American Painting and Sculpture

PAUL MANSHIP
(American, 1885-1966)

Cycle of Life (Armillary Sphere), 1924
Gilt bronze
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Jouett Ross Todd 1964.17.6
Conservation funded by Dr. Charles F. Mahl and Louanne Mahl of Rostrevor and by Louise Ross Todd.

When Paul Manship returned to New York after three years’ study in Rome, his sculpture caused an immediate sensation. Unlike his predecessors who relied on classical Greek and Roman models, Manship borrowed both his forms and decorative motifs from pre-classical Greek and Egyptian sculpture, as well as from the art of India and Southeast Asia. His symbolism also looked back to ancient mythologies for inspiration. In Cycle of Life, for example, the universe rests on the backs of tortoises, emblems of timelessness.
Representing the four elements, the ribbon motif around some of the narrow bands symbolizes air; tongues of fire appear on the large, outer band; and stylized motifs around the sculpture’s base depict waves and mountains, water and earth.

An armillary sphere is an ancient astronomical device used to show the relationships among the heavens’ great circles. In Manship’s work, these circles are shown as interlocking bronze bands, some decorated with zodiacal signs, others with symbols of the four elements, and yet others with numbers on which the sun’s moving shadow reveals the hour.

Inside the resulting sphere is a three-person family group, representing humanity’s own life cycle. The sculptor once explained, "Man, Woman and Child make up the Cycle of Life, as the Sphere itself symbolizes the Circle of Eternity."

Cycle of Life originally decorated the formal gardens of Rostrevor, the Louisville home of Mr. and Mrs. Jouett Ross Todd, which had been designed by the New York architectural firm of Carrère and Hastings and built in 1908.