23 Peace Monuments Based on Horses

Right click image to enlarge.

S Q U A R E

1828 - Place des Victoires-Nationaux / National Victories Square, Paris (France). With an equestrian statue of Louis XIV. Designed as a memorial to the Treaties of Nijmegen concluded in 1678-79. "In 1793, the Place was renamed, & a wooden pyramid was erected on the site of the destroyed statue. In 1810, under the rule of Napoléon Bonaparte, a nude statue of General Louis Desaix replaced the pyramid. However, following the abdication of Napoléon, the statue was taken down, & its metal was used to create a new statue of Henry IV on the nearby Pont Neuf. In 1828, the restored Bourbon king, Charles X, commissioned the current equestrian statue, which was sculpted by François Joseph Bosio. Louis XIV, dressed as a Roman emperor, sits on a proud horse rearing on its hind legs. An iron fence encircles the 12-meter-high statue."

1890 - "A Signal of Peace," Chicago, Illinois (USA). "Represents a Sioux Chief on horseback, his right hand holding a spear pointed upward in a gesture of peace." A gift of art patron Judge Lambert Tree [1832-1910]. Sculpted in France by Cyrus E. Dallin [1861-1944] and exhibited at the World's Columbian Exposition (World's Fair) in 1893.

1899 - Sieges- und Friedensdenkmal / Victory & Peace Monument near Edenkoben, Rhineland-Palatinate (Germany). "On the Werderberg [mountain]. Erected in memory of the victory in the France-Prussian War [1870/71]. Today, usually only called 'Friedensdenkmal / Peace Monument.' The Werderberg was chosen, because from there the signals of the victory over the French, which were given in Strasbourg, could be seen. The equestrian figure is a naked youth holding an olive branch in his hand & stretching it as a sign of peace...[Google translation]." /// Upper right image shows U2 concert. Click here for video "BeaU2Ful - Desire - Rock am Friedensdenkmal 2014." One of 15 peace monuments found in July 2017 by Googling "Friedensdenkmal" or "Friedensmahnmal."

May 30, 1903 - "Goddess of Victory" (statue of William Tecumseh Sherman), Central Park, New York City, New York (USA). "At the statue, which is mounted on an 11-foot-high pedestal, David McCullough exclaims, 'Isn't it great! Look at that face! It's the face of a madman! Grim and pockmarked...the very image of the horrors of war!' Sherman, celebrated & reviled for his brutal 1864 march from Atlanta to the sea, is famous for saying 'War is hell.' McCullough likes to recite the lesser known part of Sherman's speech: 'I am tired and sick of war. Its glory is all moonshine.' McCullough lingers on the word moonshine. 'And look, there's the (horse's upraised) foot that gave [sculptor] Augustus Saint-Gaudens [1848-1907] so much trouble.' But what McCullough likes best about the statue is the figure in front of Sherman, a barefooted, winged goddess of Victory. She clutches a palm branch in her left hand and reaches out with her right hand, as if leading the way for Sherman. 'She makes it great,' McCullough says, noting the contrast between war-weary Sherman & Victory's youth and beauty. 'But there is no joy, no gleam of triumph or glory in her expression. Her eyes are wide, her mouth open, as if she was under a spell.' McCullough adds, 'She was African American (a 24-year-old model from South Carolina named Hettie Anderson). No one knows that!'"

1910 - Figure of Peace, Royal Artillery Boer War Memorial, London, (England). "The main statue, a female winged figure of peace, is calming a horse representing the spirit of war. The relief on the base includes images of the army in action, but nothing about the monument refers to the devastation and horror of the Boer War in South Africa. The narrative is selective and its message is clear: the Royal Artillery brought peace to the region. The nuances of the truth are unimportant."

December 6, 1915 - Statue of Joan of Arc, Joan of Arc Park, Riverside Drive at 93nd Street, New York City, New York (USA). "The Maid of Orleans is standing in her stirrups, sword raised as if to cut away some of the summer boughs that nearly hide her from view. She is in armor and pointed west, as though the English had taken up positions across the river in New Jersey... This is the first statue of a woman -- not a female abstraction -- erected in New York, and the first by a female sculptor, Anna Vaughn Hyatt [1876-1973]... Behind nearly every speech [at the dedication] was the thought of the European war. The statue was raised -- a little late -- to commemorate the 500th anniversary of Joan’s birth in January 1412. The 600th anniversary, in a barely more peaceful world, is just around the corner. We wonder what celebrations are in store." [from a New York Times editorial, 25Aug10] Copies in Gloucester, MA, & Blois (France)?

M O N U M E N T

November 11, 1927 - Peace Monument, Battlefield Drive & Granny White Pike, Nashville, Tennessee (USA). Angel of Peace at top. Lower group depicts a youth (the united nation) reigning in two powerful horses (North & South) under a rainbow of peace. Designed by Italian Giuseppe Moretti [1857-1935] most famous for Vulcan in Birmingham, Alabama (1904). Originally dedicated on Armistice Day 1927. Rededicated in 1999 after being moved from original base which was encroached by a modern expressway. The 1927 & 1999 bases are identical with the same three inscriptions: Text #1: "The spirit of youth holds in check the contending forces that struggled here in the fierce Battle of Nashville, December 16th, 1864, sealing forever the bond of union by the blood of our heroic dead of the World War 1917-1918." Text #2 from Ralph Waldo Emerson [1803-1882]: "A monument like this, standing on such memories, having no reference to utilities, becomes a sentiment, a poet, a prophet, an orator, to every passerby." Text #3 is a poem by state librarian John Trotwood Moore [1858-1929]. Entry #934 in the "Peace Movement Directory" by James Richard Bennett (2001).

S T A T U E

1919 - Equestrian Statue of Edward VII, Edward Park, Delhi (India). Originally installed in Delhi (India) in 1919, but moved to Toronto, Ontario (Canada), in 1969. (Photo taken in Toronto.)

May 24, 1969 - Equestrian Statue of Edward VII, Queen's Park, Toronto, Ontario (Canada). Part of inscription on plaque: "Originally standing in Edward Park, Delhi, India, this statue was erected on the present site through the generous subscriptions of the citizens of this area..."

1930's - "Swords Into Plowshares," Klassen Court, Bluffton College, Bluffton, Ohio (USA). Bronze plaque by Ukranian-American Mennonite artist John Peter Klassen [1888-1975]. Depicts horse-drawn plow. Based on Issiah 2:4: "They shall beat their swords into plowshares." Photo by EWL. Klassen Clourt contains several other outdoor sculptures by John Peter Klassen. On the right is "Plowing the Steppes," an oil painting by the same artist.

1937 - Guernica, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (MNCARS), Madrid (Span). Painted by Pablo Picasso [1881-1973]. Commisisoned by the government of Spain for the Paris International Exposition. Full sized copy at the United Nations in New York City.

June 3, 1948 - Crazy Horse Memorial, Black Hills, South Dakota (USA). "Carved into a mountain, in the tradition of the Mount Rushmore National Memorial (on which Korczak Ziolkowski [1908-1982] had worked with Gutzon Borglum). The sculpture was begun by Ziolkowski in 1948. When completed, it will be 641 feet (195 m) wide and 563 feet (172 m) high." 60th anniversary was celebrated in 2008 (logo at right).

1951 - "Arts of Peace" Equestrian Statues, Arlington Memorial Bridge, Washington, DC (USA). By American sculptor James Earle Fraser [1876-1953]. "Music & Harvest" (left) is a winged Pegasus between a male figure with a bundle of wheat & a sickle & a woman with a harp. "Aspiration & Literature" (right) is another Pegasus flanked by figures holding a book & a bow. The guilded bronze statues are approximately 17 feet tall atop granite pedestals. They were commissioned in l925 & their designs approved in 1933, but the statues were not erected until after WW-II when they were cast & gilded by Italy as a gift to the USA.

1954 - Horsewoman (Monument of Peace), United Nations, New York, NY (USA). "One of the symbols of the United Nations that everybody knows is... a sculpture created by Antun Augustincic [1900-1979]. It was given as a gift to the UN and it is situated in front of the main building in New York. The basement of the monument is made of the marble from the Croatian island of Brac. The equestrian statue was cast in the city of Zagreb, capital of Croatia." // "Correction" received 18Apr11 from Valentino More in Germany: "...was a present of the Complete-Yugoslav-Nation, the Golden-Middle between the two blocks of East-West/Cold-War conflict. Since Anti-Hitler-Coalition, Yugoslavia honourable United Nation-Founding-Member. You can't change The Enduring Truth."

1955 - "Guernica," UN Headquarters, New York City, New York (USA). Full-sized tapistry version of original commisisoned by the government of Spain for the Paris International Exposition and painted in 1937 by Pablo Picasso [1881-1973]. Original is in Madrid (qv).

1958 - Statue of Simon Bolivar, Virginia Avenue, E Street & 18th Street, NW, Washington, DC (USA). "The height of the tip of the sword touching 27 feet makes this eight-ton statue technically the tallest in town. Simon Bolivar [1783-1830] liberated what are now Venezuela, Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador. Bolivia was named in his honor. Although he was hated at the time of his death, he has since become recognized and honored as the liberator of much of South America." Statue by Felix de Weldon [1906-2003] whoa lso sculpted the Iwo Jima Memorial in Arlington, Virginia.

September 1990 - Good Defeats Evil, UN Gardens near 47th Street, United Nations, New York City, New York (USA). Forty-foot metal statue of St. George brandishing a crucifix as he slays a nuclear dragon. Gift of the Soviet Union. Sculpted by Zurab Tsereteli who also made the Tear Drop memorial for 9/11 in Bayonne, New Jersey in 2006 (qv).

Upper image 1997 - "The Day the Wall Came Down," George H. Bush Presidential Library, College Station, Texas (USA). Dedicated to freedom. Features five Mustangs jumping a crumbling Berlin Wall. A copy is at the Allied Museum, near Brandenburg Gate, Berlin (Germany). Sculpted by Veryl Goodnight (who lives in San Juan National Forest in Colorado).

Lower image 1998 - "The Day the Wall Came Down," Allied Museum, near Brandenburg Gate, Berlin (Germany). Given by the US government to the German people. Dedicated to freedom. A twin of the original bronze at the George H. Bush Presidential Library in College Station, Texas (USA).

2001 - Friendship Monument, Shoreline Boulevard at Lawrence Street, Corpus Christi, Texas (USA). "Bronze sculpture of Captain Blas Maria de la Garza Falcon by artist Sherman Coleman, M.D. The Westside Business Association sponsored this statue. The statue pays tribute to Falcon, an empressario credited with founding the first Spanish settlement north of the Rio Grande, near Petronila in 1764. In 1762, Falcon was commissioned to explore the Nueces River area by Don Jose de Escandon, the Governor of Nuevo Santander, a Spanish Territory extending from the San Antonio River to the Punuco River near Vera Cruz, Mexico. He later brought the first longhorn cattle to South Texas when he established a ranch in the area."

2002 - Spirit Warriors Sculpture," Little Big Horn Battlefield National Monument, Crow Agency, Montana (USA). Iron sculpture by native artist Colleen Cutschall honoring Native Americans was placed next to the 1881 memorial (qv) after winning a "Peace Through Unity" competition. "On the memorial's walls are the names of many of the warriors involved in the battle and words of wisdom they are credited with saying. A "Spirit Gate Window" in the memorial's side looks directly at the Custer memorial on the hill in a gesture to welcome the Calvary dead into the memorial's circle."

After 2002 - Horse, Jinin Refugee Camp, Jinin (Palestine). "A very artistic entrance into a seemingly grim place. But like many images here, what you see is not necessarily all there is to the sory. The horse is made up of scraps and pieces of cars that were blown up when the Israeli army invaded April 1-11, 2002. And when you look at the right side of the horse, you are able to make out a sign that reads 'ambulance' indicating that no vehicles were off limit."

August 25, 2015 - "Cold War Horse," Arvada, Colorado USA). "The horse is dressed in a red HAZMAT suit, goggles & a respirator, and catches the eye." /// "[It was] created to acknowledge the history of Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Plant, its workers & the surrounding community. During its operation Rocky Flats manufactured parts for nuclear bombs; an estimated 70,000 plutonium triggers were produced at the plant beginning in 1952. Over the years Rocky Flats experienced many routine & accidental releases [of radioactivity] into the air, soil & water, many of which eventually became public. In 1989 the FBI raided the plant because of suspected environmental crimes. Rockwell International, who operated the plant at the time, plead guilty & was ordered to pay an $18 million fine. In 1992 the plant was closed, and remediation began on what was now an EPA superfund site. Cold War Horse was created by Jeff Gipe, whose father worked in the plant." This is "Monday's Monument" #126.