- Diana (Saint-Gaudens)
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Diana 
Artist Augustus Saint-Gaudens Year 1922 Type Gilded Copper Dimensions (184 1/2 in) Location New York City Diana, also known as Diana of the Tower, is a gilt copper statue, by Augustus Saint-Gaudens. A half size copy is located at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.[1]
Contents
History
It was commissioned by Stanford White, as a weathervane for Madison Square Garden. The model was Julia "Dudie" Baird.[2]
The first version was built by the W. H. Mullins Manufacturing Company, and unveiled on September 29, 1891.[3] It was 18 ft (5.5 m) tall and weighed 1,800 lb (820 kg), and turned with the wind; Saint-Gaudens had draped the statue in cloth, but this was soon blown away.[4] It was exhibited at the 1892 World's Columbian Exposition. The bottom half was destroyed by a fire, after the close of the Exhibition, and the top half was lost.
A second version, redesigned by Saint-Gaudens, was placed on November 18, 1893.[5][6] In 1925, the statue was preserved, from the demolition of the building. In 1932, this version was given to the Philadelphia Museum of Art.[7]
He produced several reduced examples, which are at the National Gallery of Art,[8] Indianapolis Museum of Art,[9][10] Cleveland Museum of Art,[11] Metropolitan Museum of Art,[12] Brookgreen Gardens,[13] and Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site.[14]
In 1928, some casts were made from the half size cement cast, which is now in the Amon Carter Museum of American Art[15]
Controversy
The statue offended Anthony Comstock and his New York Society for the Suppression of Vice. A drapery was fashioned to cover the statue's nudity, blew off.[16]
Poetic tributes
- W. T. Henderson (September 18, 1892). "To Diana Off the Tower". The New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=F10915FE345515738DDDA10994D1405B8285F0D3.
References
- ^ http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/28.101
- ^ http://www.sgnhs.org/Augustus%20SGaudens%20CD-HTML/Models/Dudie.htm
- ^ http://www.sgnhs.org/Augustus%20SGaudens%20CD-HTML/Monuments/Ideal/Diana1.htm
- ^ Federal Writers' Project. New York City Guide. New York: Random House, 1939 ISBN 0-403-02921-X (Reprinted by Scholarly Press, 1976; often referred to as WPA Guide to New York City), pp.330–333
- ^ "New Diana of the Tower". The New York Times. November 18, 1893. http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=F00712FD3E5A1A738DDDA10994D9415B8385F0D3.
- ^ http://www.sgnhs.org/Augustus%20SGaudens%20CD-HTML/Monuments/Ideal/Diana2.htm
- ^ "Diana, (sculpture)". SIRIS
- ^ http://www.nga.gov/collection/sculpture/noflash/zone1-3.htm
- ^ http://www.imamuseum.org/art/collections/artwork/diana-saint-gaudens-augustus
- ^ "Diana, (sculpture)". SIRIS
- ^ "Diana, (sculpture)". SIRIS
- ^ http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/1985.353
- ^ http://www.brookgreen.org/AugustusSaint-Gaudens.cfm
- ^ "Diana, (sculpture)". SIRIS
- ^ http://www.cartermuseum.org/artworks/314
- ^ Paula Uruburu (2009). American Eve: Evelyn Nesbit, Stanford White, the Birth of the "It" Girl, and the Crime of the Century. Penguin. ISBN 9781594483691. http://books.google.com/books?id=s9l5TIzarCUC&pg=PT61&dq=american+eve+the+statue&hl=en&ei=iYm5TtDtMaOQsALkvejZCA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CC4Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false.
External links
- PBS Documentary – Augustus Saint-Gaudens: Master of American Sculpture – The Diana
- Jennifer Hardin, "Augustus Saint-Gaudens's Diana of 1891–93: Critical and Public Response to a Singular American Nude", Hood Museum
- http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/pennsylvania/philadelphia/museumdiana/gaudens.html
- http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/diana_of_madison_square_garden/
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