Cherub Head

Isabella Stewart Gardner’s enthusiasm for Spanish culture was legendary. She was also fascinated with the art and culture of other Spanish-speaking regions including Central America. In 1872, Theodore Frelinghuysen Dwight (1846-1917)— a writer, employee of Putnam and Sons publishing house, and later the director of the Boston Public Library—stopped in Panama on a journey from California to New York. 

He visited the cathedral of Santa Maria la Antigua, which had been damaged by a fire in 1870 and was closed to the public. Dwight persuaded its custodian to allow him entry, despite the building’s perilous condition and his fear that “at any moment the roof would fall.” Among the debris at floor level were pieces of the ceiling decoration. The custodian permitted him to keep two carved wooden heads and a piece of the ceiling molding. The carvings depict cherubs, winged angelic beings described in biblical tradition as attending on God.

In 1915, Dwight recalled the visit in a letter to Gardner and donated the three pieces of sculpture to her museum. Gardner installed them in the Spanish Chapel where the carvings form a decorative frieze, providing a suitable complement to the Spanish works of art and religious setting.