AUGUSTUS SAINT-GAUDENS (1848-1907)

細節

AUGUSTUS SAINT-GAUDENS (1848-1907)

'Diana of the Tower', A Bronze Figure

inscribed DIANA OF THE TOWER and © A. SAINT GAUDENS MDCCCXCV and stamped COPYRIGHT BY AUGUSTUS SAINT-GAUDENS MDCCCXCV
21 5/8in. (55cm.) high from top of head to toe, 36 7/8in. (93.7cm.) total height including bow and tripod base, rich reddish brown patina

來源

Private Collection, New York

出版

J.H. Dryfhout, 'Diana', Metamorphoses in Nieneteenth Century Sculpture, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1975, pp. 201-213
J.H. Dryfhout, The Works of Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Hanover, New Hamphshire, 1982, pp. 155, 194, 205-210, cat. nos. 121, 144, 154, figs. 154-159
K. Greenthal, Augustus Saint-Gaudens: Master Sculptor, Boston, Massachusetts, 1985, pp. 23, 138-141, pl. VIII, fig. 143

拍品專文

The monumental figure of Diana was originally conceived in 1886 as a weathervane for the tower of Stanford White's Madison Square Garden. The eighteen-foot figure proved oversized, unwieldly and imbalanced. In 1892, it was removed from the site. The figure was then installed atop the McKim, Mead and White pavilion at the Columbian Exposition, where it was partially burned in a fire.

Saint-Gaudens revised his model and, in 1894, a second version was placed atop the Madison Square Garden tower. A mere thirteen feet high, it is now in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. This landmark sculpture was so notorious and popular that Saint-Gaudens immediately copyrighted the model and produced an edition of hand-modelled reductions in two sizes with variations in details such as the base, sphere, bow and hair.