Weekend, January 14-15, 2023 – TIME TO RETURN TO ROCK CENTER, WITH THE QUIET SEASON UPON US

By admin

FROM THE ARCHIVES

WEEKEND, JANUARY  14-15,  2023


ISSUE 886

SECRETS OF THE ATLAS
AND
PROMETHEUS
SCULPTURES
AT
ROCKEFELLER CENTER

 UNTAPPED NEW YORK

I was walking thru Rockefeller Center today looking for the new McNally Jackson Independent Booksellers Store at 1 Rockefeller Plaza (48th Street between 5th an 6th Avenues).

I used to work a few blocks north and loved wandering thru the concourse to go shopping or to the subway.  In the 1980’s there were small shops and restaurants inside looking out on the ice rink.  The area was affordable for workers and I would meet my cousin who worked nearby.

There was an enormous post office underground as well as plenty of room to move around in the pre-Starbucks days. (No sign on Starbucks today).

The concourse has been completely re-designed now and though there are new eateries, many spaces are vacant.  The ceilings have been raised and it is less tunnel-like than in the 1980’s.

Enjoy your visit below and remember days gone by.  Check out the new book store that has a wonderful selection of titles.

Even if you’ve never been to Rockefeller Center, there’s a good chance that you are familiar with two of its most famous residents, Atlas and Prometheus. The two giant bronze sculptures are iconic symbols of John D. Rockefeller Jr.’s world-famous Art Deco complex. The shining gold Prometheus lounges in front of the ice skating rink in the Sunken Plaza, while Atlas kneels in front of the International Building at 630 5th Ave. While these two works of art are easily recognizable, you might now know that much about them. Let’s uncover their secrets!

In Greek mythology, Atlas and Prometheus are both Titans and the sons of Lapetus and Oceanid Asia (or Clymene). In legend, they were both punished by Zeus for sharing knowledge with humanity. Atlas shared knowledge of astronomy which was used for navigation and Prometheus gave knowledge of fire. As penance, Zeus condemned Atlas to carry the weight of the heavens on his shoulders. To punish Prometheus, Zeus nailed him to a mountain in the Caucasus and sent an eagle to forever peck at his regenerating liver. Zeus also unleashed Pandora and her box of troubles into the world.

Atlas is depicted carrying the celestial vault or an armillary sphere on his shoulders. This type of sphere depicts the location of various celestial bodies. The north-south axis of this specific sphere on his shoulders points toward the North Star’s position relative to New York City. The statue stands on one muscular leg atop a stone pedestal, whose corner faces Fifth Avenue. Behind the sculpture, you can gaze up through the sphere to the cloud-scraping top of 45 Rockefeller Plaza or to the glowing gold lobby of the International Building directly behind. Standing behind the sculpture looking out towards Fifth Avenue, the sphere frames a view of Saint Patrick’s Cathedral.

Atlas’ resemblance to the fascist Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, and more so the public’s reaction to it, have been largely exaggerated and turned into legend, though there were a few people who did note the resemblance. The New York Public Library did a deep dive into this topic and disproved the notion that New York’s Italian community protested the statue in the 1930s, as there are no reports of such demonstrations.

Instead, there are a handful of instances where individuals have pointed out the likeness. The most vocal opponent of the statue was James Montgomery Flagg, the creator of those “I Want YOU” army posters with Uncle Sam (whom Flagg modeled after himself). In an inflammatory 1943 New York Times article that outlined the findings of a self-appointed committee that determined the cultural value of New York City’s sculptures, Flagg said that Atlas’ stern face “looks too much as Mussolini thinks he looks.” Other committee members said that the statue “was nothing worthy whatsoever,” and was “bombastic and pretentious.” Atlas was one of many sculptures in the city the committee recommended be scrapped. Thankfully, the committee’s findings were not acted upon and Atlas still stands.

Photo by David Vives

The Atlas statue is appropriately large for the god-like figure and is the biggest sculpture in the entire Rockefeller Center complex. The statue itself is 15 feet tall. Combined with the pedestal, Atlas stretches up 45 feet into the air, or roughly the height of a 4-story building! The giant celestial sphere that he holds measures 21 feet in diameter.

The Atlas sculpture was a collaboration between Lee Lawrie and Rene Paul Chambellan. Chambellan’s work can be seen all over Rockefeller Center. He created the fountainhead figures that spout water in the Channel Gardens and designed many of the relief sculptures on various Rockefeller Center buildings.

Chief Experience Officer Justin Rivers holds up a photo of Leonardo Nole

Leonardo Nole (c. 1907–1998), an Italian-American lifeguard from New Rochelle, modeled for the likeness of Prometheus. Nole had previous experience posing for college art classes. He spent three months posing for the Prometheus assignment in the spring of 1933. After World War II, he became a postal worker.

The Prometheus sculpture was created by famed sculptor Paul Manship. His assistant Angelo Colombo did most of the detail work on the sculpture while Nole was posing. Henry Kreis, another assistant, sculpted the hair.

Image via Wikipedia, by Jim.henderson

The 18-foot-tall, eight-ton sculpture of Prometheus is made of cast bronze, just like his brother Atlas. They look very different however because Prometheus is covered in shining gold leaf. Since the statue is so large, it takes nearly a pound of gold leaf to cover it.

The gold leafing has been restored multiple times since the statue originally debuted in the 1930s. Fritz Klueber, a German craftsman and specialist in gold leafing who worked on the restoration of the statue in 1974 told The New York Times that “the statue of Prometheus is rather unique because gold leafing on bronze is rare.”

Prometheus was greeted by a lot of criticism when he debuted, mostly because he is rather awkwardly posed. Some suggested that the Titan looks as if he is about to leap into the soup plates of restaurant patrons or alternatively, that he had just fallen from the top of the RCA Building.

The sculpture’s placement in a sunken plaza below a 70-story building presented significant problems. Manship himself lamented the fact that he didn’t have more time to study the placement. The fact that Prometheus is not overwhelmed by the towering architecture that surrounds it is a considerable tribute to the decorative merit of the bronze sculpture.

PHOTO OF THE DAY

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Text by Judith Berdy
Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS
Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website
Edited by Melanie Colter and Deborah Dorff

All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated

UNTAPPED NEW YORK

THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.

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