Improbable Horse

Last week, in the courtyard of Des Moines' handsome new Art Center, lowans gaped at a bronze stallion the likes of which had never been seen before. Mounted in the center of a spacious reflecting pool was the latest work of Swedish Sculptor Carl Milles, a magnificent, larger-than-life Pegasus. Broad-beamed, with hefty wings spread, it zoomed through space at the angle of a sloop in a summer squall. Soaring precariously above was the horse's 1,000-lb. bronze rider, Greek adventurer Bellerophon (see cut), with arms outstretched and nine stout bolts through one foot to keep him from crashing.

Sculptor Milles has long been fascinated by the legend of the winged horse and heroic rider who angered Zeus by their presumption at trying to mount the heavens. The infuriated god sent a hornet to sting Pegasus' flank, and Bellerophon, thrown from the horse's back, plummeted to earth. Milles made a sketch model that stood in his Cranbrook, Mich. studio "for years," until Des Moines Publisher Gardner Cowles came along and commissioned him to complete it for the Art Center.*

Said Milles, who considers the statue one of the best things he has ever done: "Greek and other artists always depicted Pegasus with the rider on his back, while I visualize the poet flying independently . . . both animal and man having expressions of longing for something, we don't know what . . ." A few visitors called Pegasus the most improbable thing they had ever seen in their lives; many more gasped in sheer admiration.

* For another editor who commissioned a statue, see PRESS.

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