Study for Male Figure, Prometheus Fountain, Rockefeller Center

Paul Manship, Study for Male Figure, Prometheus Fountain, Rockefeller Center, modeled 1934, cast posthumously, bronze, 9 x 14 ¹⁄₂ x 4 in. (22.9 x 36.8 x 10.2 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase, 1971.13

Artwork Details

Title: Study for Male Figure, Prometheus Fountain, Rockefeller Center
Artist: Paul Manship
Date: modeled 1934, cast posthumously
Location: Smithsonian American Art Museum
/
Luce Foundation Center
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4th Floor
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49A
Dimensions: 9 x 14 ¹⁄₂ x 4 in. (22.9 x 36.8 x 10.2 cm)
Credit Line: Museum purchase
Mediums: bronze
Mediums Description: bronze
Classifications: Sculpture
Subjects: Study — sculpture model
Figure male — child — full length
Allegory
Object Number: 1971.13
Linked Open Data: https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/1971.13

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.