Christopher Columbus

Heroic sized portrait of Christopher Columbus from 1955 by Eduardo Alfieri . In his proper right hand he holds a rolled document while his proper left hand rests on his chest. He is dressed in a cloak.

When the Christopher Columbus statue was uncrated in front of Columbus City Hall On Oct 10, 1955. The dedication of the three-ton statue was the highlight of the city’s Columbus Day celebration two days later. The statue was placed on the south side of City Hall and overlooks West Broad Street. It was a gift from the citizens of Genoa, Italy, the birthplace of Columbus.

“COLUMBUS TO SAIL ONCE MORE -- A 20-foot statue of Christopher Columbus is placed on a pedestal in Genoa, Italy, prior to being loaded aboard the Italian liner Cristoforo Colombo for shipment to the United States. The bronze monument is a gift from Genoa to Columbus, and will be unveiled in Ohio on Oct. 12. The statue was cast at the Michelucci foundry in Pistoia.”

The statue’s designer, Edoardo Alfieri, of Genoa, Italy, came to Columbus in 1955 to participate in the presentation of the statue in front of City Hall.

The bronze plaque on the base of the statue reads:

Christopher Columbus

Gift of the kind citizens of Genoa, Italy, to the city which
so proudly bears the name of Columbus

“Testimonial of the values and virtues which the figure and enterprise of the great son of Genoa has entrusted to the human conscience.”
Vittorio Pertusio
Mayor of Genoa

“We shall ever cherish and be guided by its meaning.”
M. E. Sensenbrenner
Mayor of Columbus

Dedicated October 12, 1955, before 100,000 grateful Americans

Edoardo Alfieri (Foggia, Italy, 1913 – Sanremo, Italy, 1998) was an Italian sculptor.

Although he was born at Foggia in southern Italy, his family was of Piemontese origin and soon moved to Genoa, where he spent his childhood. He studied art at the school of Guido Galletti at Genoa and then, from 1932 to 1936, continued his studies at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts in Milan under Francesco Messina.

Already at the age of sixteen he won a first prize for his artwork at an exhibition in Genoa. In the 1930s, he was a member of the futurist group Synthesis. After World War II, he held a post as a lecturer at the Academy of Fine Arts of Genoa until 1969.

Alfieri presented his work several times at the Biennale of Venice: in 1940, 1948, 1950, and in 1956 even in a dedicated hall. His work has been characterized as oscillating between avant-garde and traditional. Besides expressionist works such as the Dagna grave at the cemetery of Staglieno, he also did traditional sculptures like the statue of Christopher Columbus that was given as gift to the city of Columbus, Ohio . Some of his works are abstract, for instance the Mele grave at Staglieno, or the bas-relief "Furor Mathematicus".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edoardo_Alfieri