{"label":"Ruth","metadata":[{"label":"Date","value":"1853"}],"description":"Inspired by the Old Testament's book of Ruth, this bust of the biblical heroine was conceived by Chauncey Bradley Ives in 1853, two years after he settled in Rome.  The sympathetic and human story of Ruth relates how she was married to a Hebrew immigrant in Moab and after his death left her native land and traveled with her mother-in-law, Naomi, to Bethlehem.  Here, she was allowed to glean the wheat fields belonging to Boaz, a wealthy farmer and kinsman of Naomi.  Ruth, true to her nature, maintained, on Naomi's advice, a modest demeanor among the field hands working the harvest.  One night, to show her devotion, she went and lay at the feet of Boaz as he slept in the field.  So moved was he by her virtue and fidelity that he eventually married her. \r\n\r\nIn depicting his figure of Ruth, Ives particularly sought to impart the concept of modesty embodied by the subject.  Sensitive to Ruth's meekness, Ives designed the figure so that she looks just to the right with a downward gaze and slightly bowed head.  A hint of nineteenth-century naturalism comes into play in that the piece, while portraying an ideal subject, appears to have been modeled after a real sitter, and the gathered bodice of the gown she wears resembles fashionable women's dress of the period.\r\n\r\nYet, so ambiguous is the meaning of the sculpture, that, until recently, the figure was thought to be Ceres, the Greek goddess of agriculture, because of the wheat that is woven through her hair.  However, the attribute of wheat is also often assigned to Ruth to signify her biblical role as a gleaner.  Moreover, the sculptor's account book listing ideal works that he produced from 1838 to 1886 indicates that Ives executed sculptures of Ruth and none of Ceres.\r\n","related":[{"format":"text/html","label":"View details","@id":"https://emuseum.huntington.org/objects/12212/ruth"}],"rendering":[{"format":"text/html","label":"View details","@id":"https://emuseum.huntington.org/objects/12212/ruth"}],"sequences":[{"label":"default","canvases":[{"label":"R.94-9","width":1536,"height":2048,"images":[{"resource":{"service":{"profile":"http://iiif.io/api/image/2/level2.json","tiles":[{"width":256,"height":256,"scaleFactors":[1,2,4,8],"@type":"iiif:Tile","@context":"http://iiif.io/api/image/2/context.json"},{"width":512,"height":512,"scaleFactors":[1,2,4,8],"@type":"iiif:Tile","@context":"http://iiif.io/api/image/2/context.json"},{"width":1024,"height":1024,"scaleFactors":[1,2,4,8],"@type":"iiif:Tile","@context":"http://iiif.io/api/image/2/context.json"}],"@context":"http://iiif.io/api/image/2/context.json","@id":"https://emuseum.huntington.org/apis/iiif/image/v2/3846"},"format":"image/jpeg","width":1536,"height":2048,"@type":"dctypes:Image","@id":"https://emuseum.huntington.org/apis/iiif/image/v2/3846/full/full/0/default.jpg","@context":"http://iiif.io/api/presentation/2/context.json"},"motivation":"sc:painting","on":"https://emuseum.huntington.org/apis/iiif/presentation/v2/1-objects-12212/canvas/1070157","@type":"oa:Annotation","@id":"https://emuseum.huntington.org/apis/iiif/presentation/v2/1-objects-12212/annotation/1070157","@context":"http://iiif.io/api/presentation/2/context.json"}],"@type":"sc:Canvas","@id":"https://emuseum.huntington.org/apis/iiif/presentation/v2/1-objects-12212/canvas/3846","@context":"http://iiif.io/api/presentation/2/context.json"}],"@type":"sc:Sequence","@id":"https://emuseum.huntington.org/apis/iiif/presentation/v2/1-objects-12212/sequence/default","@context":"http://iiif.io/api/presentation/2/context.json"}],"logo":[{"@id":"https://emuseum.huntington.org/internal/media/logodispatcher/Huntington_Wordmark_SingleLine_L1Green.jpg"}],"@type":"sc:Manifest","@id":"https://emuseum.huntington.org/apis/iiif/presentation/v2/1-objects-12212/manifest","@context":"http://iiif.io/api/presentation/2/context.json","thumbnail":[{"service":{"profile":"http://iiif.io/api/image/2/level2.json","@context":"http://iiif.io/api/image/2/context.json","@id":"https://emuseum.huntington.org/apis/iiif/image/v2/3846"},"@id":"https://emuseum.huntington.org/apis/iiif/image/v2/3846/full/%21100%2C100/0/default.jpg"}]}