Fountain of Eternal Life [Plaster]

Fountain of Eternal Life [Plaster]

Figure sculpture, American--20th century

Fountain of Eternal Life: Peace
Arising from the Flames of War, 1964
Cleveland War Memorial, quarter scale model
Plaster original

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Marshall M. Fredericks
1991.051

The project file of this sculpture in the MFSM archives states:

"This memorial fountain is dedicated to the honor and memory of those brave men and women who gave their lives in the Second World War for the preservation of their ideals. It symbolizes man's immortal Spirit rising through the thoughts and hopes of all peoples and civilizations above the flames of war and tribulation toward Peace and Eternal Life.

It's not a literal portrayal of any individual or of any of the destructive and ugly aspects of war, rather it symbolizes the noble spirit of Mankind…It attempts to express a hopeful and inspiring thought that might be encouraging and helpful to those who are left behind.

The fountain is composed of a large granite basin in which water will continually move and spray. In the center are the sculptured portions, set in the basin rim are polished bronze plaques containing the names of over five thousand men and women who gave their lives for their country. Carved in the basin is the inscription from Psalm 36:9, 'For with Thee is the Fountain of Life; In Thy Light shall we see light.'

Four monolithic granite carvings weighing approximately ten tons each, depict the four great civilizations of the earth, geographically: Nordic, Eastern, Southern, and Western cultures. Centered within is the 10 ½ foot sculptured and filigreed bronze sphere representing the Universe as man has imagined it throughout history. Its over-all design contains symbols of Eternal Life, Spirit, and Dominion derived from ancient myths and legends. The monumental central figure, also in bronze, towers 43 feet above the basin. This figure expresses the main theme of the Fountain, namely, the spirit of mankind rising out of the encircling flames of war, pestilence, and the destructive elements of life, reaching and ascending to a new understanding of life. Man rising above death; reaching upward to his God and toward peace."

It's located at the Civic Center Mall A, Cleveland, Ohio. It was commissioned in 1945, groundbreaking was 1955, and it was dedicated on Memorial Day 1964.

Fredericks, Marshall M., 1908-1998

1955

Use of this image requires permission from the Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Museum

Sculpture

University Center (Mich.)

Center figure 96" h
Four civilizations 14" x 14" 38"

Plaster 1/4 scale

1991.051.001

Main Exhibit Gallery

03/22/1989 gifted to MFSM

The group "Gold Star Mothers" objected to the nudity of the original design, which later became "Star Dream", which held up the projects completion.



From Jennifer Lentz (Collection Documentation Intern 1991-1992)

Memo dated March 25, 1992:

"Fountain of Eternal life-- I asked Mr. Fredericks about the date of the various models at the gallery. He said they are hard to pinpoint because each was worked on over several years but he gave me the order in which they were made. First the Site Model, second the Architectural Model, third the 1/100 scale model which we don't have at the gallery, fourth the Inch-To-The-Foot Scale Model, fifth the Quarter-Scale Model."


Rebecca Unger
Eleonore Adams
Intro to Humanities 1010
July 28, 2004

Cleveland War Memorial: The Fountain of Eternal Life

On Memorial Day, 1964, a dedication ceremony of the Fountain of Eternal Life was held at the Civic Center Mall A in downtown Cleveland, Ohio. The sculpture stands as a memorial to honor those who have died in the various wars of the twentieth century and beyond. The work was commissioned in 1945 and took seventeen years to complete. Funding for the project was heavily promoted by the Cleveland Press (Ewing A4).
The sculptor, Marshall M. Fredericks, who spent much of his childhood growing up in Cleveland and graduated from the Cleveland School of Art, served in WWII, seemed an appropriate artistic choice. He not only taught for a time in Cleveland but he also studied and traveled extensively in Europe, later teaching at Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan. His commissioned work includes many fountains and sculptures worldwide (Marshall Fredericks Ondish).
The sculpture stands forty-six feet high. The figure and the sphere are modeled in bronze. The basin and four secondary sculptures are carved out of polished Norwegian emerald-pearl granite. There are many cultural symbols and relief patterns representing the cultures of the world. The overall fountain is 2,500 square feet (Ondish). A quote from Marshall Fredericks concerning the creation of the sculpture and its interpretation states: "This Figure expresses the main theme of the Fountain, namely, the spirit of mankind rising out of the encircling flames of war, pestilence, and the destructive elements of life, reaching and ascending to a new understanding of life. Man rising above death, reaching upward to his God and toward Peace" (Ondish).
I casually experience The Fountain of Eternal Life daily as I walk to or from work. The area called Mall A is well maintained and the sculpture and fountain are pleasing to my visual senses without knowledge of the sculptor's intent. The Mall invites the public to enjoy the sensory space through visual participation. The sculpture is in the round and participation can be enjoyed regardless of direction or of distance as it is very visible from the streets surrounding the Mall. As a person with an artistic nature, I am drawn to the fountain and the statue as it seems to have a positive message of eternal striping and rising above all. Approaching the memorial, I find my eyes are drawn up toward the sky by following the statue's up-reaching arm as if he is trying to touch the clouds reaching for life or peace. As my eyes return to ground level, I realize that flames are striking at the man's legs and feet as they are shooting up through the filigree globe. His feet are not consumed by the flames but are visible. I think that the representation of the flames as war and human conflict show that humanity constantly strives to rise above. However, his feet are well defined in the sculpture showing freedom or the ability for man to break free from war and conflict. The figure is a man with a strong muscular physic, which represents the emotional strength and fortitude of mankind. The fountain waters continually nip at the base of the globe where the flames shoot out. This is representative of the cleansing of conflict within man. According to one of the plaques at the fountain, "the bronze sphere symbolizes the superstitions and legends of mankind with the figure as man rising from the flames and reaching for eternal peace"(quote, Fredericks). The sphere is not solid but is a smooth filigree appearance with many different animals, birds and fowl. My interpretation of the filigree is that man's superstitions and legends, do not fill his life therefore, cannot hold him down. There are four granite three-dimensional sculptures surrounding the bronze sculpture. Each represents one of the four civilizations of the world: Nordic, Eastern, Southern and Western (Ondish). This work of art is for all peoples and about all peoples.
In conclusion, The Fountain of Eternal Life presents a perpetual service to the Cleveland community memorializing those who have lived and died in service to our country. The Memorial not only represents man's struggle to obtain peace, it reminds those who choose to participate in its presence, that man is able to rise above conflict. It is a vital reminder that has inspired surviving servicemen to insure that all Cleveland area names are honored whose lives have been lost to war. A re-dedication of this memorial is scheduled for July 23, 2004 at 11:30 AM to further honor those missed in prior wars as well as the more recent wars and conflicts (Ewing A4). For those who have not known war, The Fountain of Eternal Life represents the continual quest for peace that man wants above all to obtain.

Works Sited
Ewing, James. "5,516 vets to be honored by name." Plain Dealer 19 July 2004: A1+.
Greater Cleveland Veterans Memorial Inc. - GIVEN History and Mission. 22 July 2004.
http://www.clevelandvetsmemorial.or/GCH_History.html. .
Fredericks, Marshall M. The Fountain of Eternal Life. Veterans Memorial Plaza,
Cleveland, Ohio.
Marshall M Fredericks Abbreviated Biography. 9 July 2004. Marshall Fredericks
Sculpture Museum. http://www.svsu.edu/mfsm/about.htm. .
Ondish, Andrea. "Re: Cleveland War Memorial." E-mail to Rebecca Unger.
13 July 2004.
Welcome to the Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Museum. 9 July 2004. Marshall
Fredericks Sculpture Museum. http://www.svsu.edu/mfsm/welcome.htm. .


MF, Sculptor copy:
The Cleveland War Memorial
In 1964, almost two decades after it was first commissioned and following years of study and preparation, Fredericks brought to fruition what stands as the pinnacle of his work with freestanding groups. The War Memorial fountain in Cleveland, Ohio, was to be placed in a long quadrangle of park formed by rectangular blocks of public buildings. At one end of the park is an office tower, at the other a sports stadium. Fredericks made many studies, building a scale model of the entire architectural complex, to determine the best spot for the fountain, how it was to be best lighted at night, trying various compositions for the central figures. In the center of the work soaring upward movement symbolizes eternal life, the universal human hope/dream/religious faith, which springs up everywhere in the human heart. His initial concept, two figures side by side, grew finally into a single figure soaring out of flame-like forms rising from the earth. Below the central helical shaft of forty-six-foot-high rising forms are four massive blocks of dark green granite set in the fountain's pool. In their intricate carvings the eye discerns the four quarters of the earth, in representing the idea that all peoples and civilizations recognize man's immortal spirit. A sphere, filigreed in its entirety and illuminated from within, supports the central figure. Around it streams the river of life, bearing with it animals, plants, birds, the shining sun. A universal ideal is given an expression neither obvious, not liturgical, calling upon the spectator to study and reflect.

Note: In 2004 the War Memorial in Cleveland was rededicated and renamed, The Cleveland Veterans Memorial.


Marshall Fredericks, Sculptor, p. 14
"Symbolizes mankind's continual quest for spiritual peace and hope for a better world."

Copy found in Marshall's Archives:
"This memorial fountain is dedicated to the honor and memory of those brave men and women who gave their lives in the Second World War for the preservation of their ideals. It symbolizes man's immortal Spirit rising through the thoughts and hopes of all peoples and civilizations above the flames of war and tribulation toward Peace and Eternal Life.

It's not a literal portrayal of any individual or of any of the destructive and ugly aspects of war, rather it symbolizes the noble spirit of Mankind…It attempts to express a hopeful and inspiring thought that might be encouraging and helpful to those who are left behind.

The fountain is composed of a large granite basin in which water will continually move and spray. In the center are the sculptured portions, set in the basin rim are polished bronze plaques containing the names of over five thousand men and women who gave their lives for their country. Carved in the basin is the inscription from the Thirty-sixth Psalm, 9th verse "For with Thee is the Fountain of Life; In Thy Light shall we see light."

Four monolithic granite carving weighing approximately ten tons each, depict the four great civilizations of the earth, geographically: Nordic, Eastern, Southern, and Western cultures. Centered within is the 10 ½ foot sculptured and filigreed bronze sphere representing the Universe as man has imagined it throughout history. Its over-all design contains symbols of eternal Life, Spirit, and Dominion derived from ancient myths and legends. The monumental central figure, also in bronze, towers 43 feet above the basin. This figure expresses the main theme of the Fountain, namely, the spirit of mankind rising out of the encircling flames of war, pestilence, and the destructive elements of life, reaching and ascending to a new understanding of life. Man rising above death; reaching upward to his God and toward peace."

Thematic tour copy:
The central male figure, Peace, rises out of a concealing flame as a symbol of valor rising from the destroying flames of the great holocaust.

The flames come out of a filigreed globe. The images on the globe are symbols that relate to peace, eternal life, resurrection, etc. I always tell visitors that Fredericks not only does the artwork but also the research on the symbolic nature of the imagery he uses. He claims "libraries are a wonderful source of information". The globe symbols are as follows:

Wind represented as swirling linear forms around the images: There are 4 winds and different cultures have different deities that represent the winds and the deities blow the winds.
Ancient Greek: North is Boreas; South is Notus; East is Eurus; and West is Zephyris. Native Americans also claim there are 4 winds and Chinese claim there are 8 winds.

The winds can foretell the weather; therefore it is the divinities that control the fortunes of seafaring men.

Images on globe:
Sun: male, kingship, and male deities; individuality, ego, personality, growth; China: yang- power in heavens; Maya: divine right and ruler; Native American: female; Norse: deity in chariot;
Phoenix: associated with the crucifix; it appears during periods of peace; renews itself eternally; resurrection symbol; reincarnation;
Dragon: western symbol: evil serpents; associated with water; eastern: good deity
Swan: happy death; faithful, purity; associated with music, poetry and divination; discernment
Baboon: associated with the moon-full moon-because of its shape; known as hailer of the dawn
Pegasus: power and thunderbolts, fame born from the blood of Medusa when Persius beheaded her; good was created from evil;
Crocodile/alligator: African myth: powerful intermediaries between the divine and human worlds and oracles for water deities.
Lion: divine solar power, ferocity and death, warlike; great mother; protector; masculinity; bible; courage, strength and power; royalty, dignity and pride; resurrection (Jews. Christians and Babylon)
Dolphin/porpoises: sacred fish associated with healing wells and the sea; prophecy and wisdom; savior and resurrection; Greco-Roman: carried gods and human souls;

Nordic Civilization
Poseidon/Neptune/Thor: sibling of Zeus and Hades; god of all bodies of water; first to tame horses and sometimes portrayed in chariot drawn by seahorses; attribute is the trident, a traditional three-pronged fishing tool. Thor is the ancient Scandinavian god of thunder and his attribute is a mighty hammer. Thor calms the seas; there is popular story of him fishing for the world serpent.
Dolphins/porpoise: linked to Apollo and his gifts of prophecy and wisdom; association with healing and the sea; savior and rescuer in myths; Greco Roman carrier of the gods and human souls.
Two sharks: symbolize the dangers of nature
4 fish: associated with the name Christ; Eucharistic symbol; sea creature
Turtle: strength endurance and bearers of the world; Native American: earth and earth mother-support of world; immortality, patience, wisdom, great experience, associated with water and safety at sea.

Southern Civilization
According to Fredericks, the large figure is a generic figure to represent the peoples of African continent (southern civilization). The small human-like figure to its left is a fetish figure. He explained that Africans made many small human figures which were symbolic figures of little gods. There are thousands of them in a museum in Denmark made by craftsmen. The human figures on the left of the sculpture are kneeling in subservience or worship of the natural world represented by the crocodile, lion, and ape.

African mask: MF drew this image from one in a museum he visited. In Africa wearing a mask and taking part in masquerade rituals demonstrates skills in performance and status in society; masks bring the nature powers into town or the village; principally associated with male initiation societies.
Crocodile: powerful intermediaries between the divine and human worlds and oracles for water deities.
African People: generic representation of the people of this civilization. See paragraph above about the people in the sculpture.

Western Civilization
Dionysus/Bacchus and grapes: fertility god and protector of the vine; linked with wine and revelry and indulged in orgies; attribute is grapes.
Artemis/Diana and two dogs: she is the twin sister of Apollo, virgin and huntress; attributes are: silver bow and arrow, and protector of wildlife; associated with the moon; she's often depicted with a stag or dog.

Eastern Civilization:
Buddha in a reclining position: Marshall referred to him as Buddha but several attributes of Asian Deities such as Shiva, Krsna, Vishnu and Budhha are depicted including the 4 arms of Shiva and Lakshmi.

(Excerpt from 1000 Symbols, p. 130)
"Buddha was born in the 6th century BCE as Prince Siddhartha, a member of the Gautama clan of the Sakya tribe on the border between Nepal and the modern Indian state of Bihar. The title of Buddha, meaning 'Wise' or 'Enlightened One', was bestowed on him after his enlightenment. This he achieved at the age of 39, after seven weeks of meditation under a Bodhi Tree in the village of Bodhgaya. He abandoned his wife and child for the ascetic life. For the next 41 years until his death at the age of 80, he preached his philosophy, repudiating some aspects of Hinduism-such as ritual worship and sacrifice-and denouncing the caste system. In its place, he offered a moral code of conduct that mentions neither heaven nor hell, nor any religious sanction, but relies on the self-discipline and autonomous spirit of the individual to guide him or her towards salvation. He taught that to live is to suffer, and the wheel of birth and rebirth will continue to turn unless humans can contain their desires, and so release them from this process. To achieve this, people should follow the Eightfold Path of Buddhism, which leads to wisdom, calmness, knowledge, enlightenment and release."

(Excerpt, from 1000 Symbols, p. 126)
Shiva: 'the Destroyer', represents darkness and is the angry god. He is one of the three gods of the Hindu Trinity or Trimurti, and is seen as a pre-Vedic god allied to the lord of beings on Indus Valley seals. He is depicted above holding two of his attributes: a thunderbolt and stylized conch shell and has 4 arms.
Ganesh: son of Shiva; god of fortune and wisdom who intercedes with other gods; he's normally depicted as a pot-bellied figure with an elephants head, 4 arms and one tusk. He sits on a rat signifying shrewdness. He received his elephant's head when he lost his own and was brought back to life using the nearest available head, that of an elephant. He's god of new ventures and good luck.
Story about Ganesh's broken tusk as told by Vaibhavi Sindha, a SVSU student.
"Why Lord Ganesh has a broken tusk? Lord Ganesh loved to eat food. One day as he sat down to eat, the moon (Lord Chandra) was watching him. Ganesh kept on eating and his stomach enlarged. At a certain point, his stomach burst open and all the food spilled out. Looking at this, the moon laughed at Ganesh and made fun of him, so Ganesh got mad and broke one of his tusks and threw it at the moon. That's the reason why the moon is half on that specific day called Ganesh-chatwithi Day."
Water Buffalo: Nandi, the white bull; Chinese Buddhism: the ox signifies wise thought.
Dancing woman: Devi, Shiva's wife or Sita, wife of Rama.
Rama: squatting ape. The ape Hunuman helped to rescue Rama's wife from a powerful king in Celon. Ramas right elbow rests in the curve of his waist while his hands are palms out and engaged fingers extended point to a small dancing female figure possibly Sita, his wife.

Molly Barth copy:
Please step over here, and I'll show you the rest of the "Cleveland War Memorial, The Fountain of Eternal Life." Over here is a photograph of "The Cleveland War Memorial," and it's in downtown Cleveland and it looks out to Lake Erie. Down below in the water, you can see the four carvings, two of which, we just spoke of, and you saw the plaster models for. Then, right next to it in the display case, you see the original site model with the minute little fountain there. Then in this other display case you see the architectural model. Then, in this next display case is the one-inch to one-foot scale model; of the fountain; then, over here by the window is the one-quarter scale model, so in this photograph over here, this plaster model is actually four-times the one that's in that picture. It's 46 feet tall, it's the World's largest fountain. It took Mr. Fredericks 19 years from start-to-finish of this monument [add comment to put this in context] to do this piece. Fredericks was returning from World War II when he received word that he had been given this commission. He started it in 1945, but he had many political delays, so he worked on other things during those 19 years. It was dedicated on Memorial Day in 1964. In the quarter-scale plaster model you see that the figure is reaching up above the flames of war. The sphere that he is on has all the mythological legends and stories pertaining to eternal life wrapping around in spiral bands. The sphere is hollow and filigreed. At night, it lights up and the sprays of water are beautiful. It has amber and white alternating lights in the sphere, and there are lights in the basin. It has The Eastern Civilization, The Western Civilization, The Nordic Civilization and The Southern Civilization. Almost 5,000 Cleveland men and women gave their lives in World War II and the Korean Conflict, and their names are on bronze plaques on the top edge of the basin. This war memorial was for World War II and the Korean War, but it really is a peace memorial. It was designed to be for the living, and to be uplifting.
The models for this fountain show how Fredericks goes about creating. He starts very small with the first model that you saw, and keeps enlarging it and enlarging it until he gets to the monumental size. In the gallery, are seen the different scale models that he used as he enlarged.

From 1995 Mary Iorio of Cranbrook, interview with Fredericks: It took two years to carve each of the four civilizations. Numerous representations of eternal life from around the world are in the sphere including the swan and phoenix. Fredericks commented that no mother, sister or brother wants to see symbols of war when they visit the memorial to mourn, so he didn't want to make statues of soldiers or infantrymen.

From Joy Colby interview-1981: "But now those quarries (in Norway), while they're still very, very active, they don't quarry the big blocks anymore." Why is that? "Well, basically because of labor. It's difficult to quarry them and the workmen can earn more and it's easier on them to quarry smaller blocks and sell smaller blocks for cemetery purposes and building blocks rather than, for instance, some of those blocks which I have used weighed almost fifteen tons each. On the Cleveland fountain there are four blocks that originally weighted about fifteen tons and after they were carved, they weighted a little over ten tons each. Well, such blocks today you couldn't get. They're just too big to handle. Then the foundry, too, eventually, because of labor problems and very high taxation which they have there, much higher than we have, closed down so now they just cast little tiny things. And the big one (foundry) in Copenhagen which is one of the finest in the world; Rasmussen who cast for Thorwaldsen, Milles and all these famous people, they closed for the same purpose after one hundred and fifty years of operation. So therefore, there was really not any purpose to work over there anymore without the granite and without bronze. And then shipping became impossible. The ships no longer came directly to the State and up the Great Lakes. They circled-went around past Europe and South America, Africa and so on, took circuitous routes so that no longer was simple. So now it isn't logical to do that any more." So it would really be impossible to make sculptures the size of the Cleveland Peace Memorial and the Spirit of Detroit? It would be very difficult to do sculptures of that size? "Yes, it is and it's terribly costly now. I think that's one of the reasons why there's so much other construction in art today. So-called pieces made out of beams, or timber, or sheets of metal, tubing and what-not, because it already exists. It's just a matter of sticking it together by welding or what have you. It's so much simpler. You can see now at Meadowbrook some of the things that are just made from drawings and are built by construction companies. It's a much simpler way of doing it and much less expensive, of course, and a lot less worry involved; it's somebody else's chores. And there aren't the many steps that you have to take: the miniatures, the intermediate models, the clay models and the plaster models and then the wax models and the sand molds and all the dozen different steps. There's really only one step; the drawing and from that, there it is twenty feet high. I think that's one of the reasons for the growth of that art. It's really a more sensible, more practical…the Cleveland fountain today, when you think of the carving that took-the whole thing took nineteen years. That's a working life for some people." It is. "and there are so many complications with the electrical things and the water lines and the plumbing and the pumps and the caring and the castings, the steel framework inside covered with lead, and all these things that you have to do; the engineering even is a tremendous chore. I think it just gets to be such a problem that most artists today don't want to do it. It's easier even to make a cardboard mock-up like the Picasso in Chicago, or Calder to make a drawing of two or three views of a drawing and have it made by a construction company. It's easier. It isn't the way I work. It isn't the way I would ever want to work. I could do that very easily, but it isn't my nature to do that."

He worked on this commission starting in 1945 when he received it. The final (committee-accepted) one-figure design was completed about 1949. See Marshall Fredericks, Sculptor book, pages 154 to 159. Groundbreaking was in 1955 and the dedication was in 1964.]