MDCAROLI-L Archives

From:
Subject: [MDCAROLI] Fwd: [PAMONTGO-L] Schwenkfelder Art, NY Times today
Date: Sun, 20 May 2001 09:39:32 EDT

--part1_29.150fe8a5.28392314_boundary
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Good morning,

I received this from another list & I'm passing it on! :)

Happy hunting, Helen (DCGS)

--part1_29.150fe8a5.28392314_boundary
Content-Type: message/rfc822
Content-Disposition: inline

Return-Path: <>
Received: from rly-yd02.mx.aol.com (rly-yd02.mail.aol.com [172.18.150.2]) by air-yd04.mail.aol.com (v77_r1.36) with ESMTP; Sun, 20 May 2001 09:22:54 -0400
Received: from lists5.rootsweb.com (lists5.rootsweb.com [63.92.80.123]) by rly-yd02.mx.aol.com (v77_r1.36) with ESMTP; Sun, 20 May 2001 09:22:28 -0400
Received: (from )
by lists5.rootsweb.com (8.10.1/8.10.1) id f4KDK3000733;
Sun, 20 May 2001 06:20:03 -0700
Resent-Date: Sun, 20 May 2001 06:20:03 -0700
X-Original-Sender: Sun May 20 06:20:02 2001
Message-Id: <>
X-Sender:
X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Pro Version 4.2.0.58
Date: Sun, 20 May 2001 07:20:30 -0400
Old-To: ,
From: "Betty J. Burdan" <>
In-Reply-To: <>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"; format=flowed
X-MIME-Autoconverted: from quoted-printable to 8bit by lists5.rootsweb.com id f4KDK2i00668
Subject: [PAMONTGO-L] Schwenkfelder Art, NY Times today
Resent-Message-ID: <>
To:
Resent-From:
X-Mailing-List: <> archive/latest/4480
X-Loop:
Precedence: list
Resent-Sender:
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
X-MIME-Autoconverted: from 8bit to quoted-printable by lists5.rootsweb.com id f4KDK3000733

Art of the Schwenkfelders: Emblems of the Joy So Long Denied Them
ART
By RITA REIF

PHILADELPHIA -- THE watercolor documents and drawings of the
Schwenkfelders, a little-known Pennsylvania- German sect that came
to America in the 1730's, vividly express the worldly and spiritual
joys that were often denied them in their homeland of Silesia, a
region then in Austria-Hungary and now in southern Poland. After
two centuries of enduring intolerance and persecution, 200
Schwenkfelders left Silesia to seek refuge and a place to worship
openly, traveling first to Saxony and then to the Netherlands,
where they boarded ships for America.

On their arrival, these farmers and craftsmen settled within a
50-mile radius of Philadelphia. They quickly dropped the original
name of their Protestant sect, Confessors of the Glory of Christ,
and began calling themselves Schwenkfelders, a name derived from
that of Caspar Schwenckfeld von Ossig, the Silesian nobleman who
founded the sect in the 1520's.

Typically, such immigrants stressed the positive in their drawings
and documents, omitting references to the harsh times they had
suffered in Silesia, where all were barred from selling property,
many had their children taken from them and some were imprisoned.
But the Schwenkfelders' art reflected other aspects of their
distinctive culture: it exhibited a mastery of riotous colors and
exotic imagery, which was characteristic of their Eastern European
heritage but new to Pennsylvania- German Fraktur, a name given the
lavishly decorated, hand-lettered documents that used Gothic type
and watercolors. The works also demonstrated how equality among the
sexes functioned in their community: men and women were encouraged
to produce Frakturs of the highest proficiency in lettering and
drawing, skills elsewhere reserved for men.

The art also reflects the sect's strong focus on personal
discipline and tolerance. After experiencing what Schwenckfeld
called "a visitation from God," he taught that spiritual renewal
took place inside each person, unaided by rituals and sacraments,
which they played down. The Schwenkfelders prayed in their homes,
not in churches (until the late 19th century) and rejected infant
baptism. Such practices diverged from those of the Lutherans, Roman
Catholics and Calvinists. These differences spurred the reprisals
against the Schwenkfelders in Silesia.

Now, for the first time, the sect's collection of illuminated
manuscripts =97 marriage certificates, birth announcements, book
plates and gift drawings =97 is on view to the public in "Fraktur
Treasures From the Schwenkfelder Library and Heritage Center
Collection," an exhibition at the group's newly expanded center in
Pennsburg, 40 miles northwest of Philadelphia. The show, opening
this weekend and remaining through September, was previewed three
weeks ago at an art warehouse in the city.

"This Fraktur is very exciting stuff and terribly rare," said
Ralph Esmerian, chairman of the Museum of American Folk Art, whose
collection includes some of the finest Fraktur in private hands.
"It's much more colorful, almost Byzantine in feeling and gutsier
than the German-Swiss Fraktur we've been seeing."
The 80 watercolor works on paper in the show are from the sect's
collection of 1,000 documents and drawings, produced between 1750
and 1850. Most were made by Schwenkfelders and the remainder by
Mennonites and other artists.

Deborah F. Rebuck, the curator of collections at the Dietrich
American Foundation in Philadelphia, selected the Fraktur documents
and drawings, many of which are shown and described in a book,
"Fraktur Writings and Folk Art Drawings of the Schwenkfelder
Library Collection," by Dennis K. Moyer, a former director of the
library. The book ($69.95) was published by the library and the
Pennsylvania German Society.

Like their Mennonite neighbors, the Schwenkfelders framed the
texts of their documents, written in German or English, with a
profusion of angels, birds, leaves and flowers. The drawings are
often pure fantasy, limited only by an artist's imagination or the
published prints that they copied. Abraham W. Heebner used some
sources more than once: An 1834 drawing depicts a giant bird with a
shield like feathered back, peering back from its forest perch at a
distant exotic city of onion- domed cathedrals, baroque houses,
towering minarets and trees. A drawing, from two years earlier, of
a European kitchen maid returning from the market had used a
similar background.

But other artists painted in a realistic manner. In 1818,
Heebner's aunt, Susanna Heebner, painted a farmhouse in a neat
landscape, much as it probably appeared. She also did elegant
abstract drawings of leaves, hearts and flowers in a labyrinth. The
Heebners were one of several families, including the Kriebels and
the Schultzes , in which there were several generations of artists.

A drawing from the early 18th century by Durs Rudie, a Lutheran,
depicted marching soldiers in full dress uniforms. It may well have
inspired an American Indian artist decades later to transform the
soldiers into a line of Indians going into battle in the type of
ledger drawing that has become popular in recent years.
David W. Luz, the executive director of the library and a
Schwenkfelder minister, said the Schwenkfelders began to collect
"their heritage" in the 1880's. They built the red brick library to
house it in the 1950's and recently enlarged it, nearly doubling it
in size. The Schwenkfelders, who now number 2,500 members in six
congregations, half of whom are descendants of the 12 or so
families who settled here 270 years ago want to share that history
with others, he said.

"The Schwenkfelders are touching us spiritually in this
collection," he said. "And we are receiving a gift from them that
may help us to enjoy the world around us as richly as they did."





=3D=3D=3D=3D PAMONTGO Mailing List =3D=3D=3D=3D
http://www.rootsweb.com


--part1_29.150fe8a5.28392314_boundary--

This thread:

• [MDCAROLI] Fwd: [PAMONTGO-L] Schwenkfelder Art, NY Times today by