''Prometheus'' is a 1934 gilded,

cast Cast may refer to: Music * Cast (band), an English alternative rock band * Cast (Mexican band), a progressive Mexican rock band * The Cast, a Scottish musical duo: Mairi Campbell and Dave Francis * ''Cast'', a 2012 album by Trespassers William ...

bronze sculpture Bronze is the most popular metal for Casting (metalworking), cast metal sculptures; a cast bronze sculpture is often called simply "a bronze". It can be used for statues, singly or in groups, reliefs, and small statuettes and figurines, as w ...

Paul Manship Paul Howard Manship (December 24, 1885 – January 28, 1966) was an American sculptor. He consistently created mythological pieces in a classical style, and was a major force in the Art Deco movement. He is well known for his large public com ...

, located above the lower plaza at

Rockefeller Center Rockefeller Center is a large complex consisting of 19 commercial buildings covering between 48th Street and 51st Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The 14 original Art Deco buildings, commissioned by the Rockefeller family, span th ...

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. Created by

Roman Bronze Works Roman Bronze Works, now operated as Roman Bronze Studios, is a bronze foundry in New York City. Established in 1897 by Riccardo Bertelli, it was the first American foundry to specialize in the lost-wax casting method, and was the country's pre-emin ...

Queens Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...

, the statue is tall and weighs 8 tons. It depicts the Greek legend of the Titan

Prometheus In Greek mythology, Prometheus (; , , possibly meaning " forethought")Smith"Prometheus". is a Titan god of fire. Prometheus is best known for defying the gods by stealing fire from them and giving it to humanity in the form of technology, kn ...

, who was the son of the Titan Iapetus and the Oceanid Clymene, brought fire to mankind by stealing it from the Chariot of the Sun, which resulted in

Zeus Zeus or , , ; grc, Δῐός, ''Diós'', label= genitive Boeotian Aeolic and Laconian grc-dor, Δεύς, Deús ; grc, Δέος, ''Déos'', label= genitive el, Δίας, ''Días'' () is the sky and thunder god in ancient Greek reli ...

chaining

and sending an eagle to prey upon his continually regenerating liver.

Description

The

recumbent Recumbent may refer to: * Recumbence, the act or state of lying down or leaning * Recumbent bicycle, a bicycle, tricycle or quadricycle which places the rider in a reclined or supine position * Recumbent effigy, a tomb sculpture of the deceased ...

figure is in a fountain basin in front of a gray, rectangular wall in the Lower Plaza, located in the middle of Rockefeller Center. The ring – representing the heavens – is inscribed with the

signs of the zodiac The zodiac is a belt-shaped region of the sky that extends approximately 8° north or south (as measured in celestial latitude) of the ecliptic, the apparent path of the Sun across the celestial sphere over the course of the year. The path ...

, which are labeled on the inside of the ring. Through the ring, he falls toward the earth (the mountain) and the sea (the pool). The inscription – a paraphrase from

Aeschylus Aeschylus (, ; grc-gre, Αἰσχύλος ; c. 525/524 – c. 456/455 BC) was an ancient Greek tragedian, and is often described as the father of tragedy. Academic knowledge of the genre begins with his work, and understanding of earlier Greek ...

– on the granite wall behind, reads: "Prometheus, teacher in every art, brought the fire that hath proved to mortals a means to mighty ends." ''Prometheus'' is considered the main artwork of Rockefeller Center, and is one of the complex's more well-known works of art. The seasonal Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree is erected above the statue every winter. During the rest of the year, ''Prometheus'' serves as the main aesthetic draw in the lower plaza's outdoor restaurant.

Associated artworks

The statue was flanked by Manship's ''Youth'' and ''Maiden'' (the "Mankind Figures"), occupying the granite shelves to the rear. (The shelves are now topped by plants.) They were relocated to Palazzo d'Italia from 1939 to 1984, because Manship thought they did not fit visually. Originally gilded, they were given a brown patina when restored. They were moved to the staircase above the skating rink in 2001, as if they are "announcing Prometheus". Four ''Prometheus''

maquette A ''maquette'' (French word for scale model, sometimes referred to by the Italian names ''plastico'' or ''modello'') is a scale model or rough draft of an unfinished sculpture. An equivalent term is ''bozzetto'', from the Italian word for "sketc ...

s exist: one at the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

's Smithsonian American Art Museum, one at the Minnesota Museum of Art, and two in private collections. A full-scale replica existed

Grand Indonesia Shopping Town Grand Indonesia (previously called Grand Indonesia Shopping Town until 2016) is an integrated multipurpose complex at Thamrin Road in Central Jakarta, Indonesia. The complex consists of a huge Shopping Mall, office tower Menara BCA (BCA Tower), ...

recreated by Legacy Entertainment in Entertainment District's Fountain Atrium located in Jakarta, but it has been removed in late 2019 due to the new LED Screen display.

Models

The model for Prometheus was Leonardo Nole (–1998), an Italian-American lifeguard from

New Rochelle New Rochelle (; older french: La Nouvelle-Rochelle) is a city in Westchester County, New York, United States, in the southeastern portion of the state. In 2020, the city had a population of 79,726, making it the seventh-largest in the state o ...

who modeled for college art classes. He spent three months posing for this assignment in the spring of 1933. After World War II, he became a postal worker. Manship's assistant Angelo Colombo did most of the detail work when Nole was posing.

Henry Kreis Henry Kreis (1899–1963) was an American sculptor. Life He studied at the State School of Applied Arts in Munich. In 1947, he created the Wise virgins and Foolish virgins medal for the Society of Medalists. In 1935 Kreis designed the Connect ...

, another assistant, sculpted the hair. Ray Van Cleef posed for the original small-scale rendering.

Gallery

File:Leonardo Nole Prometheus.png, Leonardo Nole poses for the statue, 1933 File:Gilding Rock Cen Prometheus jeh.jpg, Regilding in 2011 File:Masked Prometheus jeh.jpg, Wearing a mask during the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City

References

External links