from http://www.nyc.gov/html/om/html/cityhall.html
The sculpture of Justice on top of the cupola on City Hall is the
third such sculpture to stand atop this building and will be restored
as part of the City Hall Roof Restoration project. Painted to resemble
carved stone, Justice is constructed much like the Statue of Liberty,
composed of lightweight pieces of sheet copper soldered together and
supported on an internal armature. Nearby Civic Virtue on top of the
tower of the Municipal Building is also composed in a similar fashion,
but is gold-leafed, whereas the Statue of Liberty has been allowed to
take on a green patina typical of weathered copper.
Unlike the Statue of Liberty or Civic Virtue, which were the creations
of famous sculptors, the Justice atop City Hall is an example of the
skills of nineteenth-century manufacturing. Justice is a mass-produced
sculpture, fabricated by the firm of William H. Mullins studio at a
cost of $600, which made countless figures for public buildings and
expositions. The Mullins studio also custom-produced such famous
pieces as Saint-Gaudens' lovely copper Diana Weathervane that formerly
adorned the original Madison Square Garden and is now at the
Philadelphia Museum of Art.
City Hall's first sculpture of Justice was commissioned by its
architects while the building was under construction. That figure,
depicted without a blindfold, was the work of John Dixey, a sculptor
trained in London, who received $310 for his work. The first Justice
was carved of wood, and adorned the building until it was destroyed in
1858, when fireworks set off to celebrate the laying of the Atlantic
cable started a fire on the roof of City Hall. As the roof and cupola
burned, so did the statue of Justice, which dramatically crashed
through the ceiling of City Hall and into the rotunda. In May of 1860,
a new wooden Justice was installed on the rebuilt cupola. However, by
1887 the wood was so deteriorated that it was necessary to replace it. |
