The Savage State, or The Commencement of Empire The first painting,
The Savage State, shows the valley from the shore opposite the crag, in the dim light of a dawning stormy day. Clouds and mist shroud much of the distant landscape, hinting at the uncertain future. A hunter clad in skins hastens through the wilderness, pursuing a fleeing deer; canoes paddle up the river; on the far shore can be seen a clearing with a cluster of
tipis around a fire, the nucleus of the city that is to be. The visual references are those of
Native American life. This painting depicts the ideal state of the natural world. It is a healthy world, unchanged by humanity.
Description by Thomas Cole No. 1., which may be called the 'Savage State,' or 'the Commencement of Empire,' represents a wild scene of rocks, mountains, woods, and a bay of the ocean. The sun is rising from the sea, and the stormy clouds of night are dissipating before his rays. On the farthest side of the bay rises a precipitous hill, crowned by a singular isolated rock, which, to the
mariner, would ever be a striking land-mark. As the same locality is represented in each picture of the series, this rock identifies it, although the observer's situation varies in the several pictures. The chase being the most characteristic occupation of savage life, in the fore-ground we see a man attired in skins, in pursuit of a deer, which, stricken by his arrow, is bounding down a water-course. On the rocks in the middle ground are to be seen savages, with dogs, in pursuit of deer. On the water below may be seen several canoes, and on the promontory beyond, are several huts, and a number of figures dancing round a fire. In this picture, we have the first rudiments of society. Men are banded together for mutual aid in the chase, etc. The useful arts have commenced in the construction of canoes, huts, and weapons. Two of the fine arts, music and poetry, have their germs, as we may suppose, in the singing which usually accompanies the dance of savages. The empire is asserted, although to a limited degree, over sea, land, and the animal kingdom. The season represented is Spring.
The Arcadian or Pastoral State In the second painting,
The Arcadian or Pastoral State, the sky has cleared and it is the fresh morning of a day in spring or summer. The viewpoint has shifted further up the river, as the crag with the boulder is now on the left-hand side of the painting; a forked peak can be seen in the distance beyond it. Much of the wilderness has given way to cultivated land and
agriculture, with plowed fields and lawns visible. Various activities go on in the background: plowing, boat building, herding sheep, dancing; in the foreground, an old man sketches what may be a
geometrical problem with a stick. On a bluff on the near side of the river, a
megalithic temple has been built, and smoke (presumably from sacrifices) arises from it. Below the temple, an emerging village is taking shape along the riverbed. The images reflect an idealized, pre-urban
Archaic Greece. This work shows humanity at peace with the land. The environment has been altered, but not so much so that it or its inhabitants are in danger. Yet the construction of the warship and the concerned mother watching as her child sketches a soldier, herald the emerging imperial ambitions. Furthermore, a tree stump is seen in the right foreground, a reflection of the dark nature of man already developed, and a foreshadow to the fate of the growing settlement. The third painting,
The Consummation of Empire, shifts the viewpoint to the opposite shore, approximately the site of the clearing in the first painting. Both sides of the river valley are now covered in
colonnaded
marble structures, whose steps run down into the water. The megalithic temple seems to have been transformed into a huge domed structure dominating the river-bank. The mouth of the river is guarded by two
pharoi, and ships with
lateen sails go out to the sea beyond. A joyous crowd gathers on the balconies and terraces as a scarlet-robed king or victorious general crosses a bridge connecting the two sides of the river in a triumphant procession. Guarding him are soldiers of various skin tones, a suggestion to the expanse this empire has seen. In the foreground, lower right, there is what seems to be a royal court. Amongst them, under the elaborate fountain, are two boys clad in red and green, with one sinking a toy boat, while another seemingly pleading with him. The adults nearby are inattentive of the discordant behavior, busy in their affairs. Further to the right, amongst the individuals fixed on the procession, a queenly woman sits atop a gilded throne. The look of the painting suggests the height of
Ancient Rome. The
decadence seen in every detail of this cityscape foreshadows the inevitable fall of this mighty civilization. The fourth painting,
Destruction, has almost the same perspective as the third, though the artist has stepped back a bit to allow a wider scene of the action, and moved almost to the center of the river. The action is the
sack and destruction of the city, in the course of a tempest seen in the distance. It seems that a fleet of enemy warriors has overthrown the city's defenses, sailed up the river, and is busy ransacking the city, killing its inhabitants, and seizing women: presumably to
rape them. The bridge across which the triumphant procession had crossed is broken; a makeshift crossing strains under the weight of soldiers and refugees. Columns are broken, and fire breaks from the upper floors of a palace on the river bank. The fifth painting,
Desolation, shows the results decades later. The remains of the city are highlighted in the livid light of a dying day. The landscape has begun to return to wilderness and no humans are to be seen; but the remnants of their architecture emerge from beneath a mantle of trees, ivy, and other overgrowth. The broken stumps of the pharoi loom in the background. The arches of the shattered bridge and the columns of the temple are still visible; a single column looms in the foreground, now a nesting place for birds. The sunrise of the first painting is mirrored here by a
moonrise, a pale light reflecting in the ruin-choked river while the standing pillar reflects the last rays of sunset. This gloomy picture suggests how all empires could be after their fall. It is a harsh possible future in which humanity has been destroyed by its own hand. However, some Democrats had a different theory of the course of empire. They saw not a spiral or cycle but a continuing upward trajectory.
Levi Woodbury, a Democrat and a justice of the United States Supreme Court, for instance, responded to Cole by saying that there would be no destruction in the United States. ==See also==