Bethesda Fountain

Cherubs against a stem modelled with cattails supporting the upper basin

Bethesda Fountain is the central feature on the lower level of Bethesda Terrace in Central Park, New York. The pool is centered by a fountain sculpture designed by Emma Stebbins in 1868 and unveiled in 1873. Stebbins was the first woman to receive a public commission for a major work of art in New York City. The bronze, eight-foot statue depicts a winged angel touching down upon the top of the fountain, where water spouts and cascades into an upper basin and into the surrounding pool. Beneath her are four four-foot cherubs representing Temperance, Purity, Health, and Peace. Also called the Angel of the Waters, the statue refers to the Gospel of John, Chapter 5 where there is a description of an angel blessing the Pool of Bethesda, giving it healing powers. In Central Park the referent is the Croton Aqueduct opened in 1842, providing the city for the first time with a dependable supply of pure water: thus the angel carries a lily in one hand, representing purity, and with the other hand she blesses the water below. The base of the fountain was designed by the architect of all the original built features of Central Park, Calvert Vaux, with sculptural details, as usual, by Jacob Wrey Mould. In Calvert Vaux and Frederick Law Olmsted's 1858 Greensward Plan, the terrace at the end of the Mall overlooking the naturalistic landscape of the Lake was simply called The Water Terrace, but after the unveiling of the angel, its name was changed to Bethesda Terrace. Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 399 × 599 pixel Image in higher resolution (1857 × 2789 pixel, file size: 1. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 399 × 599 pixel Image in higher resolution (1857 × 2789 pixel, file size: 1. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 519 pixel Image in higher resolution (859 × 557 pixel, file size: 86 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Angels of Water, Central Park, New York City From : http://fr. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 519 pixel Image in higher resolution (859 × 557 pixel, file size: 86 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Angels of Water, Central Park, New York City From : http://fr. ... Species See text. ... A Central Park landscape Central Park is a large public, urban park (843 acres or 3. ... NY redirects here. ... Biography Emma Stebbins, Amreican sculptor [born September 1, 1815 - died October 25, 1882 ]. Born and raised in a wealthy New York family Stebbins was encouraged in her pursuit of art at an early age by her family. ... Nickname: Big Apple, Gotham, NYC, City That Never Sleeps, The Concrete Jungle, The City So Nice They Named It Twice Location in the state of New York Coordinates: Country United States State New York Boroughs The Bronx Brooklyn Manhattan Queens Staten Island Settled 1676  - Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R) Area    - City... Assorted ancient Bronze castings found as part of a cache, probably intended for recycling. ... A cherub (Hebrew כרוב; plural cherubim, כרובים) is an angelic creature mentioned several times in the Tanakh, or Old Testament, and in the Book of Revelation. ... Temperance is the practice of moderation. ... ... The symbol of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, which has become a widely recognized peace symbol. ... The Gospel of John is the fourth gospel in the canon of the New Testament, traditionally ascribed to John the Evangelist. ... Bethesda was originally the name of a pool in Jerusalem. ... The Croton Aqueduct was a large and complex water distribution system constructed for New York City between 1837 and 1842. ... lily is the best name in the whole wide world. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Jacob Wrey Mould (1825-1886) was an architect, illustrator, linguist and musician, noted for his many contributions to the design and construction of New York Citys Central Park. ... Frederick Law Olmsted, oil painting by John Singer Sargent, 1895, Biltmore Estate, Asheville, North Carolina Daniel France (September, 1988 was a United States landscape architect, famous for designing many well-known urban parks, including Central Park and Prospect Park in New York City, the countrys oldest coordinated system of... A Central Park landscape Central Park is a large public, urban park (843 acres or 3. ...

The Terrace under construction

The fountain, which had been dry for decades, was restored in its intial campaign, 1980-81, by the Central Park Conservancy as the centerpiece of its plan to renovate Central Park. The Terrace, designed by Vaux with sculptural decoration by Mould, was restored in the following season. Resodding, and fifty new trees, 3,500 shrubs and 3,000 ground cover plants followed in 1986.^[1] Completion of the Minton encaustic tiles of the ceiling of the arcade between the flanking stairs were completed in 2007. Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (695x700, 89 KB) Victor Prevost, Central Park, 1862 The two-dimensional work of art depicted in this image is in the public domain in the United States and in those countries with a copyright term of life of the author plus... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (695x700, 89 KB) Victor Prevost, Central Park, 1862 The two-dimensional work of art depicted in this image is in the public domain in the United States and in those countries with a copyright term of life of the author plus... A Central Park landscape Central Park (, ) is a large public, urban park (843 acres or 3. ...

References

• The statue plays a part in the play and movie, Angels in America by Tony Kushner.
• Bialystock prays for Bloom to reconsider at the fountain in The Producers by Mel Brooks.
• They Might Be Giants shot their 1988 music video They'll Need a Crane at Bethesda Terrace and fountain.
• The fountain is the setting for the final scene between Didi and Sexton in Neil Gaiman's Sandman spin-off story Death: The High Cost of Living.
• The 1973 movie version of the musical play Godspell opens at the Bethesda Fountain with the character John the Baptist (David Haskell) standing in the top pool, holding the hand of the angel, and singing the musical number "Prepare Ye the Way of the Lord".
• The starting point of the first episode of The Amazing Race is at Bethesda Fountain.
• The fountain is referenced as the place Alan Swann bathes nude in My Favorite Year.
• In the 1996 movie Ransom, the Terrace is the place where Tom Mullens (Mel Gibson) son Sean is kidnapped during a science contest.

Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes is a play in two parts by American playwright Tony Kushner. ... Tony Kushner (born July 16, 1956) is an award-winning American playwright most famous for his play Angels in America, for which he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize. ... The Producers is a 2005 film based on the 2001 Broadway musical of the same name, which is in turn based on the 1968 movie starring Zero Mostel, Gene Wilder and Andréas Voutsinas. ... Mel Brooks (born Melvin Kaminsky on June 28, 1926) is an Academy Award-winning American actor, writer, director and producer best known as a creator of broad film farces and comedy parodies or, as he says, spoofs. // Born Melvin Kaminsky in Brooklyn, New York to Russian-Jewish parents Maximillian Kaminsky... They Might Be Giants (commonly abbreviated to TMBG) is an American alternative rock duo consisting of John Linnell and John Flansburgh that formed in 1982. ... Theyll Need A Crane is an EP made by They Might Be Giants. ... Neil Richard Gaiman () (born November 10, 1960, Portchester, Hampshire) is an English author of numerous science fiction and fantasy works, including many graphic novels. ... The Sandman was a comic book series written by Neil Gaiman and published by DC Comics for 75 issues from 1988 until 1996. ... Death as illustrated by Chris Bachalo. ... Godspell album cover (1971 Original Off-Broadway Cast) Godspell is a musical based on the Gospel of Saint Matthew, transposed into a contemporary urban setting, with music and new lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and book by John-Michael Tebelak. ... The Amazing Race is an American multiple Emmy Award-winning reality game show normally broadcast in one-hour episodes in which teams of two or four race around the world in competition with other teams. ... 1996 (MCMXCVI) was a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty. ... Ransom is a thriller film released in 1996, starring Mel Gibson, Rene Russo, and Gary Sinise and directed by Ron Howard. ... Mel Columcille Gerard Gibson AO (born January 3, 1956) is an American born Australian actor, director, and producer. ...

Notes

External links

• Angel of the Waters Fountain at Central Park's Official Website