Ginevra

In discussing the original version of this sculpture, Richard P. Wunder writes that Powers was "visited by a charming, vivacious young Boston lady, Anna Barker...Although not altogether beautiful...the sculptor found hers to be one of the most expressive faces he had ever modeled...he began modeling an ideal bust. This piece he intended as a gift to his friend and first patron, Nicholas Longworth. He called it Ginevra, an appellation that was curious, for the finished product bore scarcely at all upon the tragic heroine of Samuel Rogers' lengthy poem, Italy, then at the height of popularity. Miss Barker's features had given the sculptor the inspiration and Ginevra became his excuse to idealize them. In this instance the comparison between the real and the ideal makes visually clear the differences between the two aims in Powers' work, and at the same time points up his success as an artist. It was not long before his ideal busts transcended the portraits in popularity, for they possessed universal rather than individual appeal." (Hiram Powers Vermont Sculptor, Taftsville, Vermont, 1974, p. 17)