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Sculptor Chris Miller at work in the Vermont Granite Museum, Barre, on the new Ceres statue. Photo: Jeb Wallace-Brodeur |
If you’ve come through Montpelier in the last several months, you probably noticed the scaffolding around the top of the Vermont State House, indicating work in progress. Upgrades have been done on the drum of the dome, as well as a shiny regilding of the copper-sheathed dome itself. But most striking is the empty space at the top—no statue! We take it for granted that “she” will be there, framed by trees and sky. It’s been a bit of a shock to see our iconic statue gone. What happened? Where did she go?
This year, we Vermonters are privileged with a historic opportunity to honor our symbolic home-grown statue. A newly carved version is being created, soon to regain her freshly gilded “throne” on the capitol dome (scheduled for November 30). This new sculpture is the third incarnation of Vermont’s female icon, which has been called Agriculture or Ceres.
Vermont is one of nine states with female statues on their state capitols. Most have versions of a personified Freedom or Liberty, similar to the US Capitol building, upon which the bronze Statue of Freedom stands. Missouri is the only other state with a Ceres on its state capitol in Jefferson City. That building, however, is much taller, and Ceres appears celestial and remote. Vermont’s Ceres is closer to the people, with a more personal feel. We can relate to her.
As a mythic scholar, I can’t help but see her as Vermont’s goddess, not in a sense of ultimate divinity but as a personification of a living energy or archetype universally rooted in our lives. Our Vermont statue has personal meaning for each of us, honed over years of Vermont history and tradition.
Agriculture, 1858–1938
After the second State House burned down in 1857, a new State House was designed with an Italian Renaissance–inspired dome. It required a statue. A 20-year-old Brattleboro artist had recently received national attention for his remarkable ice sculpture Recording Angel, created to celebrate the new year in his hometown. Thus was the up-and-coming Larkin Goldsmith Mead chosen to create this first of many important works—an allegorical figure of Agriculture, a personification of an idea and tradition meaningful to Vermonters. This neoclassical female image holding sheaves of wheat, as does the Roman goddess of agriculture, popularly became known as Ceres.
Mythically, Ceres presides over the fertility and bounty of the land, the growing of food and seasonal cycles, evolving with the times into community-supported agriculture, farm-to-table initiatives, attention to soil health, and organic and ecological awareness. Ceres is the Great Mother goddess, asserting natural law, care for the common good, the well-being of Earth and all life. She is the creative, nurturing aspect of the feminine, in both women and men. |
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Under her Greek name Demeter, she was a key player in the famous myth of Persephone, her daughter kidnapped by Pluto to become his queen in the underworld. This story is often told to explain the four seasons, which we Vermonters experience in dramatic fashion. Demeter oversaw the Eleusinian Mysteries, an important religious mystery school that conveyed teachings of the great round of life, death, and rebirth to the ancient world for hundreds of years. Mind-altering mushrooms may have been used in her rituals. She feeds the people, body and soul.
Departing from usual depictions, our Ceres holds a scroll, representing her authority and the law of the land, watching over legal decisions made in the State House. The “Eyes of Ceres” column in this newspaper honors that Ceres, who sits above the capitol, looking and listening to what goes on. Original Mead sketches for the statue show her with a proposed plough and even farm animals. All that would have been a bit crowded on the dome! A cow does, however, appear on the state seal.
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Ceres II, 1938–2018
For 80 years the Larkin Mead statue stood tall for basic Vermont values of farming, animal husbandry, and tending the land, but the native white pine she was carved from eventually deteriorated in the harsh winds and blizzards of the Green Mountains. During the depression years of the 1930s, it became evident the statue would have to come down.
Funds were not plentiful. Dwight Dwinell, the devoted 83-year-old sergeant-at-arms of the State House, a lifelong whittler and woodworker, volunteered to carve another statue. Using ponderosa pine this time, he worked with a team to recreate Ceres, carving the head himself in a small workshop behind the State House. She was crowned with a spiked, lightning-rod headdress that served as electrical storm protection. The statue was craned up and painted white, rather than the granite gray of the original figure. It must be acknowledged that Ceres II, as Dwinell officially named this new work, was not completely successful as a replica of the original. She has, rather, largely been recognized as a piece of folk art, endearing to many of us. |
Over the years many repairs and repaintings took place to preserve the statue. State curator David Schutz began his work at the State House as a research assistant in 1979, thus working under the gaze of Ceres II for half the statue’s lifetime. It seemed, even back then, that Ceres was having a midlife crisis. He recalled a rumor circulating that the statue was already rotten and would need to come down. The Vermont Council on the Arts considered putting out requests for proposals for a new statue.
An evaluation revealed that the statue was in better shape than was thought. Ceres II came through that crisis and lasted another 40 years, with periodic care. The final treatment, in 2002, included a last-ditch effort to sustain the integrity of the wood by the application of an elasticized coating to keep the elements at bay— a failed attempt that, in the end, trapped in moisture despite its advertised virtue of breathability.
Readers may remember that just a few years ago, in 2015, the statue was scaffolded for some further repair. Not long before, Schutz had taken me up through the barn-like dome to climb out onto the round white pedestal just below Ceres II. Cracks and discoloration in the wood were evident, and a paint job was obviously needed. For all that, I was mythically thrilled to be able to reach up and touch the hem of her robe. That was my last chance to do so.
Her time was up. The wood was waterlogged and rotting. Ceres II was taken down on April 2 of this year, dripping with moisture. She had lasted 80 years, the same number of years as the Mead sculpture. The torso of the statue has still not dried out. The head was removed, to allow for more airflow. Two Quechee conservators are taking preservative measures so that, at the very least, the known and loved head of Ceres II can be put on display and seen close up and personal in the Vermont Historical Society Museum next to the State House. Hopefully, head and torso will eventually be reunited.
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What Does the Ceres Statue on the State House Mean to You?
Vermont Woman asked a variety of people—at the Granite Museum, on the street, and elsewhere—for their thoughts about Ceres.
“Ceres is like the state’s godmother. She’s the caretaker of the state. She feeds us. She takes care of us, and she watches over us all
from the top of the State House dome.”
“What I’ve always appreciated about her presence is the feminine being
up there on the dome and her resonance with agriculture and Earth
awareness. I’ve been comforted that she is up there.”
“Ceres is not an allegory, but a real energy,a force that people have acknowledged for thousands of years— the relationship of the mother to the Earth and our relation to the mother and Earth, the Earth that bore you, that bears your children, that bears the food that sustains us. That’s the energy, the force, the
beauty, the mythic reality that informs our lives.”
“I grew up on a back-to-the-land homestead in Sharon, Vermont, growing gardens, harvesting herbs, and walking through the woods. And I’ve become aware of feminism. For me, having the goddess agriculture on top of the State House is the spirit of Vermont.”
“It inspires me to learn more about the history. It makes me feel good as a woman. I had to come [to the museum] and see it being made and by someone so talented and doing it by hand with so much love. When I see her on the State House, I will feel more of a connection.”
“I love that Vermont has a goddess on the State House, that she is up there like a mother goddess watching over us and reassuring us. There she is, so everything is OK.”
“When I lost a child, I would look up at Ceres and know that she had also lost a child. Somehow, I was soothed, as if my life was part of a greater story.”
“The word on the street is that everyone loves Ceres! She reminds us that food is important and farming is important and that we need them here.”
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Ceres III, 2018
A call for proposals went out. The winning bid was from the team of sculptors Jerry Williams and Chris Miller of Calais. The official request involved working with a committee to examine evidence and attempt to replicate the original Larkin Mead statue as far as possible. For this high-profile artistic project, the sculptors were selected in early September to receive this year’s prestigious Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts at a November 14 ceremony in the State House.
As a first step in recreating the new Ceres, Jerry Williams, of Barre Sculpture Studios, built a 42-inch-high quarter-scale clay model, as a prototype for the eventual final 14.5-foot version. Williams is widely known for his works in stone and bronze and knowledge of classical sculpture. To prepare the model, he researched and reinterpreted our new statue in a return to the classical look of Larkin Mead’s Agriculture. “I call her Ceres,” Williams admitted. “It’s more personal. As the goddess of agriculture, she is definitely an appropriate symbol for Vermont. Vermont was an agricultural community and still is.”
Referring to the few extant images of the original statue, Williams brought a detailed aesthetic to recreate the original as closely as possible. Experimenting with draped cloth on a clay figure, he shaped the natural folds of her garment (called a chiton, a long tunic worn in ancient Greece) and textured outer robe or himation. He copied ancient hairstyles, bound with three bands. Her face is not Hollywood-star beautiful but rather a visage of simple, calm, earthy beauty and strength. Mead’s statue wore a headdress with a six-pointed star on the forehead, with intertwined triangles, like the Star of David or the Hindu symbol of the goddess. Dwinell’s 1938 version had a five-pointed star, off center in a way that seemed to point downward. The new version has returned the six-pointed star, now with six discrete, contoured points, like flower petals, and will be painted with gold leaf for a hint of sparkle. Williams made three castings of his 42-inch Ceres. In addition to the one used for carving the full version, another will be on display in the State House lobby. He keeps a backup in his studio. |
When the first Agriculture statue was taken down in the late 1930's, she was found to be badly rotted. Larkin Mead designed and carved the 19-foot statue in 1858. Courtesy of the Vermont State Curators Office.
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Chris Miller, long known as a wood carver and for over a decade as one of the most active granite sculptors in Barre, sourced sustainably harvested Central American mahogany, chosen for its rot- and insect-resistant properties, for the final full-size version. Miller settled into the Vermont Granite Museum in late July to begin a public carving process and has spent countless hours over the past three and a half months with his “very tall girlfriend.” Visitors have been able to watch the birthing process, as Miller chipped away at the lovely mahogany wood. Many people have come by, from those documenting the project to interested Vermonters and out-of-state tourists. Visitors were invited to touch the statue, appreciate the texture of the wood, and even take home a mahogany chip.
When the statue is finished, the wood will be protected with several layers of white-pigmented stain. The stain will penetrate the wood rather than coat it, allowing the statue to breathe, expanding and contracting in the heat and humidity as if she were alive. All this will help extend her life span, projected to be at least one and possibly two hundred years. She will stand upon a removable stainless-steel plate so that she can be easily taken down and given a new application of finish every decade or so, to keep her healthy. The back hair band will be covered with gilded aluminum, which serves as a lightning rod and will be attached to a threaded cable down through her torso and grounded onto the steel plate.
A Special Moment in State History
I visited for the first time in mid-October, when the statue was well along. Unlike many pieces, this sculpture was not formed from a single block of wood. Slabs of mahogany were tightly laminated together. I found Ceres on her side, ready for her left arm to be attached, the one cradling the iconic sheaf of wheat. I went back several times to monitor the progress and process. I was there on October 30, the first time the statue was temporarily raised to vertical, for a full-height perspective, before Chris Miller resumed work. He was intent, focused, and enjoying the process, frequently referring to Williams’s model to measure and detail the larger work.
Clay model for the 2018 statue by sculptor Jerry Williams. (above) Chris Miller, working from the model,
carves the final full-scale version of the statue. photos: Jeb Wallace-Brodeur |
“This is a fun project, absolutely. Any time you can be carving wood, it’s a good time,” he enthused, carefully rounding out her neckline and shoulder. “This is an honor,” he added, concerning the historic import of this work.
This is a special moment in Vermont history (and herstory). In late October, when I asked Schutz what Ceres II meant to him and how it felt to take her down, he paused with emotion. “My connection to the State House for those 40 years has been an emotional one. When she came down on April 2, my heart was beating rapidly, and I was almost tearful. It was a very strange way of feeling because I did not anticipate it. Just seeing her lifted off brought me to a point of tears. Now the nice thing is, every time I go over to see the new statue taking shape, I lovingly sweep my hands over that fabulous surface and I feel a growing love for the new one. The old one is still in our care. As soon as she dries out, she will be conserved, and she will be in our collection for the rest of her life. We’ll soon to have two statues in our care, one up there and one in the museum.”
The Vermont Historical Society also owns the wood hand of Larkin Mead’s original statue of 1858, he told me, so it will be that parts of all three incarnations of our Vermont statue will be on display. Whatever you want to call her, Agriculture or Ceres, she is the people’s statue and reconnects us afresh to what she means to Vermonters about Vermont. 
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