Description
standing with his proper left hand outstretched and face lifted. His proper right hand holds a furled flag. Behind him is a capstan, a mechanical device used on ships to wind rope.
The flag Columbus holds has the arms of Spain and is surmounted by a cross.
Suñol slightly modified the Madrid marble Columbus for this bronze statue.
Inscription(s)
COLUMBUS
On the back side:
PRESENTED BY CITIZENS OF NEW YORK
IN COMMEMORATION OF THE
FOUR HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY
OF THE
DISCOVERY OF THE NEW WORLD
OCTOBER 1492
Signature
J. SUÑOL and FEDERICO MASRIERA, FUNDIDOR BARCELONA, 1892.
Annotation
Donated by prominent New Yorkers at behest of General Grant Wilson.
When landscape architects Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux designed Central Park in 1858, their Greensward Plan included a grand formal area that they called the Mall or the Promenade. (...) The lower end of the Mall is known informally as Literary Walk or Poets' Walk, as four of the five statues memorialize poets and writers: William Shakespeare (1870), Robert Burns (ca. 1880), Sir Walter Scott (1871), and Fitz-Greene Halleck (1876); the fifth represents Christopher Columbus (1892).
The Columbus shown here is much older than the one at Columbus Circle, with bags under his eyes, lines bracketing his mouth, receding hairline. He wears a heavy chain with a profile portrait of a woman, probably Queen Isabella, although I haven't been able to confirm that. (But it doesn't look like any picture I know of the Madonna, which is the only other likely possibility.)
See also the plans for the Columbus Fountain in Central Park in Ponce de Leon
Sculptor
- Jeronimo Suñol y Pujol (Barcelona 1840 - Madrid 1902),
Spanish sculptor.
Sources & Information
Tags
Locatie (N 40°46'9" - W 73°58'21") (Satellite view: Google Maps)
Item Code: usny29;
Photograph: 25 October 2000
© Website and photos: René & Peter van der Krogt
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