Notes from my Knapsack 5-22-2025
Jeff Gill
Licking County's most remarkable collection of art
___
Earlier in May I was describing to you here the steps in the process which led to the West Courtroom of the Licking County Courthouse as we have it today, beautifully restored and re-dedicated on May 1, 2025, which is "Law Day" each year.
We had a justice of the Ohio Supreme Court on the bench, along with the Common Pleas Judges on either side, and another dozen judges filling the jury box. I was honored to get to speak as part of those proceedings, helping put some context on the amazing art and decoration you can see there, much of it dating to 1903 to 1905, with some blanks filled in over the past year of restoration work.
If you've been in the massive and ornate West Courtroom (I won't ask why!) you know the ceiling is dramatic, but throughout living memory has been shrouded in lamp-black and cigar smoke from earlier times. The amazing oculus in the center, evoking the Pantheon ceiling in Rome, has been dim and shadowy for generation.
As one of the final stages of restoration of our county's courthouse, which needed work from the cupola on top to the walls and windows of this 1876 structure, the West Courtroom was painstakingly restored, by skilled professionals in art restoration. We've all learned fascinating things about the work done and what it represents; my part has been to anchor the work to create the plaster architectural elements, and of the attached murals and paintings, to a precise point in time, and also to some specific artists.
The "maestros" of this complex display of art in a functional space were the Bryant Brothers of Columbus, Ohio. They had started some years earlier in Canton, and moved to the center of the state as their work expanded, but they were interior designers on a major scale. Their portfolio included churches and cathedrals all over the Midwest, a number of palatial residences, and just a few courthouse commissions.
The Bryants didn't do the art, they hired the artists for the client, and put the pieces together in a harmonious whole, as interior designers do. On June 26, 1905, the county commissioners in their official minutes contracted with Bryant Brothers to finish the interior of the West Courtroom, and with August Roeder of Toledo to finish the flooring upstairs, soon after with an additional amount to complete the general contracting of the electrical work and finished carpentry of the space. The lighting design of the room was on the cutting edge of technology for 1905, even if the art was classical.
And classical barely begins to describe what the Bryant Brothers pulled together, which you can now see in bright, vivid colors again today. They employed an artist from Toledo, Ludwig Bang, about whom I've already written, who was the only one of the three main artists for the West Courtroom to actually visit Newark. Two more artists play a significant role: Adèle Bassi, with her studio in Florence, Italy just up the block from the Uffizi, and John Franklin Douthitt of New York City, with his studios above Fifth Avenue.
All three would come together in one place, thanks to the Bryants; each has a unique story — for which you'll have to come back and hear more!
Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and preacher in central Ohio; he's had a great time researching this little project, with more to share. Tell him about the art that inspires you at knapsack77@gmail.com, or follow @Knapsack77 on Threads of Bluesky.
Jeff Gill
Licking County's most remarkable collection of art
___
Earlier in May I was describing to you here the steps in the process which led to the West Courtroom of the Licking County Courthouse as we have it today, beautifully restored and re-dedicated on May 1, 2025, which is "Law Day" each year.
We had a justice of the Ohio Supreme Court on the bench, along with the Common Pleas Judges on either side, and another dozen judges filling the jury box. I was honored to get to speak as part of those proceedings, helping put some context on the amazing art and decoration you can see there, much of it dating to 1903 to 1905, with some blanks filled in over the past year of restoration work.
If you've been in the massive and ornate West Courtroom (I won't ask why!) you know the ceiling is dramatic, but throughout living memory has been shrouded in lamp-black and cigar smoke from earlier times. The amazing oculus in the center, evoking the Pantheon ceiling in Rome, has been dim and shadowy for generation.
As one of the final stages of restoration of our county's courthouse, which needed work from the cupola on top to the walls and windows of this 1876 structure, the West Courtroom was painstakingly restored, by skilled professionals in art restoration. We've all learned fascinating things about the work done and what it represents; my part has been to anchor the work to create the plaster architectural elements, and of the attached murals and paintings, to a precise point in time, and also to some specific artists.
The "maestros" of this complex display of art in a functional space were the Bryant Brothers of Columbus, Ohio. They had started some years earlier in Canton, and moved to the center of the state as their work expanded, but they were interior designers on a major scale. Their portfolio included churches and cathedrals all over the Midwest, a number of palatial residences, and just a few courthouse commissions.
The Bryants didn't do the art, they hired the artists for the client, and put the pieces together in a harmonious whole, as interior designers do. On June 26, 1905, the county commissioners in their official minutes contracted with Bryant Brothers to finish the interior of the West Courtroom, and with August Roeder of Toledo to finish the flooring upstairs, soon after with an additional amount to complete the general contracting of the electrical work and finished carpentry of the space. The lighting design of the room was on the cutting edge of technology for 1905, even if the art was classical.
And classical barely begins to describe what the Bryant Brothers pulled together, which you can now see in bright, vivid colors again today. They employed an artist from Toledo, Ludwig Bang, about whom I've already written, who was the only one of the three main artists for the West Courtroom to actually visit Newark. Two more artists play a significant role: Adèle Bassi, with her studio in Florence, Italy just up the block from the Uffizi, and John Franklin Douthitt of New York City, with his studios above Fifth Avenue.
All three would come together in one place, thanks to the Bryants; each has a unique story — for which you'll have to come back and hear more!
Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and preacher in central Ohio; he's had a great time researching this little project, with more to share. Tell him about the art that inspires you at knapsack77@gmail.com, or follow @Knapsack77 on Threads of Bluesky.
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