Civic Virtue front and side in Green-Wood Cemetery.
Civic Virtue Triumphant over Unrighteousness (also known simply as Civic Virtue) is a sculpture group and fountain in New York City, created by sculptor Frederick William MacMonnies and architect Thomas Hastings, and carved by the Piccirilli Brothers. The fountain was originally placed in front of New York City Hall in Manhattan, spent almost 72 years beside Queens Borough Hall in Queens. The sculpture group is now located in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn.
The Civic Virtue Triumphant over Unrighteousness provides examples of:
- Allegorical Character:
- The male figure itself is "Civic Virtue".
- The two female figures lounging by Civic Virtue represents "vice" and "corruption," being sirens who attempt to capture Civic Virtue, only to get trapped in their own nets.
- Embodiment of Vice: The two lithe female half-serpents at the bottom of the sculpture represent corruption and temptation.
- Embodiment of Virtue: The mighty man stepping atop the sirens is a representation of virtue and its
- Garden Garment: Even with the vine covering Civic Virtue's penis, the sculpture was still considered too provocative. It was was 1920's America, so this isn't all that surprising.
- The Muse: Although there is a legend that bodybuilder Charles Atlas posed for the male figure, a 1922 article identifies the model as Edward Raffo, an Italian-American bicyclist.
- Our Sirens Are Different: The sirens here are beautiful temptresses as is the norm, but they also have the distinction of having the lower bodies of snakes.
- Really Moves Around: The sculpture set was originally erected in-front of New York City Hall. Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia, who hated it for its lack of modesty (
nudity in art being less acceptable in America than Europe at the time) and had it moved to Kew Gardens, at Queens Boulevard and Union Turnpike, beside the new Borough Hall in 1941. In 2011, the statue was put up for auction on Craigslist by Former Congressman Anthony Weiner where it would eventually be purchased by Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn where it now stands. - Straw Misogynist: The choice to use a male figure to represent "Virtue" was unusual at the time. Even before its completion, the sculpture was controversial because of its treatment of the female figures. It especially didn't help that the sculpture was completed around the same time women gained the right to vote in the states. In 1972, it would later be used as a site for a feminist movement demonstration, and in 1987 Claire Shulman would propose that it be moved out of Kew Gardens for this reason.Claire Shulman: A municipal building is not an appropriate place for a statue that portrays women as evil and treacherous.
- Weapon Across the Shoulder: Civic virtue rests his sword across his bare shoulder, just to show how fearsome he is.
