America Hiram Powers Plaster, 1848-1850 89.5"x35.2"x16.9" Smithsonian American Art Museum Washington DC

As a follow up to the acclaim for his 1847 marble sculpture Greek Slave, Hiram Powers (1805-1873) conceived a statue to represent the Liberty of America. Like Greek Slave, the statue was not commissioned, originally titled "Liberty". Powers developed the image based on his prospective patrons and his strong beliefs in freedom into a broader subject: "America Triumphant as Liberty and in Unity". The surviving staute is the plaster model for marble, which was executed by Powers between 1850 and 1860. When the Civil War broke out in 1865, Powers shipped the marble version to New York for safe storage, where it was subsequently destoyed by a fire. Powers was born in Vermont, but spent his professional life in Florence Italy. He was an avid student of classical allegory and troubled for years over the symbolism that a statue of America as Liberty should promote. For example, during the statue's development, "America" crushed a manacle, a scepter, a crown, and finally chains in the marble version. Other neoclassical features include sandals, flowing draped gown, diadem, fasces (the bundled wooden rods symbolizing strength), and a wreath. The statue itself was based loosley on the Greek/Roman Venus de Milo c.150-100 BC. Her upturned fingers are a mild reference to God and religion, about which Powers expressed reservation, but ultimately executed in hopes of appeasing the US Congress who ultimately became his patron. The American Art Journal, Vol. XVIII, No.2, an article by Vivien Green Fryd, HIRAM POWERS'S AMERICA: "Triumphant as Liberty and in Unity": By extending the sculpture's symbolic personification, Powers followed the iconographic traditions for three allegories: "Libertas", "America", "America as Liberty". "Libertas" had been an ancient Roman goddess who first stood for personal freedom in realtion to manumission and later, under the Roman Empire, signified both political liberty and constitutional government... ... the personification of "America" derives from ancient Roman iconography. Coins that display female goddesses, such as Roma, Africa, and Britannica, established the precedent for representing in human guise geographical locations, a practivce revived during the sixteenth century when images of the four continents appeared on tapestries, statues, plates, and other items... ... Concurrent with the transformation of "America" and "Libertas" into a single allegory identified as :America as Liberty". Prior to and during the American Revolutionary War, these two figures had often been depicted in proximity to signify the colonies' struggle against British domination. Inevitably they combined out of expediency for this iconographic purpose. Represented sa the Indian Princess with tobacco leaf skirt and headdress, this figure also held the cap and pole associated with "Libertas" "America Triumphant as Liberty and in Unity" similarities to "Liberty Enlightening the World":     - Classical Roman form draped with flowing gown     - Sandals     - Left foot curshes chains     - Diadem with 13 features (the original American colonies - stars for Powers, windows for Bartholdi)     - Upraised arm Photos by Gary Feuerstein Return to World's Greatest Statues Return to Statue of Liberty Homepage This page maintained by Gary Feuerstein 7 December 2008