In Madrid, Spain, you can find the Fountain of the Fallen Angel in the city’s Retiro Park. The Fallen Angel stands on the site of the Royal Factory of Buen Retiro, which was destroyed in 1813 during the Peninsular War (1807–1814). Both the main figure (by Ricardo Bellver) called the “Fallen Angel”, and the pedestal (by Francisco Jareo) are original works. The statue is also known as the Statue of the Fallen Angel or originally as “The Fuente del Ángel Caído.”
History of the Fountain of the Fallen Angel
The Fountain of the Fallen Angel was created in plaster by the Madrid sculptor Ricardo Bellver (1845–1924) during his third year as a pensioner at the Spanish Academy of Fine Arts in Rome in 1877.
At the National Exhibition of Fine Arts in Madrid the following year, he won the First Class Medal with the Fountain of the Fallen Angel by a margin of five votes to two.
The third and fourth stanzas of Canto I of the English poet John Milton’s Paradise Lost serve as inspiration for the sculpture, as noted in the exhibition catalog:
“For his pride he falls from heaven with all his host of rebellious angels, never to return to it. He waves his eyes around, and blasphemously fixes them on the empyrean, reflecting in them the deepest pain, the greatest dismay, the most dismal pride, and the most obstinate hatred.”
Paradise Lost, Canto I by Milton
After an evaluation by the Exhibition Jury, the government purchased the piece for 4,500 Spanish pesetas with the intention of sending it to Paris for the Universal Exhibition of 1878.
Because the Paris exhibition only allowed sculptures made of marble or bronze, preparations were made to cast the Fountain of the Fallen Angel in one of those materials. Bellver suggested Rome as the location, but the Thiébaut Frères foundry completed the project in Paris.
The Museo del Prado national museum eventually acquired the Fountain of the Fallen Angel (which did not have a fountain yet).
Benito Soriano Murillo, its director, proposed an outdoor exhibition to the General Directorate of Public Instruction in October 1879.
(… ) the statue of the Fallen Angel, for the boldness of its composition, for its original attitude, and also for the material in which it has been cast, perhaps does not produce all the desired effect, enclosed as it is in the narrow confines of a room, while placed in a public place, in the open air with more space and horizon, it would advantageously show off the merit of such a beautiful creation, serving at the same time as an ornament and thus initiating the public in the contemplation of the good models of plastic art that so powerfully contributes to its culture.
Benito Soriano
The City Council of Madrid graciously accepted the artwork as a gift to be displayed in a public area of the Spanish city. The vacant lot of the old Royal Factory of Buen Retiro in Buen Retiro Park was selected as the location for the monument.
A pedestal for Bellver’s sculpture was commissioned by the architect in charge of the Ministry of Public Works, Francisco Jareño y Alarcón, in May 1880. The pedestal had the form of a fountain, with a big basin, and was built from granite, metal, and stone. In 1885, the statue celebrated its formal opening.
A polyester resin on silicone mold reproduction of the Fountain of the Fallen Angel has been on display in the museum of the San Fernando Fine Art Royal Academy (Madrid) since the 1990s.
The Fountain of the Fallen Angel’s Design
Environment
Several structures were originally located in the space that currently serves as the Fallen Angel’s circular plaza. The hermitage of San Antonio Abad, also known as San Antón, dates back to the Habsburg era and is the first of its kind.
After its destruction, Charles III had a porcelain factory built that was modeled after the one at Capodimonte (Naples). After the factory burned down during the Spanish War of Independence (also known as the Peninsular War), the land where the Fountain of the Fallen Angel now stands was abandoned for a long time.
The Paseo del Duque Fernan Nunez, Paseo de Cuba, and Paseo del Uruguay are three of the park’s paved roadways that now merge at the Glorieta.
Fountain
The overall dimensions of the statue are around 33 x 33 x 23 feet (10 x 10 x 7 m). Bellver’s Fallen Angel alone stands at an impressive 8.7 feet (2.65 m) in height.
A circular parterre of boxwood surrounds the fountain. The granite water catchment area is octagonal in form and quite vast. The pedestal is highest in the middle. It rests on an octagonal granite foundation that slopes like a pyramid and has bronze panels on all eight of its sides.
There are three water spouts in each of these devilish faces, which depict demons holding lizards and snakes. Two additional, less steeply inclined, truncated pyramidal bodies rest on this foundation. And finally, the major sculpture, the Fallen Angel, atop the monument sits on a third, much shorter body made up of three circular stairs.
A big serpent wraps around the Fallen Angel’s torso as he rests on some rocks that serve as a foundation. Bellver’s composition of diagonal lines and expressiveness owes a great deal to the Baroque (particularly Bernini) and the Romantic (especially Michelangelo), as well as the Hellenistic (especially Laocoon and his sons).
In Madrid, at an official topographic height of 2,185 feet or “666” meters (one of the most widely recognized symbols for the Antichrist) above sea level, you’ll find the Fountain of the Fallen Angel.
This striking similarity to the so-called Number of the Demon, together with the widespread but mistaken assumption that the monument is some kind of “homage” to Lucifer, evil, or the heretical, has piqued the interest of a number of those interested in esotericism.
Averaging 666 meters above sea level is not an unusual occurrence in Spain’s capital, Madrid.
Many people think that the Fountain of the Fallen Angel is the only memorial that references the devil, yet they couldn’t be more wrong.
Tandapi (Quito, Ecuador) has a sculpture of Lucifer atop the Monument to the Traforo del Frejus, much like Turin (Italy). “El poder brutal” (the brutal power) is shown in the title of this piece. The Havana (Cuba) National Capitol also has the Statue of the Rebel Angel.
The Peter the Great Statue in Moscow is one of the highest monuments in Russia. The structure itself is 322 feet tall (98 m), while Peter’s statue alone is 59 feet tall (18 m). The Moscow government commissioned Zurab Tsereteli to build a monument to Peter the Great in 1997. Officially titled “Monument in commemoration of the 300th anniversary of the Russian Navy,” the monument is located on an artificial island created at the confluence of the Moskva River and the Vodootvodny Canal.
Well-known for his distaste for Moscow, Peter decided to relocate the country’s capital to St. Petersburg.
Design and Construction of the Peter the Great Statue
Monument to Peter the Great in Moscow.
The Peter the Great Statue is a one-of-a-kind engineering achievement. The monument’s bronze features are hinged to a stainless-steel framework that holds the monument aloft. The pedestal, which consists of the ship and a statue of Peter, was built in pieces and then attached to the lowest portion of the monument. The completed statue of Peter was directly placed on the pedestal.
The shrouds of the ship are corrosion-resistant stainless steel. They are all locked in place with a complex web of ropes that prevents them from moving at all. Inside the copper skin of the sails is a spatial metal structure to cut down on weight.
The bronze used in the Peter the Great Statue is top-notch, having undergone a rigorous process that included sandblasting, patination, and a coating of wax and varnish designed to withstand the elements. The Saltire symbol on the flags, which are meant to act as a weather vane, and the golden scroll Peter I is personally holding are both gilded objects.
Inside the Peter the Great Statue is a ladder for inspecting the structure. The iron-concrete base, which forms an artificial island on which the monument rests, is surrounded by fountains to give the impression of a ship cutting through the sea.
There is a Columbus statue in Puerto Rico with a similar style to the Peter the Great Statue, also designed by the Georgian sculptor Zurab Tsereteli. According to a popular claim, on the 500th anniversary of the Europeans’ discovery of the American continent, Tsereteli allegedly presented the Columbus statue to the United States, Spain, and Latin American nations in 1991–1992, but was rejected each time.
Therefore, he redesigned the monument into the Peter the Great Statue of today. However, Tsereteli disputes the veracity of this claim.
It is officially estimated that it cost 100 billion non-denominated rubles to set up the monument, which is almost $16.5 million at the exchange rate in 1997.
Design and construction of the structure took less than a year. The aerodynamic qualities of the monument were greatly enhanced in the wind tunnel at Moscow State University’s Institute of Mechanics. The same model statue is housed in the university’s history museum today.
Under the direction of head surveyor Valery Makhanov and head foreman Vladimir Maximov, 120 installers from the company 1st MSMU JSC “Stalmontazh” completed the erection of the Peter the Great Statue.
History of the Peter the Great Statue
The Peter the Great Statue’s aesthetic value was assessed by a public commission in 1997. And a few months before its unveiling, the commission claimed that the government and Zurab Tsereteli had “lied” about the Peter the Great Statue being a present to sailors to celebrate the 300th anniversary of the Russian Navy.
According to the commission, the anniversary was in October of the previous year. Furthermore, in 1995, the sailors had petitioned the Russian government and individually petitioned Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin to have a new monument dedicated to the anniversary in Moscow. The petition had the signature of the acting Navy Commander, Admiral Selivanov.
Lev Kerbel, an academician and Soviet artist, had sculpted the statue.
A new pedestrian bridge across the Vodootvodny Canal was constructed, and the embankment was adorned, in preparation for the monument’s September 1996 unveiling in front of Tretyakov. However, Moscow declared to the government in a separate letter that it had undertaken to settle all issues with this monument on its own, without Russia’s assistance.
Peter the Great Statue and Moskva River.
Special committees were established by the city administration and the city’s previous head architect Leonid Vavakin to look into the plans of Kerbel and Tsereteli, and they concluded that Zurab Konstantinovich Tsereteli’s concepts were beautiful and unique.
On the advice of the Government of Moscow, the city committee tasked with commemorating the Navy’s 300th anniversary visited the Tsereteli studio to learn more about the Peter the Great Statue’s design.
The celebration committee requested that Tsereteli be recommended to make changes to the design, such as depicting Peter the Great in the traditional uniform of an early 18th century Russian sailor, installing busts of outstanding naval commanders inside the monument; removing the eagle from the bowsprit, etc., but these requests were not met.
As part of the festivities commemorating Moscow’s 850th anniversary, the Peter the Great Statue was dedicated on September 5, 1997. Prior to that, on September 3 and 4, respectively, the area surrounding the renovated Cathedral of Christ the Savior and the repaired Stoleshnikov Lane with the temple near the future Marriott Aurora Hotel was revealed by Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov and President of Russia Boris Yeltsin.
Criticism Toward the Peter the Great Statue
Architects and the general public both thought the Peter the Great Statue was ugly and pointless. In 1997, “Stolitsa” magazine published a series of articles and organized a petition drive to protest the monument’s planned placement in the city. About 5,000 letters of support were sent to the magazine in response to the request, along with a sticker depicting a defaced memorial to Peter I.
According to an article that “Stolitsa” magazine published after reading and evaluating reader responses, the primary complaints about the Peter the Great Statue were its enormous size and its inappropriate location.
Even though there was a lot of interest in the monument, sociological polling in Moscow by the Public Opinion Foundation (FOM) and VCIOM in May revealed that only half of the city’s residents favored the structure. After reviewing the data, the commission conducted its own vote, with 13 members favoring maintaining the monument in its current location and 3 members opposing it.
Moscow residents were polled on their opinion of the city’s urban planning strategy as part of a large-scale sociological study that was contracted out to non-governmental organizations. Only 15% were in a low mood, 30% were upbeat, and 40% had mixed feelings.
Notably, the majority of the people (60%) who were hesitant about Moscow’s urban planning strategy openly despised the Peter the Great Statue.
After taking everything into account, it is found that Peter the Great Statue alone was 30% responsible for the poor reputation of the Moscow administration’s urban planning policies. This is a rare example of how one building can affect a whole metropolis of people.
The Peter the Great Statue is occasionally included in lists of the world’s 10 ugliest monuments. The City Council Building in Boston and the Montparnasse Tower in Paris often come on top of those lists since both seem like they belong in a nuclear bunker.
In an attempt to destroy the monument in July 1997, members of the Revolutionary Military Council planted explosives. They later claimed that the explosion was called off because of the risk of harming innocent bystanders. A different account had it that an anonymous phone call stopped the bomb from going off. From that point, visitors had been turned away from the landmark.
Five members of the “Revolutionary Military Council” were convicted guilty of terrorism and given prison terms by the Moscow City Court in 2002. In April 1997, they were accused of bombing a monument to Nicholas II (sculpted by Vyacheslav Klykov), and in the same month they were suspected of damaging a monument to Peter and a gas distribution station in the Moscow area.
The newspaper “Izvestia” reported that a proposal at the yearly exhibition “Arch Moscow” offered covering the monument in glass so that it would be invisible. In 2007, the architect Boris Bernaskoni displayed his creation at a gallery show. He proposed turning the Peter the Great Statue into a tower that would house a museum dedicated to the work of Zurab Tsereteli as well as provide a vantage point and recreational space for the people of Moscow.
The ART4.RU Museum of Contemporary Art also held an event in 2007 to raise money for the destruction of Tsereteli’s art, with contributions totaling about 100,000 rubles. Fundraising for the removal of all Zurab Tsereteli monuments in the city was advertised on a box left at the exhibition’s entrance.
The director of the museum claimed that more money was raised in contributions than was spent on admissions within a few days. Later, at the request of the sculptor’s grandson and director of the Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Vasili Tsereteli, the name “Zurab Tsereteli” was removed from the text, leaving just the inscription calling for the removal of the monuments.
Following the Moscow Mayor’s Resignation
Gallery owner Marat Gelman, who had previously condemned the Peter the Great Statue, urged its destruction on September 28, 2010—one day before Yuri Luzhkov was dismissed from office as Mayor of Moscow. At a meeting of Moscow’s administration on October 4, 2010, interim mayor Vladimir Resin proposed moving the monument.
According to the head of the Moscow Municipal Duma Commission, moving the Peter the Great Statue would cost the municipal budget 1 billion rubles ($34 million in 2010) and it was doubted that this amount would be found. Gelman said that he would obtain sponsorship money outside of the budget to facilitate the relocation of Zurab Tsereteli’s monument.
Some organizations voiced concern that the proposed relocation of the monument was motivated by populism. Another effort to mislead public opinion by relocating the monument and claiming it solves all issues with Moscow’s image.
Interestingly, St. Petersburg refused to host the statue, unlike many other cities. This is probably because the city already had a Peter I monument commemorated by Tsereteli (at a height of 41 ft; 12.6 m). There was also the already popular Peter the Great monument called “The Bronze Horseman,” erected in 1768–1782.
“Peter the Great Statue has stood and will continue to stand”, Sergey Baidakov, prefect of Moscow’s Central Administrative District, remarked during a news conference in July 2011.
Peter the Great Statue When It Comes to Culture
None of Moscow’s modern monuments has arguably become the symbol of the city. This is because they are neither part of the city’s legend nor the so-called “cultural text.” This includes the Peter the Great Statue.
Some people have seen parallels between St. Petersburg’s monument The Bronze Horseman, and the Peter the Great Statue in Moscow.
But other than that, the Peter the Great Statue has never found itself a prominent place in culture. Today, the monument is often remembered as part of the “Peter the Great Statues” in Russia.
The Motherland Calls statue is a memorial that stands 279 feet (85 m) tall in the Russian city of Volgograd, which used to be called Stalingrad. It is a monument to the Battle of Stalingrad and can be found atop Mamayev Kurgan (the word “kurgan” means “grave tumulus” and comes from ancient Turkic). Sculptor Yevgeny Vuchetich and civil engineer Nikolai Nikitin collaborated on the monument’s design. When it was unveiled in 1967, it was the tallest monument on the globe. To this day, it stands as the world’s tallest statue of a woman (without the base), Europe’s tallest statue, and the world’s second-tallest non-religious statue, after the Statue of Unity.
The Motherland Calls Statue in Numbers
The Motherland Calls statue is a female figure holding a sword and urging her children to defend the country. The total weight of the monument is 5,500 tons of concrete and 2,400 tons of metal, and it has a height of 279 feet (85 m) from the top of the base to the end of the sword. The whole monument weighs around 8,000 tons in total. The statue itself is 170 feet (52 m) tall, while the length of the sword is 108 feet (33 m).
On the trail to the Mamayev Kurgan and the Motherland Calls statue, a Red Army soldier greets the visitors. He is depicted unclothed to convey that the soldier is shielding his chest for the motherland.
Together with the Soviet War Memorial in Berlin (erected in 1949) and the Rear-Front Memorial in Magnitogorsk (erected in 1979), the Motherland Calls Statue forms a triptych (a work of art with three separate sections). All three figures depicted in the triptych are humans armed with swords.
The Woman Chosen for the Statue
The Motherland Calls’ woman figure Nina Dumbadze. (Image. VK.com)
Nina Dumbadze, the model who posed for the Motherland Calls statue, was a discus thrower. In the early 1960s, one of the memorial’s designers, Lev Maistrenko, hired her to be the statue itself. For the monument’s face, the sculptor Vuchetich reportedly used his wife, Vera.
Another Motherland Calls woman candidate Valentina Izotova. (Source: Ochevidets.ru)
In other sources, it was Valentina Izotova or Ekaterina Grebneva who the sculptures created the whole Motherland Calls monument. She was a Volgograd local. At the time of the monument’s completion, Leonid Brezhnev was in control of the Soviet Union.
The hill on which the monument stands, known as Mamayev Kurgan, is the final resting place for some 35,000 members of the Red Army. That is why the Motherland Calls statue is featured prominently on the banner and coat of arms of the Volgograd Oblast and is now widely recognized as an emblem of Russia.
The flag of Volgograd Oblast with the Motherland Calls statue. (CC0)
The Motherland Calls Statue’s History
Constructive Concept and Plan
The Battle of Stalingrad was commemorated with a memorial initiative launched in 1958 by the Council of Ministers of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. After a massive effort, all explosives and munitions were removed before the statue’s base could be set in the Mamayev Kurgan.
Soviet sculptor Ernst Neizvestny’s original concept for the monument, depicting a kneeling combatant holding a folded red flag, was ultimately scrapped. It was later conveyed that the memorial should depict a mother encouraging her children to fend off enemies by placing a sword in front of her. This concept was developed by architects Yevgeny Vuchetich and Nikolai Nikitin. (Yevgeny Vuchetich also worked on the Motherland Monument in Ukraine).
“The Departure of the Volunteers of 1792,” or “La Marseillaise”, as it is seen on the Arc de Triomphe in France. (CC0)
The inspiration for the Motherland Calls statue reportedly came from the models of earlier works. Among them is the Arc de Triomphe’s “La Marseillaise” sculpture.
The second inspirational work was the Winged Victory of Samothrace or the Nike of Samothrace. The same statue is known to have inspired another Soviet monument, the Worker and Kolkhoz Woman.
Samothrace’s Victory of Samothrace sculpture.
The Motherland Calls has also been interpreted as a contemporary representation of the Greek deity Nike or the Roman goddess Victoria.
Building and Dedication
In total, the construction of the Motherland Calls statue took 15 years, the first 8 of which were spent on planning and laying the groundwork. The construction started in May of 1959 in Stalingrad (now Volgograd). The statue was opened to the public on October 15, 1967.
Tens of thousands of Soviet residents, including the Communist Party General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev, Defense Minister Andrei Grechko, and Soviet Marshals Andrey Yeryomenko and Vasily Chuikov, showed up for the monument’s opening event.
To that point in history, the Motherland Calls statue had stood as the world’s tallest monument. It also used to be the tallest non-religious monument in the world for 51 years. That title went to the Statue of Unity in India in 2018.
Despite the existence of taller statues, the Motherland Calls is the tallest female figure in the world. Spotlights shine on the monument to highlight it at night. The statue was lit in a unique light display called “The Light of the Great Victory” on May 8, 2017, to commemorate the Great Patriotic War’s 72nd milestone of success over Nazi Germany.
The Motherland Calls statue’s arms are in an extremely complicated position from a technical perspective, with the right hand holding a sword and the left hand extending in a motion of summoning. The hollow monument was constructed using the same mix of prestressed concrete and steel wires that were used in Nikitin’s other famous Moscow landmark, the Ostankino Tower.
Because of the sculpture’s hollowness, the use of concrete and steel wires is crucial. The interior of the figure is divided into numerous compartments. The sculpture’s concrete walls are between 10 and 12 inches (25 and 30 cm) thick and are held together with steel wires.
When all the structures in the vicinity are included, the Motherland Calls statue’s footprint expands to an impressive 64 acres (26 ha). “Memory of Generations” is engraved on a pedestal that stands at the primary entryway of the statue.
The stone pedestal features figures of different eras paying tribute to the Red Army soldiers who have died. Behind it are stone pedestals inscribed with the titles of each hero-city.
Eleven figures are depicted in relief at the foot to symbolize the fatalities at the Mamayev Kurgan. Further on, you can see the shells of Nazi-bombed structures. Nearby, in an area named Heroes’ Square, are six miniature outposts, each symbolizing a different faction in the conflict.
There were 5,500 tons of concrete and 2,400 tons of metal used in the building, with the exception of the statue’s base. The weight of the sword held by the Motherland Calls is actually 14 tons (28,000 lbs).
The monument stands at a whopping 279 feet (85 m) in height. The female figure’s height is 170 feet (52 m) without the sword, and her sword measures 108 feet (33 m). The depth of the statue is 52.5 feet (16 m). The base itself occupies another 6.5 feet (2 m).
The memorial is significantly heavy at 8,000 tons (8,800 US tons). To honor the 200 days of fighting at Stalingrad, the statue’s foundation is reached via 200 stairs. A memorial to the Red Army’s armed forces stands at the base of this flight of stairs.
Restoration and Perils Posed by Nature
In the Motherland Calls statue, stainless steel was used in the initial construction of the sword, which was then adorned with titanium. Since the sword is so huge and heavy, it is frequently blown around by the wind, which causes gradual deformations in the area where the figure’s hand grips it.
The titanium plates on the sword are also shifting due to design flaws, making resounding metallic noises. Therefore, in 1972, a new sword made completely of steel was installed, and holes were drilled in the top portion of the sword to improve its wind permeability. The sword has a red light on its tip to warn aircraft.
The concrete structures of the statue were fortified in 1986. According to news reports from 2009, the Motherland Calls statue’s foundation had shifted due to fluctuating groundwater levels. The monument is supported only by its own weight and is not affixed to its foundations.
According to a source who requested anonymity, the monument had already shifted 7.9 inches (20 cm) and could not have moved any further without toppling. In 2008–2009, workers devised a plan to restore the Motherland Calls statue, and in 2010, they got to work.
In 2017, a two-billion-ruble ($35 million) repair project started that would take a full year and a half to complete. Repairs were made to over 64,500 square feet (6,000 sq. m.) of cracked concrete.
The Symbolism Behind the Motherland Calls Statue
A commemorative coin for the monument.
One of the fiercest and deadliest fights of the Battle of Stalingrad took place on the Mamayev Kurgan slope, where the monument stands today. The memorial commemorates the bravery and sacrifice of the soldiers at the pivotal Battle of Stalingrad in World War II.
There are approximately 35,000 fighters interred on the slope, according to the available data. The renowned Soviet sharpshooter Vasily Zaitsev, who killed 225 troops and commanders of the German army and their supporters in the fight, is interred in a graveyard nearby the memorial.
Motherland is part of the triptych of statues bearing the sword of war, along with the Soviet War Memorial in Berlin and the Rear-Front Memorial in Magnitogorsk.
The Motherland Calls statue stamps, coinage, and awards were all manufactured in the former Soviet states and modern-day Russia. The statue is depicted on the Volgograd Oblast’s coat of arms and banner.
The monument is widely recognized as a representation of Russia. The hill on which the monument stands was voted as one of Russia’s Seven Wonders in a 2008 competition, coming in at number three.
The Chinese land of Manchuria is home to a tiny version of the monument.
More than three million visitors a year come to see the Motherland Calls statue. Since January 31, 2008, the monument and its location have been part of a government district and they have been shielded by government regulation. The monument and its compound have been designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.
Critics Toward the Motherland Calls Statue
The Motherland Calls statue has also received a number of critical reviews. A reviewer for the field of architecture, Jonathan Meades, referred to the monument as a “kitsch sample” and said it was a poor imitation of a preexisting blueprint of style. Russian artist Vladimir Tserkovnikov warned of the statue’s imminent collapse in an open letter to Russia’s then-Minister of Culture, Vladimir Medina, in 2013. He blamed this on the fact that Nikitin made numerous errors while constructing the monument.
Motherland Calls Statue at a Glance
What is the Motherland Calls statue?
The Motherland Calls statue is a memorial located in the city of Volgograd in Russia. It is a monument to the Battle of Stalingrad, depicting a female figure holding a sword and urging her children to defend the country.
How tall is the Motherland Calls statue?
The Motherland Calls statue stands at a height of 279 feet (85 m) from the top of the base to the end of the sword. The statue itself is 170 feet (52 m) tall, while the length of the sword is 108 feet (33 m). It is the world’s tallest statue of a woman (without the base), Europe’s tallest statue, and the world’s second-tallest non-religious statue, after the Statue of Unity.
Who modeled for the Motherland Calls statue?
Nina Dumbadze, a discus thrower, is the woman who modeled for the Motherland Calls statue. However, some sources suggest that it could have been Valentina Izotova or Ekaterina Grebneva.
How long did it take to build the Motherland Calls statue?
The construction of the Motherland Calls statue took 15 years, with the first 8 years spent on planning and laying the groundwork. The construction started in May of 1959 in Stalingrad (now Volgograd), and the statue was opened to the public on October 15, 1967.
The Guanyin of Nanshan is a statue of the goddess of mercy. It is in the Nanshan Temple in Sanya, which is in the province of Hainan in the People’s Republic of China. Hainan is an island province in China, and the Guanyin of Nanshan is a 354 feet (108 meters) tall Buddhist statue. As of 2023, it is the world’s 14th tallest statue. It took six years to construct the statue, and it was finally opened on February 7th, 2005. Among the tallest 148 statues, China is home to 32 of them, and many are Buddhist statues. The Guanyin of Nanshan is a statue of the bodhisattva Guanyin.
The Significance of the Guanyin of Nanshan
The 354-foot-tall Guanyin of Nanshan statue in China represents the bodhisattva Guanyin. Guanyin is the goddess (“bodhisattva”) of mercy and the protector of children. Depending on the culture, this deity may be portrayed either as a man or a woman. She is revered as the sea goddess and a sign of elegance, wit, and good fortune.
“Bodhisattva” is a person who is progressing along the road to enlightenment (“bodhi”). Guanyin is the Chinese form of the Buddhist deity Avalokiteśvara. It is short for Guanshiyin which means “[the one who] perceives the sounds of the world”.
Today, the monument attracts 15,000 tourists every day. On April 24, 2005, 108 monks traveled from Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macao, and China to attend the enshrinement of the monument alongside tens of thousands of pilgrims.
The Meaning of the Guanyin of Nanshan Statue
Objects
The Guanyin of Nanshan has three faces, and they overlook east, west, and north at the same time. The first face, called “aspect”, is holding a sutra, symbolizing wisdom, while the second aspect is holding a lotus, symbolizing peace, and the third aspect is holding a rosary, symbolizing compassion.
The wisdom aspect faces inland, while the compassion and peace aspects face the South China Sea. The compassion side also looks partly toward Taiwan.
The three statues represent Guanyin offering her blessing and protection to China and the rest of the globe from both the land and water sides.
Gestures
The gestures of the three representations are different. The first wisdom aspect gestures Vitarka Mudra (“mudra of discussion”) with her right hand, which symbolizes discussion and the passing on of Buddhist doctrine.
The second compassion figure has her arms lowered and her hands closed which symbolizes a period of time shortly after Buddha attained insight by standing in front of a bodhi tree for seven days without moving an eye.
The third peace figure displays Pang Ham Yati which looks like a “stop” gesture. It’s a metaphor for Buddha making peace with her relatives.
The Guanyin of Nanshan’s Design
The Guanyin of Nanshan stands on a lotus platform. Some Buddhists think that when one of their followers dies, Guanyin places them in the center of a lotus.
The entire statue is known as the “Guanyin scenic area.” The statue is divided into several sections, such as the main body of Guanyin, the lotus platform, and a carved base with an entrance at the bottom.
The Guanyin of Nanshan is exactly 354 feet (108 meters) tall, and it cost around $97 million (800 million RMB) to build the statue. The monument stands on a 98.5-foot (30 m)-tall pedestal, and the body of the Buddha alone measures 256 feet (78 m).
The statue is adorned with over 220 pounds (100 kg) of gold, over 120 carats of South African diamonds, thousands of rubies, sapphires, emeralds, coral, turquoise, and pearls, and over 220 pounds (100 kg) of jade.
The statue is made of mixed metals coated with a fluoropolymer surface coating that is resistant to corrosion from salt. The Guanyin of Nanshan weighs about 2,600 tons and is supported by a layer of stones under the artificial island.
The statue is located in the Nanshan Cultural Tourism Area in Hainan Province. It is a significant cultural and religious landmark in this large Buddhist province. The area is located 25 miles (40 km) west of Sanya.
Timeline of the Guanyin of Nanshan
The inside of the Guanyin of Nanshan’s pedestal.
On August 10th, 1999, the construction of the Guanyin of Nanshan project officially began.
On November 29th, 2000, the construction of the Guanyin Island began as the base of the statue.
In November 2000, the Nanshan Temple was completed.
In February 2003, the steel structure of the Guanyin of Nanshan began construction.
On February 7th, 2005, the Guanyin of Nanshan Statue was opened at a ceremony.
The inscription on the statue reads “Guanyin of Nanshan,” which was written by the Chinese calligrapher Zhao Puchu. This monument was built with help from the National Religious Affairs Bureau and the People’s Government of the Hainan region.
Guanyin of Nanshan at a Glance
Who is Guanyin of Nanshan?
Guanyin of Nanshan is a statue of the bodhisattva Guanyin, the goddess of mercy and protector of children. It is a 354 feet (108 meters) tall Buddhist statue located in the Nanshan Temple in Sanya, Hainan Province, China.
What is the significance of the Guanyin of Nanshan statue?
The Guanyin of Nanshan statue represents Guanyin, the Chinese form of the Buddhist deity Avalokiteśvara, who is revered as the sea goddess and a sign of elegance, wit, and good fortune. The statue is considered to be a significant cultural and religious landmark in Hainan Province and attracts about 15,000 tourists every month.
What is the design of the Guanyin of Nanshan statue?
The Guanyin of Nanshan statue has three faces that overlook east, west, and north at the same time. The first face is holding a sutra, symbolizing wisdom, the second aspect is holding a lotus, symbolizing peace, and the third aspect is holding a rosary, symbolizing compassion. The statue is adorned with over 220 pounds (100 kg) of gold, thousands of rubies, sapphires, emeralds, coral, turquoise, and pearls, and over 220 pounds (100 kg) of jade. It is made of mixed metals coated with a fluoropolymer surface coating that is resistant to corrosion from salt, weighs about 2,600 tons, and is supported by a layer of stones under the artificial island.
At 380 feet (116 meters), the Laykyun Sekkya Buddha is the third tallest statue in the world. Beneath the magnificent monument is a platform towering 79 feet (23 meters) in height. The Laykyun Sekkya is located in Myanmar in a village called Khatakan Taung near the town of Monywa. The statue is also known as Monywa Buddha. The building process started in 1996 and ended 12 years later on February 21, 2008, with a completion ceremony. Myanmar’s Chief Abbot Ven carried out the construction process. During its initial construction, it was the tallest statue in the world. Today, it is widely regarded as one of Myanmar’s top tourism destinations.
The Design of the Monument
The Laykyun Sekkya (back), along with the Reclining Buddha Statue (middle), and Aung Sekkya Pagoda (front). (Image: McKay Savage)
The base has two levels. The lower, hexagonal one is shaped like a step pyramid with rounded edges and a flat top, and the upper, circular one is where the Buddha statue is placed.
The statue and its base are both primarily golden. Inside the statue’s many levels is an exhibit dedicated to Buddhist artistic expression. However, the main statue is mostly hollow.
This towering Buddha is clad in gold. The many squares on the statue are actually the windows on each floor. An elevator can be found inside the monument for ease of movement.
It took so long to construct the monument because it was funded completely by donations from local residents which also shows how devout the people of Myanmar are.
The Laykyun Sekkya statue is located in the Buddhist religious complex called Maha Bodhi Tahtaung which was founded in 1960. The height of the statue is 381 feet (116 m), the height of the throne is 75 feet (23 m) and the height of all stairs is 109 feet (33 m).
This brings the total height of the Laykyun Sekkya monument to 612 feet (185 m).
Laykyun Sekkya is around 33 floors high, and it is located 7.50 miles (12.07 km) from Monywa town. Monywa is centrally located in the Chindwin Valley, 85 miles (136 km) northwest of Mandalay city.
When it was completed in 2008, it was the second-tallest statue and monument of Buddha, only to be surpassed by Spring Temple Buddha a few months later.
Today, the Laykyun Sekkya is the third tallest statue in the world after the Spring Temple Buddha (420 ft; 128 meters) in China and the Statue of Unity (597 ft; 182 m) in India. It is also the second tallest Buddha statue. Among other tallest statues, the Laykyun Sekkya is a relatively lesser-known one.
The Meaning of the Laykyun Sekkya Statue
The Laykyun Sekkya monument portrays the setting of Mahaparinirvana (attainment of the state of eternal bliss) with an upright Gautama Buddha positioned next to a reclining Gautama Buddha. The word “Gotama,” from which “Gautama” is derived, means “one who has the most light.”
Unlike most Buddhas, Laykyun Sekkya does not express a hand gesture that usually conveys a meaning.
The Monuments Around the Laykyun Sekkya
In the front of the statue stands the giant Reclining Buddha Statue with a length of 333 ft (101 m). Next to the two statues is a replica of the Shwedagon Pagoda. It is called Aung Sekkya Pagoda and has a height of 226 ft (69 m).
Below Laykyun Sekkya Buddha, you’ll also find thousands of normal-sized Buddha sculptures.
Laykyun Sekkya Statue at a Glance
Where is the Laykyun Sekkya Buddha located?
The Laykyun Sekkya Buddha is located in Myanmar, in a village called Khatakan Taung near the town of Monywa. It is part of the Buddhist religious complex called Maha Bodhi Tahtaung.
What is the height of the Laykyun Sekkya Buddha statue?
The Laykyun Sekkya statue is 381 feet (116 m) tall, with a total height of 612 feet (185 m) when including the throne and stairs. It is the third tallest statue in the world, after the Spring Temple Buddha (420 ft; 128 meters) in China and the Statue of Unity (597 ft; 182 m) in India. Among other tallest statues, the Laykyun Sekkya is a relatively lesser-known one.
What is the meaning behind the Laykyun Sekkya statue and what other monuments are located around it?
The Laykyun Sekkya monument portrays the setting of Mahaparinirvana with an upright Gautama Buddha positioned next to a reclining Gautama Buddha. The statue is also known as Monywa Buddha. In front of the statue stands the giant Reclining Buddha Statue, with a length of 333 ft (101 m). Next to the two statues is a replica of the Shwedagon Pagoda called Aung Sekkya Pagoda, which has a height of 226 ft (69 m). Below the Laykyun Sekkya Buddha, there are also thousands of normal-sized Buddha sculptures.
The colossal sculpture “Worker and Kolkhoz Woman” is a benchmark of communist realism and an emblem of the Soviet period. The 197-foot (60 m) tall sculpture depicts a male and female figure holding a sickle and a hammer above their heads as they face forward. Boris Iofan, the architect, came up with the overall plan and arrangement of the Worker and Kolkhoz Woman monument, while Vera Mukhina crafted the actual statue in a plastic version.
The monument was built in Moscow for the USSR exhibit at the 1937 International Exposition of Art and Technology in Modern Life in Paris, disassembled into 65 pieces for transit, and then rebuilt in France. Because of the stainless chrome-nickel steel used in the statue and the 0.5-millimeter-thick slabs used to cover the interior frame, the Worker and Kolkhoz Woman memorial weighed in at over 63 tons.
The Eiffel Tower and the Soviet Pavilion, 1937. Image: Wikimedia.
After the exhibition ended, the Worker and Kolkhoz Woman (Rabóchiy i Kolkhóznitsa) was shipped to Moscow, where it stood on a 33 feet (10 m) pavilion at the exhibition’s northern entryway. Ironically enough, the sculpture stood on a 111 feet (34 m) tall pavilion when it was housed in Paris.
The frame and covering had to be substantially modified from the initial project as a result of negligent disassembly and transit. The Worker and Kolkhoz Woman sculpture suffered substantial corrosion and environmental damage from 1938 until 2003, during which time it was barely repaired.
Iofan’s initial pedestal design for the Paris exhibition was replicated, and the sculpture was repaired and mounted on it between 2003 and 2009. At the socle or base of the Worker and Kolkhoz Woman is where you’ll also find the Vera Mukhina Museum.
After the restoration was done, the statue alone stood at 80 ft (24.5 m), the pavilion at 113 ft (34.5 m), and the overall weight of the monument was 185 tons. This was a more than twofold increase over the initial weight.
The Development of the Worker and Kolkhoz Woman Project
The Worker and Kolkhoz Woman was meant to be part of the décor for the Soviet Pavilion at the 1937 World Expo in Paris. Following an all-union building challenge, the finalist plans for the Worker and Kolkhoz Woman were created by six separate teams, and among them was Boris Iofan’s team which included M. V. Adrianov, A. I. Baranovsky, S. A. Gelfeld, Y. P. Zinkevich, Dmitri Iofan, Y. F. Popov and V. B. Polyatsky.
The committee found that the pavilions in the designs by Shchusev and Alabyan-Chechulin (other finalists) were not detailed enough, while the pavilions in the designs by Ginzburg and Melnikov (another finalist) were too novel. Shchuko-Gelfreich (one of the finalist groups) and Boris Iofan’s proposals were the most workable and philosophically sound.
In the end, the judges favored Iofan’s project because it was the most sparsely decorated and had “a touch of advertising” (something that often sets apart Western country pavilions).
The Worker and Kolkhoz Woman above the Vera Mukhina Museum in Moscow today. (Image: AlexanderKonov, CC BY-SA 3.0)
…Very soon an image was born … of a young man and a girl, embodying the masters of the Soviet land—the working class and the collective farm peasantry. They are raising high the emblem of the Soviet country, the hammer, and sickle”.
Boris Iofan
Together with the new pavilion (113 ft; 34.5 m), the Worker and Kolkhoz Woman statue (80 ft; 24.5 m) was to reach a total height of 197 ft or 60 m.
The Inspirations Behind the Worker and Kolkhoz Woman Statue
The Roman copy of “Harmodius and Aristogeiton”. (Image: Miguel)
An ancient monument of Harmodius and Aristogeiton from 477/476 BC served as the inspiration for Worker and Kolkhoz Woman. This is according to the recollections of Boris Iofan’s assistant, who worked with the architect for forty years.
Kritios and Nesiotes, two ancient Greek artists, created statues of Harmodius and Aristogiton standing shoulder to shoulder, blades aloft. Iofan stated that the 1917 October Revolution triumph was the result of a coordinated effort by farmers and factory employees. As a result, he envisioned a two-figure composition for the monument.
The second statue from which Boris Iofan took inspiration for the Worker and Kolkhoz Woman was the Winged Victory of Samothrace, a Greek sculpture from the Hellenistic era, dating to the early 2nd century BC. The architect explained this inspiration as the embodiment of the winged victory of 1917.
The “Winged Victory of Samothrace” sculpture in the Louvre. The sculpture was an inspiration for the Worker and Kolkhoz Woman.
In a second competition, five artists, including Vyacheslav Andreev, Boris Korolev, Matvey Manizer, Vera Mukhina, and Ivan Shadr, competed to make the final versions of Worker and Kolkhoz Woman. The committee, led by Vyacheslav Molotov (former Premier of the Soviet Union), spent a lot of time studying Mukhina’s design, the future sculptor of the statue.
The People’s Commissariat said that the communal farmer had unsightly “bags” under her eyes and ordered that they be taken away. He also requested that the hammer held by the worker in his left hand be emphasized more prominently.
The man and woman depicted in the Worker and Kolkhoz Woman were initially depicted without clothing to reflect the old Greek style, but the commission requested that this be changed. An ornamental cloth stretched over their bodies and served as the composition’s unifying element, linking the sculpture to the pavilion.
One of the designers of the Soviet pavilion at the Paris show, Konstantin Rozhdestvensky, later recalled a conversation between the Commissariat and Vera Mukhina:
Why the scarf? This is not a dancer, not a skater! …Mukhina calmly replied:
It is necessary for balance. She meant, of course, plastic, figurative balance, and the horizontals she so badly needed. But the chairman, not very sophisticated in art, understood her “balance” in a purely physical sense and said:
Well, if it is technically necessary, then another matter…
“Worker And Collective Farmer” by N.V. Voronov, 1990. page 156.
On November 11, 1936, Vera Mukhina’s new plan was given the go-ahead to be put into action.
Meaning and Artistic Value of the Monument
Along with “The Motherland Calls” and the “Soviet War Memorial,” the memorial to the Worker and Kolkhoz Woman is often cited as one of the most important Soviet colossuses that best captured the movement of the 20th century.
Mukhina referred to her Worker and Kolkhoz Woman as “an unstoppable impulse,” and she frequently stressed the contrast between her vision of the sculpture and Boris Iofan’s:
When I received the design for the pavilion, I felt at once that the group must express, above all, not the solemn nature of the figures but the dynamics of our era, the creative impulse that I see everywhere in our country and that is so dear to me. … we must transmit the ideals of our worldview, the image of a man of free thought and free labor; we must convey all the romanticism and creative fervor of our days.
By Vera Mukhina, in the 1938 issue of The Architects’ Journal.
According to the art historians of the Kommersant newspaper of 1989:
“The Worker and Kolkhoz Woman” is a continuation of the pictorial tradition associated with the cult of democratic statehood, which emerged in the forms of neoclassicism in France after the revolution (in “Oath of the Horatii,” Jacques Louis David repeats the poses of the same “tyrant-fighters”). Perhaps the most striking expression of this cult is the Statue of Liberty on the ocean gate [New York Harbor] in the United States, made again by the Frenchman Auguste Bartholdi. Vera Mukhina, for her part, studied under the Frenchman Antoine Bourdelle, Rodin’s assistant and author of numerous allegorical monuments to the glory of the Republic.
Like the Bronze Horseman statue of Peter the Great and the Monument to Minin and Pozharsky, where a symbolic gesture also referred to the destiny of Russia, the open broad palm of the male worker’s hand in the Worker and Kolkhoz Woman statue represented the power of the working people over the state.
The collective farmer (Kolkhoz) woman in the statue is the embodiment of the 1930s female stereotype: short hair, a muscular build, and no scarf over her head. She is not dressed in working clothes; rather, she wears urban sundresses like the sculpture Mukhina did at the time.
The statue reflects the sexism of collectivization-era visual propaganda, in which a communal farmer’s wife was meant to symbolize the period’s powerful and fruitful inception.
Who Are the Persons in the Sculpture?
18-year-old Anna Ivanovna Bogoyavlenskaya, whom sculptors Nikolai Andreev and Vera Mukhina encountered by chance while strolling through a park, served as the Worker and Kolkhoz Woman’s female model. The girl, who at the time was a telephonist for the NKVD, was the reflection of a model sportswoman, a Komsomol girl, and attractiveness.
The models used for the male figure of the sculpture included former ballet dancer Igor Basenko for the body and metro builder Sergey Kasner for the visage, both of whom Mukhina scouted at the Athletes Parade, a health and fitness exhibition.
One unorthodox approach the artist took was to leave the figures’ lips slightly open, giving the impression that they were chanting or screaming. The scarf, the hands, and the creases in the clothing all added horizontality, which helped to temper the verticality of the pavilion’s design.
The technical and economic achievements of the early twentieth century were reflected in the sculpture as well. In 1937, the hammer and sickle held by the sculpture’s protagonists were mainly understood to be symbols of free and tranquil work.
Mukhina stressed that the purpose of the plastic used in the monument was to convey the concept and atmosphere of the arrangement, rather than the things the figurines were holding.
Production and Setting Up of the Worker and Kolkhoz Woman
The monument’s primary frame was fabricated at the Stalmost factory in Moscow, while the exterior casing was finished at a prototype plant of a research institute on machines and metalworking led by Professor Pyotr Nikolayevich Lvov. He proposed using stainless chrome-nickel steel for the Worker and Kolkhoz Woman, despite early misgivings from Mukhina and the rest of the crew.
Since the memorial needed to be brighter than the eagle on the German pavilion and the Eiffel Tower on the French pavilion, the fact that steel reflects light better than metal and copper was the deciding factor. Contact spot welding, developed by Lvov in the 1930s, has been widely adopted for aircraft coatings ever since.
In order to successfully put together the Worker and Kolkhoz Woman, this technology was chosen over the more commonplace technique of connecting bolts at the time.
Four gypsum models, the largest of which measured 95 cm, were available to the crew before they began their work. There were a total of 160 people employed during construction.
The process took place in the plant’s atrium over the course of three shifts and required the use of a crane measuring 115 ft (35 m) in height and equipped with a 49 ft (15 m) pole.
The craftsmen used 5.9 inches (15 cm) of thick planks and wooden molds to create the cladding’s intricate features. The plastic components of the memorial were chiseled out from within. Project members reflected on:
It was especially difficult to work in February, when in the freezing cold one could only escape the wind inside the frame, under Kolkhoznitsa’s [the female figure’s] skirt. We warmed ourselves in the tent with a fire built in a cauldron that had been dug into the ground. The sheets of the shell were welded by hand…
The sculpture’s hands and skulls needed a different approach than the rest of the piece; they could not be hammered out using wooden molds. So, they came up with a different plan: They filled broken hardwood head blanks with clay, then removed the clay’s top layer and immersed the resulting “blanks” in steel.
The creation of the scarf was fraught with challenges, as the 98-foot (30 m) long “cloth” required being carried horizontally without any external support and weighed around five tons.
In the midst of Mukhina’s creation of this work, the factory’s head publicly criticized her, saying that her invention of a scarf could potentially damage the sculpture in high winds and that she was constantly delaying deadlines because of these changes.
In fact, the factory head claimed that, from certain perspectives, the “enemy of the people,” Leon Trotsky, could be seen in the statue.
Engineers ignored the criticism and created a framework for the scarf so that it could drift easily behind the backs of the worker and the collective farmer.
A 63-ton frame was built to hold up the sculpture of the time. Due to the use of 0.5-millimeter-thick steel slabs, the exterior casings only weighed 12 tons. The fabrication of the Worker and Kolkhoz Woman took approximately 3.5 months.
After the construction was complete, a government committee led by the People’s Commissar (Minister) for Defense, Kliment Voroshilov, toured the factory, and that same day, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin inspected the completed memorial. After that, disassembly started in earnest so that the Worker and Kolkhoz Woman could be shipped to Paris.
The Worker and Kolkhoz Woman in the 1937 Paris International Exposition
The Worker and Kolkhoz Woman at the 1937 International Exposition of Art and Technology in Modern Life in Paris, along with the German pavilion with an eagle at the left.
The memorial was disassembled into 65 parts and put into boxes wrapped with felt before being transported. The number of materials necessitated the use of 28 train wagons to carry them. The train went all over Europe, and the chief engineer had to use a thermal lance to chop off pieces of the tracks so the cars could get through a passage in Poland.
Boris Iofan encountered the train carrying the sculpture’s components in Paris. When the 541-foot (165 m) long pavilion of the Worker and Kolkhoz Woman was constructed in 11 days instead of the estimated 24 days, the installation work was finished in record time.
Because of its low cost and lack of cold and weather resistance, Gazgan marble was selected as the exterior material of the pavilion. Iofan intended for the pavilion’s exterior to be colorful with a gradual transition from dark brown to gray, and the final material was to be hardy granite. The upper sculpture was installed without considering atmospheric forces:
Pyotr Nikolayevich Lvov … was a genius designer, but he was an aviation designer… And he made it in the image and likeness of aircraft construction. Here, the man’s arm was frameless. … Like an airplane fuselage. And it was stapled like… …a flange attached to the man’s torso and a flange attached to the arm. And this was all attached to the stainless shell.
Vadim Tserkovnikov, the project leader from 2003–2009 for restoring the “Worker and Kolkhoz Woman”.
For the assembly, specialists brought a unique tower crane from Moscow, with its primary shaft supported by steel wire cables. Workers found that one of the cables had been sanded down and threatened to collapse on the statue and irreparably damage it just days before the Paris show began. They were able to quickly repair the wire and perform assembly, and additional security officers were now stationed nearby overnight for peace of mind.
On May 25, 1937, the show opened to the public. The French press called the “Worker and Kolkhoz Woman” the greatest piece of the 20th century and the epitome of the concept of “liberated labor,” and the Soviet Union exhibit was praised for its success.
French poet Louis Aragon, dramatist Romain Rolland, artists Frans Masereel and Pablo Picasso, and many others praised Mukhina’s work, calling it a “striking, modern creation, a dynamic embodiment of the future.”
Various countries released sets of collectible stamps, medals, postcards, and banners featuring the Worker and Kolkhoz Woman. Despite Mukhina’s repeated claims that the extremely short timeline prevented her from being fully pleased with the work, reviewers unanimously praised the sculpture for its emotion.
After being charged as enemies of the Soviet system, Exhibition Commissariat Ivan Mezhlauk and nearly all of the members of the working group responsible for the construction of the pavilion and the Worker and Kolkhoz Woman sculpture were executed.
The Worker and Kolkhoz Woman’s Return to Moscow
The Soviet government got an offer to sell the Worker and Kolkhoz Woman to France after the Paris exposition ended, and a fund was established to help pay for its purchase. But ultimately, it was agreed to send it back to the Soviet Union.
Due to Mukhina’s refusal to reside with a government team in Paris, she was barred from carrying out the disassembly and instead forced to stay at the home of “non-returnee” (a socialist term for emigrants) Aleksandra Ekster.
Those who were tasked with removing the Worker and Kolkhoz Woman were not engaged in its assemblage or creation, so they were unaware of the frame’s intricacies.
The experts call the procedure “barbaric” because the memorial had to be sliced into 44 pieces using a thermal lance and put onto open platforms; as a result, all but the male figure’s head and one arm were damaged during transport to Moscow.
The sculpture was dismantled and reassembled in Moscow between January and August of 1939. The exterior of the statue was now made sturdier with 2 millimeters (0.08 inches) of steel slabs. There were significant changes made from the initial version. In the end, there was a need to alter the statue’s framework by more than 50 percent.
Mukhina proposed Leninskiye Gory (the Sparrow Hills today) or Krymsky Val Street as the best possible location for the reinstallation, which sparked heated debate. She tried writing the government several times with a reasonable request, but her messages had no effect.
The statue was originally planned to be placed on the center pier of the lower end of the lock (water navigation) at the soon-to-be-built Rybinsk Hydroelectric Station. Even a blueprint for the project was published in the newspaper.
Manezhnaya Square was suggested as a substitute location because the hydropower plant was still under construction at the time. The final location ended up being in front of the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition (VSKhV). Meanwhile, in 1953, the “Mother Volga” statue was erected at the hydroelectric station.
When the Monument Fell Out of Favor
The Worker and Kolkhoz Woman statue was rushed into place on a 33-foot (10 m) tall plinth for the inauguration of the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition. Vera Mukhina criticized it as a “stump” that kills the momentum of the piece.
I can only throw up my hands helplessly because all my protests to resolve this issue have led to nothing. None of the architects raised a protest over the completely unacceptable staging of this statue, a production that destroyed the entire impulse of sculpture.
Researchers refer to this time in the Worker and Kolkhoz Woman’s history as the “degeneration of the symbol.” Because the sculpture’s emotive upward ambition was lost when it was placed on a low-height pedestal. This time period also coincides with the revival of the political system. As an emblem of authoritarian brutality and equality, the Worker and Kolkhoz Woman became targets of criticism.
For decades, Mukhina and Iofan tried to get the memorial relocated or put on a pedestal that better matched the initial plan. In 1975, the Moscow City Duma agreed to build Boris Iofan’s raised pavilion on which the sculpture would be displayed. However, the architect passed away in 1976, leaving the project unfinished.
The prospect of relocating the memorial was brought up again on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Worker and Kolkhoz Woman. One suggestion called for affixing it to the directional sign outside the Central House of Artists on Krymsky Val. The monument’s deteriorating state, however, meant that these plans were never put into action.
Corrosion had eaten away at the supporting framework, and a full frame replacement would have been necessary to move the statue. In 1997, the painter Zurab Tsereteli placed a memorial honoring Peter the Great at the same location, which is located near the Central House of Artists.
In 1998, it was determined that the situation for the Central House of Artists was dire. A collection of artists made a protest to raise awareness of the issue. By dressing up the statue in a red sundress, a blue jumpsuit, and a scarf in the colors of the Russian flag, they staged an unusual event. They then performed a rally and concert at the base of the monument.
Three days after permission was given for the event, the clothing was taken from the monument, and the deputy director responsible for the permit was abruptly fired. Because the permit was determined to contain no illegal content either. The official justification for removing the clothing was that the greater “windage” put too much strain on the framework.
Restoration of the Worker and Kolkhoz Woman
In 2003, it was decided to repair the Worker and Kolkhoz Woman, and by 2005, everything was expected to be back to normal. The city of Moscow set aside 35 million rubles for the dismantling, but just the scaffolding alone cost $5 million (roughly 140 million rubles).
Following the completion of the dismantling phase, the project was halted due to suspicions of theft; work did not restart until 2007, following numerous examinations.
The Moscow government declared a new repair competition on December 31, 2008, with a maximum contract amount of 2.395 billion rubles. One company was the sole candidate and ultimately the successful tenderer on December 31.
The company was a subsidiary of a construction company called “Inteco” owned by Elena Baturina, the wife of Moscow’s former mayor Yuri Luzhkov. It contributed a higher amount of 2.905 billion rubles (over $100 million) for the statue. The repairs weren’t finished until November 2009.
Sculptor Vadim Tserkovnikov oversaw the restoration’s conception and execution. Once the materials were manufactured by a research institute, the casting and assembly took place at the Belgorod factory “Energomash”. Due to the lack of initial paperwork and the various characteristics of new-generation materials, experts revised the computations and design of the frame. The team created special coverings and materials.
The sculpture was broken down into 40 individual pieces, photographed, and then analyzed by a machine for corrosion damage using spectrum imaging. Only 10% of the parts needed to be changed entirely; the remainder could be restored.
Simultaneously, they X-rayed over a million welds. Pigeons were able to make a home in the sculpture’s damp interior because of design defects that allowed air to leak in.
Cleaning was the second step in the reconstruction process. Exhaust gases, condensed precipitation, and avian droppings had accumulated for nearly 70 years, taking the form of stalactites in the regions of the scarf and skirt.
A non-governmental organization created a highly poisonous and pourable substance to disintegrate them. At a global showcase in Brussels, this substance was recognized with an award.
The product’s special makeup made it possible to apply it at any angle; it also prevented flow, improved adherence, and made it more than twice as resistant to damaging weather factors. In order to handle all of the sculpture’s finer features, a ton of plaster was needed. It was then coated with a second layer of insulating material.
Tserkovnikov directed the calculation and construction of a novel triple frame, which consisted of the shell’s sustaining frame, an intermediary frame, and a structural frame that linked the two. Due to the incorporation of the storm wind force into the new design, the weight of the pavilion rose by a factor of 2.5 following the reconstruction.
200 tons were the total weight of the Worker and Kolkhoz Woman. The sculpture sat atop a pavilion whose design was largely based on Iofana’s 1937 blueprint. The pavilion reached 216 feet (66 m) in length and featured a coat of arms that was originally designed for the 1937 Paris Exposition and had been carefully conserved.
On November 28, 2009, the assembly of the statue was completed using one of only three custom-built cranes in the globe, imported from Finland. On December 4, 2009, the monument opened to the public for the first time.
The removal, relocation, and refurbishment of the monument totaled 2.9 billion rubles ($100 million). Experts agreed that this figure was at least twice as high as it should be.
Vadim Tserkovnikov explained that the cost of restorating the statue itself was much lower than the cost of its “attributes,” such as the need to construct a pedestal 196 feet (60 m) in height and import a crane from Finland, which together cost several tens of millions of rubles.
Ownership Disputes Over the Statue
Tobacco manufacturer “Yava” paid Vera Mukhina’s son, Vsevolod Zamkov, in 1999 for the right to use the image of his mother’s “Worker and Kolkhoz Woman” in a marketing campaign.
Then, a law firm in Moscow offered to represent Zamkov in trademark infringement cases against several businesses, including Mosfilm Studio, Monolit clothing factory, a distillery, and others, for their use of the images of Worker and Kolkhoz Woman.
The money would be put into a fund for the sculpture’s repair. The court threw out the case because the heir’s claims were unfounded and Mukhina had legally transferred the rights to using the image of her statue.
In fact, on November 20, 1975, and August 28, 1989, respectively, the State Patent Bureau had granted trademarks that would later end on October 10, 2005, and April 5, 2009.
When the “Just Russia” socialist party tried to sue the communist CPRF party in 2007 for copyright infringement and using Mukhina’s work in propagandist materials, they were thrown out of court by the Supreme Court of Russia.
In 2009, the sculpture’s ownership was still up in the air.
The Worker and Kolkhoz Woman Museum
The Worker and Kolkhoz Woman Museum, which showcases the monument’s past through photos, models, and other artifacts, debuted in the base building on September 4, 2010. The total exhibition area was around 34,450 km2 (3,200 m2), and it was split between three floors.
After its reconstruction, the “Rabóchiy i Kolkhóznitsa” pavilion was first given to the museum organization, and then in 2017, it was added to the VDNKh’s collection. The pavilion was disassembled so that it could be “rethought” for the upcoming VDNKh museum.
The Worker and Kolkhoz Woman in Culture
The screensaver for Grigory Alexandrov’s 1947 film Springtime was a photograph of The Worker and Kolkhoz Woman. In 1948, the sculpture was adopted as the studio’s formal emblem. The plaster copy for the photograph was created by Vera Mukhina in November 1950 under a unique arrangement with the director. The statue became the property of the studio.
In 1951, Mukhina was paid 20,000 rubles for her work on the plaster model of The Worker and Kolkhoz Woman, and another 7,500 rubles for the transfer of rights to use her image in the film’s screensaver, as evidenced by papers still in existence from the Mosfilm archives.
The image of “The Worker and Kolkhoz Woman” actually appeared in films much earlier than that, such as “The Foundling” (1939), “Tanya” (1940), and the musical “Hello Moscow!” (1945). After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the statue appeared in the films “Suicide”, “Burnt by the Sun” and “Day Watch”, as well as the animated movies “Space Dogs” and “Kikoriki.”
In 1938, a stamp featuring the picture of The Worker and Kolkhoz Woman was issued as a Soviet standard postal stamp. After that, many stamp sets, such as the ones issued in 1961, 1976, and 1988, featured images of the memorial.
Stamps depicting The Worker and Kolkhoz Woman were typically the highest sellers. In 1967, the sculpture was featured on Gosbank’s jubilee series of coinage and appeared on an Albanian postage stamp from 1963.
Numerous smaller replicas of the Worker and Kolkhoz Woman statues can be found throughout Russia in places like Bikin and Verkhnyaya Pyshma.
The Worker and Kolkhoz Woman at a Glance
What is the Worker and Kolkhoz Woman monument?
The Worker and Kolkhoz Woman is a famous monument in Moscow, Russia, depicting a male and female figure holding a sickle and a hammer above their heads as they face forward. It is a benchmark of communist realism and an emblem of the Soviet period.
Who created the Worker and Kolkhoz Woman sculpture?
Boris Iofan, the architect, came up with the overall plan and arrangement of the Worker and Kolkhoz Woman monument, while Vera Mukhina crafted the actual statue in a plastic version.
What was the initial weight of the Worker and Kolkhoz Woman memorial?
The Worker and Kolkhoz Woman monument weighed in at over 63 tons.
What was the inspiration behind the Worker and Kolkhoz Woman statue?
The inspiration behind the Worker and Kolkhoz Woman statue was an ancient monument of Harmodius and Aristogeiton from 477/476 BC, as well as the Winged Victory of Samothrace, a Greek sculpture from the Hellenistic era.
Who were the models for the Worker and Kolkhoz Woman sculpture?
Anna Ivanovna Bogoyavlenskaya served as the female model, while former ballet dancer Igor Basenko and metro builder Sergey Kasner were scouted as models for the male figure.
How long did it take to create the sculpture, and how many people were involved in the construction?
The construction of the sculpture took approximately 3.5 months, and 160 people were employed during construction.
The Spring Temple Buddha is located at the Foquan Temple in Zhaocun Township, Pingdingshan City, Henan. With a total investment of 1.2 billion yuan or 140 million USD at the time, the Spring Temple Buddha stands at 420 feet or 128 meters tall. This makes it the world’s second-tallest statue and also the tallest bronze Buddha monument ever built. When it comes to Chinese tourism destinations, the Spring Temple Buddha statue is among the very best, with a 5A tourist attraction award from the government. The statue is surrounded by hills, rivers, and hot springs.
The Spring Temple Buddha statue location.
The construction of the Spring Temple Buddha began in 1997 and was finished 12 years later in 2008. On September 1, 2008, the statue was officially completed with a consecration. It is situated in the Fodushan Scenic Area.
The two pedestals of the Buddha statue were created by quarrying and rebuilding the hill on which they are currently standing. The monument marks the spot where a Buddhist temple named the Foquan Temple was built during the Tang dynasty (618–907 AD).
The giant Spring Temple Buddha took its name from the springs in the area. The springs produce 65,000 gallons (295 m3) of hot water at 147°F (64°C) every day, which is considered to have healing powers.
The Spring Temple Buddha’s History
The taller (western) Buddha of Bamiyan before and after destruction.
The construction of the Spring Temple Buddha was announced shortly after the Taliban in Afghanistan destroyed 1500-year-old Buddha monuments in 2001 at the Bamiyan heritage site. The ancient stone monuments were built in the 6th century and once stood 125 feet or 38 meters (the Eastern Buddha) and 180 feet or 55 meters (the Western Buddha) tall.
The Western Buddha or the Great Buddha was once the tallest representation of a standing Buddha in the world. The monuments were severely damaged during the Soviet-Afghan conflict in 1979 but restored later.
Starting in 1997, the Spring Temple Buddha took 12 years to build and was finished in 2008. When it was completed, it took over Japan’s 330-foot-tall (100-meter) Ushiku Daibutsu of 1993. The Grand Buddha (289 ft; 88 m) monument in Ling Shan was the tallest monument in China until this new statue was completed.
The Spring Temple Buddha’s Height
One of the largest statues in the world, Pingdingshan, Henan, China.
The Spring Temple Buddha is the second tallest statue in the world. It is about 36 feet (11 m) shorter than the Pyramid of Cheops in Egypt but 115 feet (35 m) taller than the Statue of Liberty.
The total height of the Spring Temple Buddha reaches 682 feet (208 m). However, the body length of the Buddha is actually 354 feet (108 m).
This is because the statue stands on a 20-meter-tall lotus pedestal. There are also an 82-foot (25-meter)-tall Diamond Seat and a 180-foot (55-meter)-tall Sumeru Seat beneath the statue. With the two pedestals taken into account, the height of the statue can also be measured at 502 ft (153 m).
The eyes of the Buddha are 6.2 ft (1.9 m) high and 12.9 ft (3.9 m) wide.
The hands are 62.3 ft (19 m) high, 29.5 ft (9 m) wide, and 16.4 ft (5 m) thick.
About 8.2 acres (3.3 ha) of space is taken up by the Diamond Seat, while another 13.2 acres (5.3 ha) is used for Sumeru Seat.
In this picturesque region around the Spring Temple Buddha also stands a 116-ton Bell of Good Luck, which, according to the Guinness World Records Book, is the largest bronze bell in the world that can be rung from the outside. The bell is located in the Foquan Temple which was built during the Tang dynasty (618–907 AD).
The Symbols and Meanings of the Spring Temple Buddha
The Spring Temple Buddha has a tiny reverse swastika carved into its breast. It is a symbol of good luck or spirituality widely used by many different cultures in Asia.
Mudra, which means “sign” or “seal” in Sanskrit, is the term used to describe the various hand gestures used to convey meaning in Buddha sculptures. The style of palms and hands on the Spring Temple Buddha statue represents different messages. His left palm, open and facing down, represents kindness, and his right palm, raised up and facing outward, represents the act of teaching or reassuring.
The Buddha of Spring Temple was built in a design called “Vihara Maitreya,” which represents the Buddha Maitreya in his role as a teacher.
Who is the Person in the Spring Temple Buddha?
So, who is the person represented in the Spring Temple Buddha? The Tianrui hot spring is where the Spring Temple Buddha got its name. However, the statue is dedicated to Vairocana Buddha. Vairocana (Sanskrit: “Illuminator”) Buddha is considered the highest-ranking Buddha in the Buddhist pantheon.
In Japanese, he is called Dainichi Nyorai (“Great Sun Buddha”), and in Tibetan, Rnam-snang (“Maker of Brilliant Light”). He is represented as one of the “self-born” Buddhas, including in Nepali, Tibetan, and Javanese art.
What is the Spring Temple Buddha Made of?
The gigantic Buddha statue is mainly made of steel and copper. Approximately 3,300 tons of copper, 238 pounds (108 kg) of gold, and over 15,000 tons of special steel were used in the making of the complete Buddha statue. The statue was constructed from 13,300 copper slabs and it covers an area of 121,600 square feet (11,300 sq m).
The Cost of the Statue
The Diamond Seat.
Despite the initial estimation of 55 million USD to build the Spring Temple Buddha complex and 18 million USD to build the statue alone in 2001, the temple cost around 1.2 billion yuan or 140 million USD (120 million Euros) at the time of completion in 2008.
Since then, additional adjustments have been made to the statue’s elaborately tiered foundation. In October 2008, two additional floors were added to the base.
The Chinese name of the statue, “Zhongyuan Great Buddha,” was written on the monument by the former president of the Buddhist Association of China, Master Xuecheng, and the president of the Hong Kong Buddhist Association, Master Jueguang. The words “The World’s Tallest Zhongyuan Great Buddha” were written by the founder of the Fo Guang Shan Buddhist Taiwan Monastery, Master Hsing Yun.
However, with the construction of the 597 feet (182 m)-tall Statue of Unity in 2018, the Spring Temple Buddha is no longer the tallest statue in the world. The Statue of Unity is located in Gujarat, India.
The Spring Temple Buddha at a Glance
What is the Spring Temple Buddha, and where is it located?
The Spring Temple Buddha is the world’s second-tallest statue and the tallest bronze Buddha monument ever built, located in the Foquan Temple in Zhaocun Township, Pingdingshan City, Henan. It took 12 years to build and was completed in 2008.
What is the meaning of the symbols and gestures depicted in the Spring Temple Buddha statue?
The Spring Temple Buddha has a tiny reverse swastika carved into its breast, a symbol of good luck or spirituality used by many cultures in Asia. The style of palms and hands on the statue represents different messages, with the left palm, open and facing down, representing kindness, and the right palm, raised up and facing outward, representing teaching or reassurance.
Who is the person represented in the Spring Temple Buddha?
The Spring Temple Buddha is dedicated to Vairocana Buddha, considered the highest-ranking Buddha in the Buddhist pantheon. Vairocana Buddha is represented as one of the “self-born” Buddhas in various cultures, including Nepali, Tibetan, and Japanese, where he is called Dainichi Nyorai or “Great Sun Buddha.”
