{"id":306,"date":"2018-06-13T00:00:50","date_gmt":"2018-06-13T04:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/distinction\/?p=306"},"modified":"2018-06-11T10:32:16","modified_gmt":"2018-06-11T14:32:16","slug":"top-5-favorite-statues-in-the-east-end","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/distinction\/2018\/art\/top-5-favorite-statues-in-the-east-end\/","title":{"rendered":"Top 5 favorite statues in the East End"},"content":{"rendered":"

There is no shortage of great sculpture in Pittsburgh, especially in the East End. To find out more about five of our favorites, we relied on the book \u201cDiscovering Pittsburgh\u2019s Sculpture\u201d by Marilyn Evert and Vernon Gay.<\/p>\n

Three bronze maidens are silent witnesses to the many weddings held in the Broderie Room at Phipps Conservatory. The sculptures are the work of Edmond Amateis, who created them in 1927 for a Renaissance garden planted outside Richard Beatty Mellon\u2019s Tudor-style mansion in Shadyside. Originally, they stood inside stone niches in a brick wall at the back of the garden. The 65-room mansion was demolished in 1940. A fountain that was part of the garden remains today in Mellon Park\u2019s walled garden. Richard Mellon Scaife donated the garden figures to Phipps.<\/p>\n

Scottish poet Robert Burns was a pioneer of the romantic movement in literature. In this statue outside Phipps Conservatory, sculptor John Massey Rhind shows Burns wearing knickers, a tam o\u2019shanter and standing at his plow. Rhind said he tried to make the statue \u201cas handsome as I could, for he was essentially a ladies\u2019 man.\u201d The same could be said of singer songwriter Bob Dylan, who said he was influenced by the Burns poem, \u201cMy Love is like a Red, Red Rose.\u201d Mr. Dylan\u2019s lady loves included Joan Baez and Judy Collins. The Burns statue was dedicated on a snowy, windy day in October 1914 by Andrew Carnegie.<\/p>\n

\"A <\/a>
A view of a statute created by Augustus Saint-Gaudens. The piece, known as the Christopher Lyman Magee memorial, has a drinking fountain at its base. The statute is outside the Carnegie Library in Oakland. (Nate Guidry\/Post-Gazette) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"A <\/a>
A fountain sculpted by Virgil Cantini depict men holding hands in a circle. The sculpture is at the intersection of Baum Boulevard and South Whitfield Street in East Liberty. (Nate Guidry\/Post-Gazette) <\/div> <\/div>
\"A <\/a>
A view of a statute of Edward Manning Bigelow, considered the father of Pittsburgh’s city parks. It’s by Giuseppe Moretti. The statute is outside Phipps Conservatory in Oakland. (Nate Guidry\/Post-Gazette) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"A <\/a>
A view of a statute of Scottish poet Robert Burns by sculptor John Massey Rhind outside Phipps Conservatory in Oakland. (Nate Guidry\/Post-Gazette) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Christopher <\/a>
Christopher Magee at the Pittsburgh memorial. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

This bronze and Quincy granite statue of Edward Manning Bigelow outside Phipps Conservatory was the first sculpture dedicated in Schenley Park. Italian sculptor Giuseppe Moretti captured Bigelow\u2019s modest but determined character. An engineer, director of public works and parks commissioner, Bigelow persuaded wealthy heiress Mary Schenley to donate the land for the city park that bears her name. Bigelow also played a key role in creating Highland Park. Bigelow Boulevard was named for him a few weeks after his death in 1916.<\/p>\n

Augustus Saint-Gaudens, one of the greatest sculptors to work in the Beaux-Arts style, created the Christopher Lyman Magee memorial outside the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh\u2019s main branch in Oakland. A classic political machine boss, Magee was a powerful, wealthy Republican. His Oakland home, The Maples, became the site of Magee-Womens Hospital. He donated money to establish the Pittsburgh Zoo. The memorial features a famous Shakespearean passage about the quality of mercy. <\/p>\n

Located in East Liberty near the public library, Virgil Cantini\u2019s fountain \u201cJoy of Life\u201d was created to show the value of unity. The artist was deeply affected by the political divisions and unrest that rocked America during the 1960s. This sculpture of men locking arms expresses Cantini\u2019s hope that Americans would develop a stronger sense of mutual dependence. Dedicated in 1969, the Cor-Ten steel sculpture symbolizes \u201cthe strong and the weak, the affluent and the poor, the educated and the underprivileged.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marylynne Pitz: mpitz@post-gazette.com, 412-263-1648 or on Twitter: @mpitzpg<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is no shortage of great sculpture in Pittsburgh, especially in the East End. To find out more about five of our favorites, we relied on the book \u201cDiscovering Pittsburgh\u2019s Sculpture\u201d by Marilyn Evert and Vernon Gay. Three bronze maidens are silent witnesses to the many weddings held in the Broderie Room at Phipps Conservatory.… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":308,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"coauthors":[33],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/distinction\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/30\/2018\/06\/20180425ng-Sculpture1.jpg?fit=1920%2C1390&ssl=1","wps_subtitle":"These are five of our favorite statues in the East End and what we learned about them from the book \u201cDiscovering Pittsburgh\u2019s Sculpture.\u201d ","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9EDbT-4W","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/distinction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/distinction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/distinction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/distinction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/distinction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=306"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/distinction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":316,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/distinction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306\/revisions\/316"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/distinction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/distinction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/distinction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/distinction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=306"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/distinction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}