Life, 1892-01-14 · page 7 of 18
Life — January 14, 1892 — page 7: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis of "The Statue" Page from Life Magazine This page satirizes a proposed Diana statue for Madison Square. The main cartoon critiques the statue's enormous scale—the artist sketches show Diana as disproportionately tall compared to the Madison Square tower beside it. The accompanying text argues that if Diana were the principal stockholder, her gigantic size would be understandable, but such an oversized monument is impractical and aesthetically wrong. The secondary cartoon titled "Why Not on One as Well as the Other?" depicts a man using an "ingenious device" to add comfort while exercising—likely mocking unnecessary Victorian-era contraptions. The satire targets both architectural hubris and the era's tendency toward excess and pretentious monuments in urban design.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
and try to sympathize with the proportic ers would allow, the error would be ex plained. Why not bex her nd ship her to the nw there, but here she is on the wrong pedestal There much better. Sone pad ones in if of the right proportion, would be ly better than tic lady who bronze lady with a tower beneat! It should be a tower with a fimal NT EVER gets AN teft—The conductor WHY NOT ON ONE AS WELL AS THE OTHER? THE STATUE. glory to the architect. Lire is grateful to Mr. Stan- nted by a he LIFE knows a good thing when he sees it, and he ford White for creating in this city of architectural adding to the the Madison Square tower almost every da horrors a monument of such beauty and valu and bea’ whole buildingis a g y a Your eye runs gleefully up the graceful tower until it, while exerc comicbooks.com