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Date : 1933
Material : Painted and gilded limestone, Glass
| "Wisdom and Knowledge Shall be the Stability of thy Times"
Item 14 on 37
Building(s)
Sculpture (Bas-relief)
Area related
Midtown West Side (USA)
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| Description |  |
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Sculpted by Lee Lawrie, the imposing low-relief panel, Wisdom, was insalled over the entrance to the main building of Rockefeller Center,30 Rockefeller Plaza. The 37 foot high art deco icon can be clearly seen from Fifth Avenue. In addition to scale, Lawrie relied on mass, color, gilding and two different materials to create his piece.
The top piece, 22'x14' of Indiana limestone, depicts a figure set at an angular slant, thrusting out towards the spectator from a vast, swelling of clouds around his naked body. With furrowed brown and golden rays crowning his head, his left hand shoves away the "clouds of ignorance" and his right clutches a golden compass theat measures the cosmic forces swirling in 15'x55 glass screen below. His long beard, symbolizing experience, is blown back by sheer force of that which surrounds him. Below the figure reads the Biblical passage,"Wisdom and Knowledge Shall Be the Stability of Thy Times" (Isaiah 33:6).
Wisdom is flanked on either side by Sound and Light, and was the first exterior piece in the Center to be painted and gilded.
German-born Lee Lawrie was well known as an architectural sculptor. His work can be found at St. Thomas Church and throughout Rockefeller Center: Winged Mercury and Heraldic Lions at the British Empire Building; Fleur-de-lis and Seeds of Good Citizenship at La Maison Française; Progress at One Rockefeller Plaza; The Story of Mankind, Saint Francis of Assisi, Swords into Plowshares, Columbia Greeting a Woman, Boatman, Fourteen coats of Arms, Corncucopia of Plenty, and most famously, Atlas at the International building.
Rockefeller Center was designated a landmark by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1985.
In 2007, Rockefeller Center was ranked #56 on the AIA 150 America's Favorite Architecture list.
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