Focus on this artwork and explain the Reception.
Alma Mater was largely praised upon its unveiling. The Columbia Daily Spectator described the statue as "characterized by a queenly dignity and repose", and stated that it "expresses the highest type of intellectual womanhood. In pose and gesture she invites the student of the University and gives him the welcome of Alma Mater." The New York Times, though it did not comment directly on the artistic merits of the work, recognized that the sculpture was "for technical reasons an extraordinarily difficult piece of work." Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper called the work "French's masterpiece of sculpture", while The Catholic Union compared the figure of Alma Mater to the Virgin Mary, incorrectly claiming that the work was an imitation of a "Mother of Christ" statue in Bonn, Germany, exclaiming, "How closely is not the Catholic Church associated with all that is noble and tender in the mind and heart of man!" However, French was reportedly unsatisfied with the amount of attention the sculpture initially received, stating that it did not make a "ripple on the surface of New York".
In 1903, Charles Henry Caffin praised Alma Mater as "beautiful... unquestionably", though not necessarily one of French's best works. He described her as follows:The face is of a familiar type of American beauty, corresponding with the very modern suggestion of the whole figure. Yet the sculptor has invested the head with an air of dispassionate refinement which gives it a certain aloofness; scarcely more, however, than the self-possession, consciously unconscious, with which the American woman can carry her beauty. It is almost as if one of them had mounted the pedestal and, with a ready wit embracing the situation, were enacting the part of patroness to the university. Every student will love her and her influence will be altogether one of sweet nobility... [Alma Mater] is distinguished by a pure and poignant serenity, by a monumental feeling penetrated with a sort of gentle sprightliness; for the expression which he puts into the modeling of the limbs can scarcely be characterized by a word of more sensitive application.
More recently, The New York Times has dubbed Alma Mater the "grand old lady" of Columbia University, who "reigns in queenly splendor in front of Low Library." The AIA Guide to New York City described it as "an evocative statue" where "the enthroned figure extends her hand in welcome as she looks up from the mighty tome of knowledge lying open in her lap." Alma Mater's placement in front of Low Library in particular has been praised for its role in welcoming students to the university and highlighting the university's relationship with the city of New York. As Professor of Historic Preservation Andrew Dolkart notes:After passing Alma Mater and reaching the campus level, the seeker must climb an even longer stairway, symbolically a "stairway to knowledge," to reach the entrance to the library. From the top of the stairs, members of the select Columbia community could turn and look out over New York, secure in the belief that they were contributing to the rapid transformation of their city into a world center of intellectual and professional endeavor.
Charles Henry Caffin Alma Mater Virgin Mary Germany AIA Guide to New York City Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper New York City Andrew Dolkart Columbia Daily Spectator Columbia University The New York Times Bonn The Catholic Union