The Life and Times of Moses Jacob Ezekiel: American Sculptor; Arcadian Knight tells the remarkable story of Moses Ezekiel and his rise to international fame as an artist in late nineteenth-century Italy. Sephardic Jew; homosexual; Confederate soldier; Southern apologist; opponent of slavery; patriot; expatriate; mystic; Victorian; dandy; good Samaritan; humanist; royalist; romantic; reactionary; republican; monist; dualist; theosophist; freemason; champion of religious freedom; proto-Zionist; and proverbial Court Jew; Moses Ezekiel was a riddle of a man; a puzzle of seemingly irreconcilable parts. Knighted by three European monarchs; courted by the rich and famous; Moses Ezekiel lived the life of an aristocrat with rarely a penny to his name. Making his home in the capacious ruins of the Baths of Diocletian in Rome; he quickly distinguished himself as the consummate artist and host; winning international fame for his work and consorting with many of the lions and luminaries of the fin-de-siegrave;cle world; including Giuseppe Garibaldi; Queen Margherita; Franz Liszt; Richard Wagner; Sarah Bernhardt; Gabriele Drsquo;Annunzio; Eleonora Duse; Annie Besant; Clara Schumann; Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema; Alphonse Daudet; Mark Twain; Eacute;mile Zola; Robert E. Lee; Augustus Saint-Gaudens; and Isaac Mayer Wise. In a city besieged with eccentrics; he; a Southern Jewish homosexual sculptor; was outstanding; an enigma to those who knew him; a man at once stubbornly original and deeply emblematic of his times. According to Stanley Chyet in his introduction to Ezekielrsquo;s memoirs; ldquo;The contemporary European struggle between liberalism and reaction; between modernity and feudalism; between the democratic and the hierarchical is rather amply refracted in Ezekielrsquo;s account of his life in Rome.rdquo; Indeed so many of the contentious cultural; political; artistic; and scientific struggles of the age converged in the figure of this adroit and prepossessing Jew.
#572621 in eBooks 1997-08-01 1997-08-01File Name: B00IUOGV6K
Review
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Paradigm-challenging; inspiringBy Daniel PrietoThis is a very interesting and well-curated series of articles that mixes gender; politics; music; sound (and more) from different points of view. It might be very inspiring for musicians (performers; musicologists; composers); artists; social scientists; and other academics. I ordered it (in physical form) for the library of the university I work in. Even if youre not in the academia front; some chapters can be really inspiring. Go for it!0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. the book offers a very broad; interesting and profound ...By Customerthe book offers a very broad; interesting and profound approach to a very complex scene that involves the ideas of performativity; creativity and subjectivity through music improvisation.0 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Five StarsBy Cathryn M. WatsonBrilliant!
