John Pierpont Morgan Memorial – Libra

Paul Manship, John Pierpont Morgan Memorial--Libra, 1915-1920, bronze, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the artist, 1965.16.113
Copied Paul Manship, John Pierpont Morgan Memorial--Libra, 1915-1920, bronze, 10 x 3 1⁄2 x 1⁄8 in. (25.5 x 9.0 x 0.2 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the artist, 1965.16.113

Artwork Details

Title
John Pierpont Morgan Memorial – Libra
Artist
Date
1915-1920
Location
Not on view
Dimensions
10 x 3 1⁄2 x 1⁄8 in. (25.5 x 9.0 x 0.2 cm)
Credit Line
Gift of the artist
Mediums
Mediums Description
bronze
Classifications
Subjects
  • Mythology — classical — Libra
  • Monument — memorial — Morgan
  • Figure male — elderly
Object Number
1965.16.113
Linked Open Data
https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/1965.16.113

Artwork Description

John Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913) was a prominent Gilded Age financier. When Pierpont died in 1913, Paul Manship began working on a memorial tablet commissioned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which eventually received almost forty percent of Pierpont’s collection of medieval and Renaissance art. This uniface cast represents one of the signs of the zodiac that line the sides of the Morgan tablet, which appears in the southeast wall of the museum’s vestibule. Manship intended these figures to represent the “Cycle of the Year” or the “Compass of Life.”