of three using two 80-foot lifts worked the first day to install the brackets and the next half-day to install and inflate the Deity .
Perhaps it escaped from the Gardner Courtyard ... The creative spiritual projection from the museum through the Deity to the Fens is drawn both from elements in the museum and the impulse to reach out to the wonderful green space that Gardner chose for her location . A late medieval stone wheel window , probably designed for an Italian church , is placed in the west wall in the Gothic Room . Imagine light passing through the museum connecting the wheel window , the Courtyard , and the Deity to the Fens .
The exterior of Fenway Court has historically been considered plain and unremarkable . A closer look at the elegant façade lurking behind the Deity reveals Gardner ’ s modern sensibilities and carefully considered design , from the yellow brick to beautiful fenestration sized to gather light .
Smith has ventured to explore the iconography of deities as protectors of physical and spiritual realms and their relationship specifically to gardens and environmental space . His Garden Deities are inspired by travels in Asia and visits to numerous Buddhist temples . In the basic construction of a temple shrine or garden , a central deity or Daibutsu is surrounded by lesser or demi-deities , each with a specific domain of power or influence .
JoAnn Robinson joined the curatorial department for landscape at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in 2007 . There she manages landscape lectures , programs , and exhibits like the Fenway Deity . She continues to research and document landscape history at the Museum , beginning with Gardner ’ s enthusiasm for the art of landscape and her legacy to the city .
Learn more about Ken Smith and the Fenway Deity at gardnermuseum . org / visit / kensmith
The 2015 Landscape installation by Ken Smith was sponsored by the Friends of John Magee , in memory and celebration of his life , and in gratitude for his service to the Gardner Museum .
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