Prometheus Strangling the Vulture
sculptor: Jacques Lipchitz (1891 - 1973)
from the Association for Public Art website (www.associationforpublicart.org):
Moved by a sense of pity and justice, the Titan Prometheus stole fire from the gods and made a gift of it to the first humans. For this transgression, Zeus had him chained to a high rock in the Caucasus, where a giant bird of prey pecked at his vitals. He remained imprisoned there for eons until freed at last by Hercules. So runs a familiar version of the Greek myth. In Jacques Lipchitz’s version, however, Prometheus literally takes matters into his own hands. The massive bronze presents the Titan broken free of his chains, strangling the bird that has tormented him. The sculpture is directly symbolic, expressing the ongoing struggle between good and evil, humanity and intolerance.
Adapted from Public Art in Philadelphia by Penny Balkin Bach (Temple University Press, Philadelphia, 1992).
Prometheus Strangling the Vulture
sculptor: Jacques Lipchitz (1891 - 1973)
from the Association for Public Art website (www.associationforpublicart.org):
Moved by a sense of pity and justice, the Titan Prometheus stole fire from the gods and made a gift of it to the first humans. For this transgression, Zeus had him chained to a high rock in the Caucasus, where a giant bird of prey pecked at his vitals. He remained imprisoned there for eons until freed at last by Hercules. So runs a familiar version of the Greek myth. In Jacques Lipchitz’s version, however, Prometheus literally takes matters into his own hands. The massive bronze presents the Titan broken free of his chains, strangling the bird that has tormented him. The sculpture is directly symbolic, expressing the ongoing struggle between good and evil, humanity and intolerance.
Adapted from Public Art in Philadelphia by Penny Balkin Bach (Temple University Press, Philadelphia, 1992).