Diana (Saint-Gaudens)
| Diana (second version) | |
|---|---|
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| Artist | Augustus Saint-Gaudens |
| Year | 1892-1893 |
| Type | copper sheeting |
| Dimensions | 440 cm (14.5 ft) |
| Location | Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia |
Diana – also known as Diana of the Tower – is an iconic statue by sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens. Once a famous New York City landmark, the second version stood atop the tower of Madison Square Garden from 1893 to 1925. Since 1932, it has been in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Diana was commissioned by architect Stanford White as a weathervane for the tower of Madison Square Garden, a theater-and-dining complex at 26th Street and Madison Avenue in Manhattan. He talked his friend Saint-Gaudens into creating it at no charge, and picked up the cost of materials. Model Julia "Dudie" Baird posed for the body of the statue. Its face is that of Davida Johnson Clark, Saint-Gauden's long-time model and mother of his illegitimate son Louis.
The first version – built by the W. H. Mullins Manufacturing Company in Salem, Ohio – was 18 ft (5.5 m) tall and weighed 1,800 lb (820 kg). Saint-Gaudens's design specified that the figure appear to delicately balance on its left toe atop a ball. However, the Ohio metal shop was unable to pass the rotating rod through the toe, so the design was altered and the figure instead was poised (less-gracefully) on its heel.
Diana was unveiled atop Madison Square Garden's tower on September 29, 1891. The 304-foot (92.66 m) building had been completed a year earlier, and was the second-tallest in New York City. But the addition of the statue made it the city's tallest, by 13 feet (3.96 m). The figure's billowing copper foulard (scarf) was intended to catch the wind, but the statue did not rotate smoothly because of its weight. Diana's nudity offended moral crusader and his New York Society for the Suppression of Vice. To placate Comstock and to increase the likelihood of its catching the wind, Saint-Gaudens draped the figure in cloth, but the cloth blew away.
Soon after installation, both White and Saint-Gaudens concluded that the figure was too large for the building, and decided to create a smaller, lighter replacement. Following less than a year atop the tower, the statue was removed and shipped to Chicago to be exhibited at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. New Yorker W. T. Henderson wrote a tongue-in-cheek poetic tribute – "Diana Off the Tower" – a play on both the statue's name and situation.
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