Gutenberg Monument
David d'Angers (1788-1856)
1840
Bronze on a granite base, with four bronze relief panels
Place Gutenberg, Strasbourg
Johannes Gensfleisch Gutenberg was born in Mainz on the River Rhine, where he is honoured by a statue executed by the Danish neo-classicist, Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770-1844). But it was in Strasbourg, between 1430 and 1440, that Gutenberg made his first attempts at printing with movable type, and here that the younger French sculptor (Pierre-Jean) David d'Angers was commissioned to prepare this monument. [continued below]
Photograph and text by Jacqueline Banerjee
[You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the photographer and (2) link your document to this URL in a Web document or cite it in a print one.]
David's figure holds out the world-famous bible for all to see, and is more dynamic but perhaps less dignified than Thorvaldsen's. The same may be said of the design for the plinth. Instead of Thorvaldsen's restrained stone carving, David's plinth features four crowded panels of bronze reliefs, telling the story of the printing press's influence on every corner of the globe.
Thorvaldsen's statue was installed in 1837, so the almost contemporaneous work of the two sculptors makes a fascinating contrast, demonstrating the swing away from neo-classicism, and perhaps also its dangers. David, who had carried out major commissions like the sculpture for the pediment of the Pantheon in Paris, was undoubtedly "the busiest and most popular of French sculptors of his day." Yet he was also criticised, and his later works were dismissed in the early twentieth century as "hurried, exaggerated and lacking in the calm and dignity which should characterize works of art" (Eaton 187, 191). However, this remark needs to be seen in the context of its times.
The Bas Reliefs
Examples from the reliefs, which all focus on the central image of the printing press:
Left: Detail of America, showing Benjamin Franklin and other signatories to the Declaration of Independence, including George Clinton, Francis Hopkinson, Charles Carroll, George Wythe, John Morton, Samuel Chase and Thomas Nelson. Other famous liberators like General Lafayette and Simon Bolivar are present too. Right: Africa, showing Wilberforce and other abolitionists bringing freedom and enlightenment to the slaves.
The printing press in Europe, showing such renowned men of letters as Erasmus, Chaucer, Milton, Molière, Rousseau, Voltaire, Kant and Schiller; the original plaster panel, which gave prominence to Martin Luther, caused an uproar (see Braun). N.B. The Asian panel is more weathered, but includes Brahmans exchanging manuscripts for books, and Chinese people reading Confucius.
References
Braun, Suzanne. Le Monument de Gutenburg (Informative French site). Web. 17 November 2010.
Eaton, D. Cady. A Handbook of Modern French Sculpture. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1918. (E-text).
Last modified 24 November 2010