The bronze statue in Cambridge, England is 13 feet tall. The figure wears academic robes and a horned hat. It doesn't exactly have a face, as its head appears to be wrapped in twisted cloth.
Who is this statue titled “The Don” said to depict? It's, um, Prince Philip. As expected, the plaque below the sculpture reads: “His Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, 1977-2011.”
However, many people who saw the artwork did not think of Philip, who passed away in 2021. And the statue has not achieved the international acclaim of Michelangelo's David or China's Terracotta Warriors. To say the least.
When the statue was erected in 2014, Nadine Black, Cambridge City Council's public art manager, called it “probably the worst piece of work ever presented to the council”.
Earlier this month, the city council told Unix Group, which owns the Charterhouse office building in central Cambridge where the statue stands, that it must remove it by August.
In part, the order cited the statue's “harmful material effects” due to its lack of artistic merit. However, this is also because the statue was erected even though permission was not initially granted.
The 2014 disavowal said the statue's quality “must be considered questionable at best.”
Cambridge City Councilor Katie Thornbarrow said on her website: “I'm happy to see it go, but I'm disappointed that the developer will leave it there and then have city officials spend time and money trying to get it removed. My anger hasn't changed,” he said. Please leave it. ”
Unex Group did not respond to requests for comment. Its chairman, Bill Gredley, told the Times of London: This work is controversial. ”
He said the statue would be moved “to a location where it will be appreciated.”
So who is responsible for this monster, Donatello or Brancusi? Oddly enough, it's not easy to answer.
Unex Group has recognized the work of Uruguayan sculptor Pablo Atchugarry. Gredley told Cambridge University's student newspaper Varsity in 2014 that Achugarry “designed a model in marble, which we then enlarged and cast in bronze.”
However, Achugari flatly denied being the author of the work. He told the Cambridge News at the time that he was “genuinely surprised, concerned and disappointed” by what he believed to be a misrepresentation of the credit, according to Varsity's account. He added that he had never even seen the finished work.
Is it safe to call the Don the worst sculpture of modern times? There are formidable challengers.
A bust of soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo unveiled at the airport on the Spanish island of Madeira in 2017 is named after him, but it looks more like the sloth from 'The Goonies' than the handsome soccer player. was widely criticized. It was removed after more than a year.
A statue of Lucille Ball, erected in her hometown of Celoron, New York, in 2009 was nicknamed “Scary Lucy,'' whose distorted features evoked more nightmares than laughter. It was replaced by a statue with a more traditional Lucy-like face. The creator of the original work was so shaken by the uproar that he abandoned the sculpture.
However, the reputation of art often changes over time. Rodin immersed himself in all things Balzac before sculpting his author. According to the Clark Institute of Art in Williamstown, Massachusetts, “Rodin ultimately focused less on faithfully recording Balzac's physical likeness than on capturing Balzac's creativity and vitality.” .
However, the largely literal art lovers of the time could not focus on anything other than that the sculpture did not exactly resemble Balzac. A plaster version of the statue, unveiled in 1898, was despised.
As a result of this ridicule, Rodin withdrew the work and it was not cast in bronze until 1939, 22 years after his death.
Today, the building stands on Boulevard Raspail in Paris, near the intersection with Boulevard Montparnasse, a beloved city monument.
It may not come in our lifetime. But perhaps there is still time for a similar honor to be bestowed on Don or Ronaldo. perhaps.
