The painting hung at the center of Lee Chapel is interesting because given that chapels are often assumed to be sacred nature, though this one is likely secular like Lee Chapel, the featured painting suggests the military academy is worshipping war. However, considering the location of the painting as one on a college campus, it is acceptable that it is meant to indicate a possibility of the students' future and to memorialize previous cadets.
Colonel Gibson’s anecdote about the son of the painter elucidated the background of the artist, but raised several questions about his original intent. The focal point of the painting features a blonde boy falling after being shot with a gruesome face of pain. As Colonel Gibson explained that this boy’s face was modeled off of his son, I assumed that he included his son’s light hair as the focus of the work in order to highlight that of the ten cadets who died in this fight, each were sons of currently grieving parents. However, his story revealed that clearly this was not the intent. This prompts me to ask why he painted his son as a dying boy to begin with?
As well, during our walk around campus, I was taken aback by the lack of upkeep of the memorials. There was nothing drastic, but at a military school like VMI, I figured there would be better about keeping up with there grounds. However, the cobblestones near Virginia Mourning her Losses were off sync, there were cobwebs on Stonewall Jackson Statue, and overgrown bushes covered up the text explaining the significance of the Jonathon Daniels Memorial.
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