Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus is a public artwork by Italian artist Enrico Vittori and located on the grounds of the Indiana Statehouse in Indianapolis, Indiana. The sculpture was installed on the southwest corner of the Indiana Statehouse lawn in 1920 as a gift from Italian immigrant communities in Indiana. Artistic Message As indicated by the plaque, the artist was charged to illustrate the theme of "the perennial genius abiding in the Italian race." Vittori has depicted "the perennial genius of the Italian race" in the symbolic figure of a young white man in the center of the frieze. He is scantily dressed in a barely-there flowing garment, echoing traditional artistic representations of Roman gods. He is crowned with a wreath of laurel, symbolizing wisdom. Vittori drives home the message of his racial nobility by positioning three deferentially posed figures around him. The most dramatic of these is a stylized representation of the Native American race. Vittori has dressed this Chief in stereotypical feathered headdress, and positioned him kneeling at the left foot of the white man, looking upward in awe of the perennial genius of the Italian race. Vittori has sculpted the chief with his lips reaching upward and pursed as if straining to kiss the hem of the noble man's garment.