7. Prometheus didn’t receive a warm reception

Prometheus sculpture Rockefeller Center

Prometheus was greeted by a lot of criticism when he debuted, mostly because he is rather awkwardly posed. Some suggested that the Titan looks as if he is about to leap into the soup plates of restaurant patrons or alternatively, that he had just fallen from the top of the RCA Building.

The sculpture’s placement in a sunken plaza below a 70-story building presented significant problems. Manship himself lamented the fact that he didn’t have more time to study the placement. The fact that Prometheus is not overwhelmed by the towering architecture that surrounds it is a considerable tribute to the decorative merit of the bronze sculpture.