Prometheus

Paul Manship, Prometheus, n.d., cast posthumously, bronze, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase, 1971.16
Copied Paul Manship, Prometheus, n.d., cast posthumously, bronze, 6 1⁄2 x 5 3⁄4 x 3 1⁄2 in. (16.6 x 14.6 x 8.9 cm.), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase, 1971.16

Artwork Details

Title
Prometheus
Artist
Date
n.d., cast posthumously
Location
Dimensions
6 1⁄2 x 5 3⁄4 x 3 1⁄2 in. (16.6 x 14.6 x 8.9 cm.)
Credit Line
Museum purchase
Mediums
Mediums Description
bronze
Classifications
Subjects
  • Mythology — classical — Prometheus
  • Figure male — nude
Object Number
1971.16
Linked Open Data
https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/1971.16

Artwork Description

These small studies were for Paul Manship's most famous sculpture, the Prometheus Fountain in Rockefeller Center. Prometheus, the creator of mankind, stole fire from Olympus and taught man how to use it. This angered Zeus, who sentenced Prometheus to be chained to a mountain where a vulture devoured his liver every day. Manship's sculpture originally showed the colossal Prometheus handing the gift of fire to a man and woman. The entire group was installed in the central plaza of Rockefeller Center in 1934, but after a year, Manship felt that the male and female figures were "out of proportion" and they were removed. Fifty years later they were reinstated on the ground floor, in the courtyard adjacent to the central plaza.