Assembling
Abraham Lincoln
Statue
Abraham Lincoln
Statue
Piccirilli Brothers assembling the Abraham Lincoln statue
at the Lincoln Memorial Washington, D.C. ca.1919-1920.
at the Lincoln Memorial Washington, D.C. ca.1919-1920.
*
Although
he sits in our nation's capitol today, Lincoln was carved in a studio
on East 142nd Street by the six Italian brothers. The statues had to be
shipped out The Bronx in 28 pieces.
Abraham Lincoln (1920) is a colossal seated figure of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) sculpted by Daniel Chester French (1850–1931) and carved by the Piccirilli Brothers.
It is situated in the Lincoln Memorial (constructed 1914–22), on the National Mall, Washington, D.C., USA, and was unveiled in 1922.
Stylistically, the work follows in the Beaux Arts and American Renaissance traditions.
Description
The 170-ton statue is composed of 28 blocks of white Georgia marble (Murphy Marble) and rises 30 feet (9.1 m) from the floor, including the 19-foot (5.8 m) seated figure (with armchair and footrest) upon an 11-foot (3.4 m) high pedestal.
The figure of Lincoln gazes directly ahead and slightly down with an expression of gravity and solemnity. His frock coat is unbuttoned and a large flag is draped over the chair back and sides. French paid special attention to Lincoln’s expressive hands, which rest on the enormous arms of a circular, ceremonial chair, the fronts of which bear fasces, emblems of authority from Roman antiquity. French used casts of his own fingers to achieve the correct placement.
History
Daniel Chester French was selected in 1914 by the Lincoln Memorial Committee to create a Lincoln statue as part of the memorial to be designed by architect Henry Bacon (1866–1924). French was already famous for his Minute Man (1884) statue in Concord, Massachusetts.
French started with a small clay study and subsequently created several plaster models, each time making subtle changes in the figure's pose or setting.
He placed the President not in an ordinary 19th-century seat, but in a classical chair including fasces, a Roman symbol of authority, to convey that the subject was an eminence for all the ages.
Three plaster models of the Lincoln statue are at French’s Chesterwood Studio, in Stockbridge, Massachusetts
To determine the optimum scale and size for the memorial statue French and Bacon took photographic enlargements of the statue to the memorial while it was still under construction. French's longtime collaborators, the firm of Piccirilli Brothers, were commissioned to do the carving of a much larger sculpture in marble from a quarry near Tate, Georgia.
It took a full year for French's design to be transferred to the massive marble blocks.
French provided finishing strokes in the carvers' studio in New York City and after the statue was assembled in the memorial on the National Mall in 1920. Lighting the statue was a particular problem. In creating the work, French had understood that a large skylight would provide direct, natural illumination from overhead, but this was not included in the final plans. The horizontal light from the east caused Lincoln's facial features to appear flattened—making him appear to stare blankly, rather than wear a dignified expression—and highlighted his shins. French considered this a disaster. In the end, an arrangement of electric lights was devised to correct this situation.
Folklore
Some have claimed, erroneously, that Confederate general Robert E. Lee's face/ profile is carved onto the back of Lincoln's hair, facing backwards.
Another popular legend is that Lincoln is shown using sign language to represent his initials, with his left hand shaped to form an "A" and his right hand to form an "L". The National Park Service denies both stories, calling them urban legends.
However, historian Gerald Prokopowicz writes that, while it is not clear that sculptor Daniel Chester French intended Lincoln's hands to be formed into sign language versions of his initials, it is possible that French did intend it, because he was familiar with American Sign Language, and he would have had a reason to do so, i.e., to pay tribute to Lincoln for having signed the federal legislation giving Gallaudet University, a university for the deaf, the authority to grant college degrees.
The National Geographic Society's publication, "Pinpointing the Past in Washington, D.C." states that Daniel Chester French had a son who was deaf and the sculptor was familiar with sign language.
Abraham Lincoln (1920) is a colossal seated figure of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) sculpted by Daniel Chester French (1850–1931) and carved by the Piccirilli Brothers.
It is situated in the Lincoln Memorial (constructed 1914–22), on the National Mall, Washington, D.C., USA, and was unveiled in 1922.
Stylistically, the work follows in the Beaux Arts and American Renaissance traditions.
Description
The 170-ton statue is composed of 28 blocks of white Georgia marble (Murphy Marble) and rises 30 feet (9.1 m) from the floor, including the 19-foot (5.8 m) seated figure (with armchair and footrest) upon an 11-foot (3.4 m) high pedestal.
The figure of Lincoln gazes directly ahead and slightly down with an expression of gravity and solemnity. His frock coat is unbuttoned and a large flag is draped over the chair back and sides. French paid special attention to Lincoln’s expressive hands, which rest on the enormous arms of a circular, ceremonial chair, the fronts of which bear fasces, emblems of authority from Roman antiquity. French used casts of his own fingers to achieve the correct placement.
History
Daniel Chester French was selected in 1914 by the Lincoln Memorial Committee to create a Lincoln statue as part of the memorial to be designed by architect Henry Bacon (1866–1924). French was already famous for his Minute Man (1884) statue in Concord, Massachusetts.
French started with a small clay study and subsequently created several plaster models, each time making subtle changes in the figure's pose or setting.
He placed the President not in an ordinary 19th-century seat, but in a classical chair including fasces, a Roman symbol of authority, to convey that the subject was an eminence for all the ages.
Three plaster models of the Lincoln statue are at French’s Chesterwood Studio, in Stockbridge, Massachusetts
To determine the optimum scale and size for the memorial statue French and Bacon took photographic enlargements of the statue to the memorial while it was still under construction. French's longtime collaborators, the firm of Piccirilli Brothers, were commissioned to do the carving of a much larger sculpture in marble from a quarry near Tate, Georgia.
It took a full year for French's design to be transferred to the massive marble blocks.
French provided finishing strokes in the carvers' studio in New York City and after the statue was assembled in the memorial on the National Mall in 1920. Lighting the statue was a particular problem. In creating the work, French had understood that a large skylight would provide direct, natural illumination from overhead, but this was not included in the final plans. The horizontal light from the east caused Lincoln's facial features to appear flattened—making him appear to stare blankly, rather than wear a dignified expression—and highlighted his shins. French considered this a disaster. In the end, an arrangement of electric lights was devised to correct this situation.
Folklore
Some have claimed, erroneously, that Confederate general Robert E. Lee's face/ profile is carved onto the back of Lincoln's hair, facing backwards.
Another popular legend is that Lincoln is shown using sign language to represent his initials, with his left hand shaped to form an "A" and his right hand to form an "L". The National Park Service denies both stories, calling them urban legends.
However, historian Gerald Prokopowicz writes that, while it is not clear that sculptor Daniel Chester French intended Lincoln's hands to be formed into sign language versions of his initials, it is possible that French did intend it, because he was familiar with American Sign Language, and he would have had a reason to do so, i.e., to pay tribute to Lincoln for having signed the federal legislation giving Gallaudet University, a university for the deaf, the authority to grant college degrees.
The National Geographic Society's publication, "Pinpointing the Past in Washington, D.C." states that Daniel Chester French had a son who was deaf and the sculptor was familiar with sign language.
Piccirilli Brothers http://exquisites.org/exquisite-family/Piccirilli-Brothers-001.html
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