Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Midway Plisance / Tomas Garrigue Masaryk Memorial - by Albin Polasek

Tomas Garrigue Masaryk Memorial




Tomas Garrigue Masaryk Memorial 

Sculptor: Albin Polasek

Completed: 1949

Location: East End of Midway Plisance, 
University of Chicago, Illinois 





Tomas Garrigue Masaryk Memorial



Tomas Garrigue Masaryk Memorial - by Albin Polasek /
 represented as Knight of Blanik Mountain





Albin Polasek's bronze statue of a legendary Tomas Garrigue Masaryk, represented as the Knight of Bohemia's Blanik Mountains stands at the east end of the Midway. It memorializes Czechoslovakia's first president and former University of Chicago professor Tomás Garrigue Masaryk.



Tomas Garrigue Masaryk




The plaque reads ...
1850-1937
Rising out of the fertile Bohemian soil, the Blanik Mountain stands eternally vigilant, its verdant slopes sheltering a wealth of age-old folklore. According to an old legend, slumbering within its cool mountainous depths, the Blanik Knights stand guard, ready to ride forth with Saint Wenceslaus to lead them in their nation's hour of need ..

Tomas Garrigue Masaryk Czechoslovakia's first President symbolized in flesh this legendary vigilance, when in the fury of World War I. His Czechoslovak Legions fought to realize the the nation's fondest dreams. Thus cast in bronze the Blanik Knight is but a monumental symbol of Thomas G. Masaryk's eternally valid ideals of freedom, democracy and humanity.


Tomas Garrigue Masaryk


No comments: