dead. Ninias is warned away from this incestuous marriage by his father’s ghost, who then demands that his son avenge his murder. Led by the ghost, Ninias stabs and kills a form he believes is Assur but is, in fact, Semiramis. Voltaire’s play inspired Rossini’s 1822 operatic version of the story, Semiramide, long considered among the composer’s greatest achievements. Story almost certainly saw Rossini’s opera, as his favorite diva, Adelaide Ristori, sang the title role.

Story’s sculpture presents the queen fully in command of her throne but deeply absorbed in her own thoughts, contemplating the evil she has wrought. The sculptor delighted in the archaeological research required to outfit his subjects, and he lavished this queen with Assyrian jewelry—bracelets, a necklace, and a jeweled diadem. Discreetly yet provocatively dressed, her long legs crossed, she rests on an Assyrian-style chaise. Her long hair falls in tight ringlets down her back. This slightly over life-size sculpture rests on its original pedestal base, shaped like a sarcophagus, underscoring the melancholic and tragic implications that underlie the subject.