Statues - Hither & Thither |
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Santa Cruz de Tenerife
Tenerife Canarias Calle Ángel Guimerá
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La Unión y el FénixThe Union and the Phoenix |
René de Saint-Marceaux
originally 1911 |
Sculpture of a a young, beautiful, bright man, sitting gracefully on one of the wings of the Phoenix and raising an arm in the air.
The Union and the Phoenix is the symbol of the Insurance Company "La Unión y el Fénix Español", which was formed in 1879 by a fusion of "La Unión" (founded 1856) and "El Fénix Español, Compañía de Seguros Reunidos" (1864). As symbol they used first just the phoenix, but when in 1911 a new main office was built in the Calle Alcalá in Madrid, the symbol was redisigned. The French sculptor Saint-Marceau designed the new emblem with the young man, sitting on one of the wings of the Phoenix.
The same symbol was later used for other offices, such as this in Santa Cruz, originally on a building, but now in a little park above the entrance of a parking garage, and in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.
Many years later, in 1989, the real meaning of Marceaux' sculpture was discovered: not the myth of of the Phoenix is represented, but the abduction of Ganymede by Zeus in the shape of an eagle.
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