Caspar Buberl
Encyclopedia
Caspar Buberl was an American
sculptor. He is best known for his Civil War
monuments, for the terra cotta
relief panels on the Garfield Memorial
in Cleveland, Ohio
(depicting the various stages of James Garfield
's life), and for the 1200 feet (365.8 m)-long frieze
on the Pension Building in Washington, D.C.
.
, (now Kynšperk nad Ohří
, Czech Republic
), as a young man Buberl studied art in Prague
and Vienna
before immigrating to the United States in 1854. In 1882 Montgomery C. Meigs
was chosen to design and construct the new Pension Building, now the National Building Museum
, in Washington D. C. and, in doing so, broke away from the established Greco-Roman models that had been the basis of government buildings in Washington up until then, and was to continue to be following the Pension Building's completion. Meigs based his design on Italian Renaissance
precedents, notably Rome
's Palazzo Farnese and Plazzo della Cancelleria.
Included in his design was a 1200 feet (365.8 m)-long sculptured frieze executed by Buberl. Since creating a work of sculpture of that size was well out of Meigs' budget, he had Buberl create 28 different scenes [totaling 69 feet (21 m) in length), which were then mixed and slightly modified to create the continuous parade that includes over 1,300 individual figures. Because of the way that the 28 sections were modified and intermixed, it is only by somewhat careful examination that the frieze reveals itself to be the same figures repeated some eighteen times. The sculpture includes infantry
, navy
, artillery
, cavalry
and medical components as well as a good deal of the supply
and quartermaster
functions, since Meigs had overseen the latter two functions during the Civil War.
Meigs insisted that any teamster included in the Quartermaster panel "must be a negro, a plantation slave, freed by war". This figure was ultimately to assume a position in the center, over the west entrance to the building.
Buberl created dozens of Civil War statues and monuments for various cities and states, including several for New York
veterans associations to be placed on the Gettysburg Battlefield
and a bronze bust of President Abraham Lincoln
, which was recently sold for $5,800. His impressive New York State Monument crowns Cemetery Hill
, and a number of individual memorials for specific regiment
s dot the battlefield.
He died in New York City
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
sculptor. He is best known for his Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
monuments, for the terra cotta
Terra cotta
Terracotta, Terra cotta or Terra-cotta is a clay-based unglazed ceramic, although the term can also be applied to glazed ceramics where the fired body is porous and red in color...
relief panels on the Garfield Memorial
James A. Garfield Memorial
The James A. Garfield Memorial was built in memory of the 20th U.S. President, James A. Garfield, who was assassinated in 1881. The memorial is located at 12316 Euclid Avenue in Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland, Ohio...
in Cleveland, Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
(depicting the various stages of James Garfield
James Garfield
James Abram Garfield served as the 20th President of the United States, after completing nine consecutive terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. Garfield's accomplishments as President included a controversial resurgence of Presidential authority above Senatorial courtesy in executive...
's life), and for the 1200 feet (365.8 m)-long frieze
Frieze
thumb|267px|Frieze of the [[Tower of the Winds]], AthensIn architecture the frieze is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Doric order, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Even when neither columns nor pilasters are expressed, on an astylar wall it lies upon...
on the Pension Building in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
.
Biography
Born in Königsberg, BohemiaBohemia
Bohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands. It is located in the contemporary Czech Republic with its capital in Prague...
, (now Kynšperk nad Ohří
Kynšperk nad Ohrí
Kynšperk nad Ohří is a town in Sokolov District, Karlovy Vary Region, Czech Republic. It has a population of 5,111 . It lies on the Ohře River.- External links :...
, Czech Republic
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
), as a young man Buberl studied art in Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
and Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
before immigrating to the United States in 1854. In 1882 Montgomery C. Meigs
Montgomery C. Meigs
Montgomery Cunningham Meigs was a career United States Army officer, civil engineer, construction engineer for a number of facilities in Washington, D.C., and Quartermaster General of the U.S. Army during and after the American Civil War....
was chosen to design and construct the new Pension Building, now the National Building Museum
National Building Museum
The National Builders Museum, in Washington, D.C., United States, is a museum of "architecture, design, engineering, construction, and urban planning"...
, in Washington D. C. and, in doing so, broke away from the established Greco-Roman models that had been the basis of government buildings in Washington up until then, and was to continue to be following the Pension Building's completion. Meigs based his design on Italian Renaissance
Italian Renaissance
The Italian Renaissance began the opening phase of the Renaissance, a period of great cultural change and achievement in Europe that spanned the period from the end of the 13th century to about 1600, marking the transition between Medieval and Early Modern Europe...
precedents, notably Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
's Palazzo Farnese and Plazzo della Cancelleria.
Included in his design was a 1200 feet (365.8 m)-long sculptured frieze executed by Buberl. Since creating a work of sculpture of that size was well out of Meigs' budget, he had Buberl create 28 different scenes [totaling 69 feet (21 m) in length), which were then mixed and slightly modified to create the continuous parade that includes over 1,300 individual figures. Because of the way that the 28 sections were modified and intermixed, it is only by somewhat careful examination that the frieze reveals itself to be the same figures repeated some eighteen times. The sculpture includes infantry
Infantry
Infantrymen are soldiers who are specifically trained for the role of fighting on foot to engage the enemy face to face and have historically borne the brunt of the casualties of combat in wars. As the oldest branch of combat arms, they are the backbone of armies...
, navy
Navy
A navy is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake- or ocean-borne combat operations and related functions...
, artillery
Artillery
Originally applied to any group of infantry primarily armed with projectile weapons, artillery has over time become limited in meaning to refer only to those engines of war that operate by projection of munitions far beyond the range of effect of personal weapons...
, cavalry
Cavalry
Cavalry or horsemen were soldiers or warriors who fought mounted on horseback. Cavalry were historically the third oldest and the most mobile of the combat arms...
and medical components as well as a good deal of the supply
Logistics
Logistics is the management of the flow of goods between the point of origin and the point of destination in order to meet the requirements of customers or corporations. Logistics involves the integration of information, transportation, inventory, warehousing, material handling, and packaging, and...
and quartermaster
Quartermaster
Quartermaster refers to two different military occupations depending on if the assigned unit is land based or naval.In land armies, especially US units, it is a term referring to either an individual soldier or a unit who specializes in distributing supplies and provisions to troops. The senior...
functions, since Meigs had overseen the latter two functions during the Civil War.
Meigs insisted that any teamster included in the Quartermaster panel "must be a negro, a plantation slave, freed by war". This figure was ultimately to assume a position in the center, over the west entrance to the building.
Buberl created dozens of Civil War statues and monuments for various cities and states, including several for New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
veterans associations to be placed on the Gettysburg Battlefield
Gettysburg Battlefield
The Gettysburg Battlefield is the area of the July 1–3, 1863, military engagements of the Battle of Gettysburg within and around the borough of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Locations of military engagements extend from the 4 acre site of the first shot & at on the west of the borough, to East...
and a bronze bust of President Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
, which was recently sold for $5,800. His impressive New York State Monument crowns Cemetery Hill
Cemetery Hill
Cemetery Hill is a Gettysburg Battlefield landform which had 1863 military engagements each day of the July 1–3 Battle of Gettysburg. The northernmost part of the Army of the Potomac defensive "fish-hook" line, the hill is gently sloped and provided a site for American Civil War artillery...
, and a number of individual memorials for specific regiment
Regiment
A regiment is a major tactical military unit, composed of variable numbers of batteries, squadrons or battalions, commanded by a colonel or lieutenant colonel...
s dot the battlefield.
He died in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
.
Monuments on the Gettysburg Battlefield
- 9th New York Cavalry Monument - dedicated July 1, 1888
- 4th New York Independent Battery - dedicated July 2, 1888
- 5th New York Cavalry Monument - dedicated July 3, 1888
- 126th New York Infantry - dedicated October 3, 1888
- 10th New York Cavalry Monument - dedicated October 9, 1888
- 54th New York Infantry - dedicated July 4, 1890
- 111th New York Infantry Monument - dedicated June 26, 1891
- New York State Monument - dedicated July 2, 1893
- 41st New York Infantry - dedicated July 3, 1893
- 52nd New York Infantry - dedicated July 3, 1893
Other Civil War monuments
- Civil War Monument, Manchester, New HampshireManchester, New HampshireManchester is the largest city in the U.S. state of New Hampshire, the tenth largest city in New England, and the largest city in northern New England, an area comprising the states of Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. It is in Hillsborough County along the banks of the Merrimack River, which...
, George Keller, architect, 1879
- Soldiers and Sailors Monument, Buffalo, New YorkBuffalo, New YorkBuffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...
, George Keller, architect, 1884 - Soldiers and Sailors Monument, Nashua, New HampshireNashua, New Hampshire-Climate:-Demographics:As of the census of 2010, there were 86,494 people, 35,044 households, and 21,876 families residing in the city. The population density was 2,719.9 people per square mile . There were 37,168 housing units at an average density of 1,202.8 per square mile...
, 1889 - Alexandria Confederate MemorialAppomattox (statue)Appomattox is the name of a bronze statue that is positioned in the center of the intersection of South Washington Street and Prince Street in Old Town, Alexandria, Virginia, in the United States. It was created by sculptor M. Casper Buberl and commissioned and erected by the Robert E. Lee camp of...
, Alexandria, VirginiaAlexandria, VirginiaAlexandria is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of 2009, the city had a total population of 139,966. Located along the Western bank of the Potomac River, Alexandria is approximately six miles south of downtown Washington, D.C.Like the rest of northern Virginia, as well as...
, 1889 - A.P. Hill Monument, Richmond, VirginiaRichmond, VirginiaRichmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. It is an independent city and not part of any county. Richmond is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Greater Richmond area...
, 1892 - Howitzer Monument, Richmond, Virginia, 1892
- Confederate Monument, University of VirginiaUniversity of VirginiaThe University of Virginia is a public research university located in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States, founded by Thomas Jefferson...
Cemetery, Charlottesville, VirginiaCharlottesville, VirginiaCharlottesville is an independent city geographically surrounded by but separate from Albemarle County in the Commonwealth of Virginia, United States, and named after Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, the queen consort of King George III of the United Kingdom.The official population estimate for...
, 1893
Other memorials and monuments
- Fulton Memorial, Fulton Park, BrooklynBrooklynBrooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
, New York, 1872 - Fireman's Memorial, Church Square Park, Hoboken, New JerseyHoboken, New JerseyHoboken is a city in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population was 50,005. The city is part of the New York metropolitan area and contains Hoboken Terminal, a major transportation hub for the region...
, 1891 - Dewey Triumphal Arch, Spanish-American WarSpanish-American WarThe Spanish–American War was a conflict in 1898 between Spain and the United States, effectively the result of American intervention in the ongoing Cuban War of Independence...
, New York CityNew York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, 1899
Architectural sculpture
- Columbia Defending Science and Industry, National Museum/Art and Industries Building, Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, Adolph Cluss, architect, Montgomery Meigs, associate architect, 1881 - Pension Building Frieze, National Building MuseumNational Building MuseumThe National Builders Museum, in Washington, D.C., United States, is a museum of "architecture, design, engineering, construction, and urban planning"...
, Washington, D.C., Montgomery MeigsMontgomery MeigsMontgomery Cunningham Meigs is a retired United States Army General. He is the great-great-great grandnephew of Montgomery C. Meigs...
, architect, 1883 - James A. Garfield MemorialJames A. Garfield MemorialThe James A. Garfield Memorial was built in memory of the 20th U.S. President, James A. Garfield, who was assassinated in 1881. The memorial is located at 12316 Euclid Avenue in Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland, Ohio...
, Lake View CemeteryLake View CemeteryLake View Cemetery is located on the east side of the City of Cleveland, Ohio, along the East Cleveland and Cleveland Heights borders. There are over 104,000 people buried at Lake View, with more than 700 burials each year. There are remaining for future development. Known locally as "Cleveland's...
, Cleveland, Ohio, George Keller, architect, 1890 - Soldiers and Sailors Memorial ArchSoldiers and Sailors Memorial ArchThe Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Arch is a notable memorial to the American Civil War located in Hartford, Connecticut. It was the first permanent triumphal arch in America, and honors the 4,000 Hartford citizens who served in the war, and the 400 who died for the Union.The arch's first conception...
, Hartford, ConnecticutHartford, ConnecticutHartford is the capital of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960, it is the second most populous city on New England's largest river, the Connecticut River. As of the 2010 Census, Hartford's population was 124,775, making...
, George Keller, architect, 1890