Christopher Columbus and Fountain, 1892 (rededicated 1966)
Moses Ezekiel
Arrigo Park
801 South Loomis Street
The owners of the Columbus Memorial Building in Chicago
commissioned this 9-foot high, 10-ton bronze statue of Christopher Columbus.
Once completed, the work was displayed at the Italian Pavilion during the 1893
World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. The next year it was placed in its
intended location above the entrance to the building, formerly located at the
corner of State and Washington Streets, where it remained until 1959. When the
building was slated for demolition, the building’s owners asked the Municipal
Art League of Chicago to find a new home for the statue. They received a number
of out-of-state bids for it, including Disneyland in California as well as from
groups in the cities of Columbus, Ohio and Columbus, Indiana. In spite of such
interest, the statue was instead put into storage for seven years.
During the early 1960s, Illinois State Representative
Victor Arrigo (1908-1973) led the effort to raise funds for the conservation of
the statue and its eventual placement in a new park, built as part of the
Community Improvement Program, for the Little Italy neighborhood just west of
the University of Illinois at Chicago Circle Campus. The bronze figure now
stands in a granite fountain.
The Virginia-born artist, Moses Ezekiel (1844-1917), was
the first Jewish cadet to attend Virginia Military Institute and he served in
the Confederate Army. After the Civil War, he studied art in Berlin and
eventually settled in Rome and established a studio. His Columbus statue,
depicting the explorer in a massive suit of armor and cloak, was cast in Rome
and blessed by Pope Leo XIII.
Other works that commemorate Christopher Columbus:
Other works that commemorate Christopher Columbus:
No comments:
Post a Comment