El Cid is portrayed with a cross on his chest, although he didn't always represent Christian interests. The exploits of El Cid form the subject that is thought to be the oldest monument in Spanish literature. The epic poem is presently a little over 3,700 lines — several hundred lines are missing — and the author of it is unknown. El Cid is also the subject of numerous other artistic and literary works. The statue is by Anna Hyatt Huntington.
Anna Hyatt Huntington
(b. 1876 Cambridge, MA – d. Redding, CT 1973)
became one of the best-known and most prolific sculptors of the 20th century. Her father, a paleontologist, interested her in animals. She began to make sculptures of animals that she observed on farms and at the New York City Zoo. She trained as a sculptor, first in Boston, then at the Art Students League in New York, and was taught by Hermon Atkins MacNeil and George Barnard. She also worked for the sculptor Gutzon Borglum.In the early 1900s, she shared an apartment with the figure sculptor Abastenia St. Leger Eberle. They collaborated on sculptures; Anna Hyatt made the animal figures and Abastenia the human figures. She also studied and worked in France and Italy. One of her earliest public works was the equestrian statue of Joan of Arc, exhibited at the Salon of 1910 in Paris. Several replicas were made, and the statue won Anna the Legion of Honor from the French government. One version is in Rivrside Park in NYC. In 1927, she made her first sculpture of 'El Cid Campeador' for the city of Seville, Spain. In 1923, she married the wealthy philanthropist/poet/Spanish scholar Archer M. Huntington (Archer was the adopted son of Collis P. Huntington, the railroad magnate). The couple later (1929) bought 10,000 acres of land near the Atlantic Ocean in South Carolina, named it Brookgreen Gardens and made it a showplace for Anna's work and for the work of dozens of American figurative sculptors. It was also a sanctuary for plant and animal life of the region. The couple gave the estate, with an endowment, to the state of South Carolina in 1935. It is still a major tourist attraction. She has a sculpture in the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York. Huntington's work is in many American public collections, including the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Cleveland Museum of Art, Dallas Museum of Art, Legion of Honor in San Francisco, Edinburgh Museum, and Brookgreen Gardens. An equestrian 'El Cid' bronze sculpture group stands on Audubon Terrace, outside the Hispanic Society of America (founded by her husband). She has a sculpture of Joan of Arc in the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, and an equestrian sculpture of Joan of Arc in Riverside Park, both in NYC. Anna and Archer eventually settled in Connecticut in 1940. Their estate Stanerigg Farm, was full of animals, birds, and visited by their many friends. Anna continued to sculpt until her death at age 97.
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1) Map of Audubon Terrace [28]
