page_title: Personification
section_title: Innovation
hierarchical_section_title: Personification / Innovation
caption_attribution_description: Čeština: plastiky Obchod a Tolerance, Brno-Lužánky, součást někdejšího pomníku Josefa II. Sochy vytvořil v roce 1892 sochař Josef Břenek. English: Sculptures Trade (male) and Tolerance (female), Brno-Lužánky. Sculptures were part of the former monument of Joseph II. Now they are in Lužánky Park. The sculptures were created in 1892 by Josef Břenek.
context_page_description: Personification occurs when a thing or abstraction is represented as a person, in literature or art, as an anthropomorphic metaphor. The type of personification discussed here excludes passing literary effects such as "Shadows hold their breath", and covers cases where a personification appears as a character in literature, or a human figure in art. The technical term for this, since ancient Greece, is prosopopoeia. In the arts many things are commonly personified. These include numerous types of places, especially cities, countries and the four continents, elements of the natural world such as the months or Four Seasons, Four Elements, Four Winds, Five Senses, and abstractions such as virtues, especially the four cardinal virtues and sins, the nine Muses, or death.
  In many polytheistic early religions, deities had a strong element of personification, suggested by descriptions such as "god of". In ancient Greek religion, and the related Ancient Roman religion, this was perhaps especially strong, in particular among the minor deities.
context_section_description: The classical repertoire of virtues, seasons, cities and so forth supplied the majority of subjects until the 19th century, but some new personifications became required.  The 16th century saw the new personification of the Americas, and made the four continents an appealing new set, four figures being better suited to many contexts than three.  The 18th-century discovery of Australia was not so quickly followed by an addition to the set, if only for reasons of geometry; Australia is not included in the continents at the corners of the Albert Memorial (1860s).  This does have a set of three-figure groups representing agriculture, commerce, engineering and manufacturing, typical of the requirements for large public schemes of the period.  A rather late example is the Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House in New York City (1901-07), which has large groups for the four continents by the entrance, and 12 figures personifying seafaring nations from history high on the facade.  
  The invention of movable type printing saw Dame Imprimerie ("Lady Printing Press") introduced to the pageants of Lyons, a major printing centre, along with "Typosine", a new muse of printing.  A large gilt-bronze statue by Evelyn Beatrice Longman, something of a specialist in "allegorical" statues, was commissioned by AT&T for the top of their New York headquarters.  Since 1916 it has been titled at different times as the Genius of Telegraphy, Genius of Electricity, and since the 1930s Spirit of Communication.  Shakespeare's spirit Ariel was adopted by the sculptor Eric Gill as a personification of broadcasting, and features in his sculptures on Broadcasting House in London (opened 1932).
caption: Sculptures Trade (male) and Tolerance (female) in Brno
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