"... VERY BEST INSPIRATIONS OF THE PAST": THE WANAMAKER BRONZES

For more than 50 years, visitors to the Penn Museum have been welcomed by a large bronze classical statue, a copy of a work known as the Borghese Satyr, which stands near the reflecting pool in the Warden Carden. This striking figure--with the equine tail and ears characteristic of the part animal, part human mythological creature--appears caught in a dance, with crossed legs and outstretched arms. The satyr is a bronze copy of a marble statue in the Borghese Collection in Rome. The Borghese Satyr is part of a collection of more than 450 bronze reproductions given to the Museum in 1904 by the Philadelphia department store founder and philanthropist John Wanamaker (1838-1922). Here, Brownlee and Makowsky discuss the Wanamaker bronzes at Penn which are the very best inspirations of the past.