San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1892-12-09
A PENN STATUE.
The Figure on Ph'IadeIphia's Pub
lie Building Will be 30 Feet


lie Building Will be 30 Feet
High.
Phil adelphia Telegraph.
The great statue of William Penn
in bronze which is to surmount the
tall tower of the Public building Is
now on exhibition in the court yard
of that structure. It Is an image that
can only be- described as colossal;
there is no word recognized by scuIp-
tors indicating larger proportions;
but 1t Is, in fact. much larger
than any colossal figure heretofore
known and word falls to convey any
adequate idea of Its size. 1t is actus
ally SO feet in height and of cores.
pondIng bulk. Some idea OF its mag.
nitude may be gained from the state
ment that a tall man may stand on
top of one of the feet-as he may read
lily do, or lie down on it, either, for
that matter-and by stretching his
full length can touch the knee cap.
A good big family party could eat
their Thanksgiving dinner comfort
ably on top of the hat, and the brim
thereof would afford a good track for
the boys TO race their wheels on.
This Brobdignagian figure, big
as it is is none too big for
the place it is intended to
occupy on the summit OF the tower.
AS the crown OF the hat above men,
toned will be 573 feet straight up in
the air, and as the spectator will have
to stand fuliy 1000 feet from the base
of the tower in order to see the whole
figure, it follows that the effige of the
Protector will only be seen at the dis
lance of about an eighth OF mile,
after it has been put in place. AT
that distance a figure less than six
times the ordinary height of man
could hardly be distinguished with
outa spyglass. ,
This brings up the often mooted
question whether it was wisely de-
cided TO crown this phenomenal
high tower with any figure at al |,
much less a figure purporting to be q
portrait. For all representative pur.
poses the statue is practically nearly
as effectually hidden an eighth OF a
mile up in the sky as if buried the
same distance under ground. As to
it's bearing any resemblance, ideal or
actual, to William Penn, nobody Will
ever know whether it does or not, as
the details of modelling, on which
likeness depends, will be- forever in-
visible.
This consideration suggests some OF
the difficulties with which the sculp-
tor has had to contend in designing
this figure. 1t is the work OF Mr..
Alexander Min Calder, and while 1t
is impossible to criticise as an artistic
production a figure designed to be
viewed from an utterly inartistic
standpoint, IL is no more than just TO
say of the statue in the bronze, as we
have already said of 1t in the clay,
that the sculptor has accomplished as
good results as could De hoped for
under the circumstances. He has
had to regard his planes and surfaces
as projected, for the most part, per-
pendicularly upward, and his shsd-
Ows as falling mainly perpendicularly
downward His masses must necessar-
lily be foreshortened from below, an
aspect adapted to caricature, but not
to portraiture. Mr.. Calder was
obliged to conform his design to
THESE unIo"atu cohultlone oJ shoct
force of imagination, as OF course it
it was out of his power to set the
figure up in the air an eight of mile
or so, and see how 1t would look. AS
the artist has succeeded in modelling
a statue that promises to have an air
of dignity and benignity, he and the
community are to be congratulated
on a result that must be regarded, in
view of the circumstances, as more
fortunate than could reasonably have
been expected.