Thomas E. Marr and Son (active Boston, 1910-1942)
West Cloister, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 1911
Glass plate negative
This is a black and white photograph of the West Cloister at Fenway Court. At center, a stone tomb figure of a knight is reclined on the floor against a brick wall. He is dressed in armor and holds a sword in both hands at his abdomen. He is positioned below a window decorated with ironwork. The window is flanked by three frescoes. The leftmost and rightmost frescoes depict scenes with the Virgin. A small fresco to the right of the window depicts an angel holding a chalice. Below the rightmost fresco are two stone carvings on marble columns, sitting on either side of a stone bench. Some greenery and white flowers are peeking in from the left side of the image.
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Commentary
Isabella worked with the Boston photographic firm Thomas E. Marr & Son, comprised of Thomas and his son Arthur, to document the museum's interiors. You can often see in these photographs Isabella's different iterations of the galleries from the museum's opening in 1903 to her death in 1924. In this image, you can see the Spanish Knight (S6e14) in the West Cloister. Isabella later moved it to the Spanish Chapel where it now resides.