Dezember 2017, 10:57 Uhr. Jefferson also strongly believed that religion was a personal choice that should be free from government interference. A statue of Gandhi stands a quarter mile to the east, and the statues of Churchill and Mandela facing each other stand a mile to the west of Sheridan Circle. The most recent of the four was Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt, the 26th President, a good and colorful leader, but one who does not rise to the stratospheric prominence achieved by the other three. Finally, the finished product had to be produced in record time.A small list of four talented sculptors was drawn up as candidates to be considered for the commission: one in Azerbaijan; another in Salt Lake City, Utah; and a pair of young local artists whose names were provided by Lindy Hart, the widow of Frederick “Rick” Hart” (1942-1999), one of the great sculptors of the last quarter of the 20th century. It is that transformation that has to be regarded as the miracle of Mandela.
The unrivaled military tactician and strategist, who was undefeated in the military campaigns that had consumed the first three decades of his life, became the greatest proponent for peace once he established the Republic of Turkey. Mandela had started his decades of struggles as a militant, though not a military hero, but embraced peace and healing in his mature years. His best selling book, "Math and the Mona Lisa," (Smithsonian Books, 2004) has appeared in 13 languages.
The equestrian statue, weathered naturally to a green patina during the 105 years it has stood at the site, is extraordinarily beautiful in its own right. Then they must have felt, Atatürk was indeed a towering figure of the 20th century, but that his influence had been limited to a small sector of the planet. He authored the Emancipation Proclamation. On the balustrade surrounding Atatürk’s statue, are his words in bronze lettering, “Peace at home… Peace in the World.” This is also reminiscent of the late Mr. Mandela.The address, Sheridan Circle, is at the top of any short list of prime real estate in Washington, with the Embassy Row of Massachusetts Avenue radiating east and west from the circle. Each member of this iconic trio is honored with an impressive architectural edifice in the city, his own National Monument.Atatürk embodies the greatest assets of Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln — military strategist par excellence; social, educational and economic reformer; statesman — Father of his Country — the man the distinguished professor of psychiatry, Arnold Ludwig, in his 2002 book, “The King of the Mountain,” ranked Number One among all 2300 national leaders of the 20th century.In the waning days of the 20th century, the Editors of Time Magazine, accustomed to selecting the “Individual of the Year,” found themselves saddled with the difficult task of selecting the “Individual of the Century.” Turks expressed their exuberance by the thousands in nominating Atatürk for the honor. The Board had to decide the age at which to depict Atatürk — as a young military officer struggling with battle strategy and wearing a uniform replete with a “kalpak” (a sheepskin fez); as the new President of the Secular Republic that he founded, and still wearing a fez; or as the mature statesman in the early 1930s, svelte, but an elegant modern man. The right hand captures the electric moment when he has paused to make a point with his index finger, the intensity dramatized by the bulging veins in his hand.In a day when genuinely great statesman seem to be rare, when a priestly class (whether clerics in Iran, rabbis of the ultra-Orthodox in Israel, or fundamentalists preachers in the United States) endorses taking one side or another in endless internecine warfare, it might be good to remember a couplet written by the English poet William Blake (1757-1827): “Mysteries will never cease; the Priest clamors for war, and the soldier peace.” He could not have been more prescient, or more accurate, in describing Atatürk. In Jeff’s statue Atatürk is depicted as a reformer/teacher, giving a speech. Rather than depicting Atatürk in military uniform or in a Working at his studio in Virginia, Hall created three clay models of the statue, starting with a 12 in (30 cm) maquette, which he enlarged to a 34 in (86 cm) model, and then a full-size 6 ft 7 in (201 cm) model.
He too had liberated his nation — first from occupying foreign troops and then from centuries of backward Caliphate Rule. Moreover, it was in the style of Eastern European heroic statuary, made of fiberglass, and over-painted in bronze tones. Accordingly, they must have felt compelled to eliminate him from the top spot. Then a few years later, he had created the bronze statue of the “Three Soldiers” at the Vietnam Memorial, the full complex standing in the shadow of the Lincoln Memorial. Rick Hart had carved the Tympanum, including his masterpiece, the “Ex Nihilo,” above the Western Entrance of the National Cathedral. Its timing coincides with both the 90th Anniversary of the founding of the secular Republic of Turkey in 1923 and the 75th Anniversary of Atatürk’s death on November 10, 1938. Der Gründer der modernen, säkularen Türkei ist noch immer sehr präsent - auch wenn Recep Tayyip Erdoğan heute zunehmend das Straßenbild dominiert. Atatürk ist überall - Monumente und Bilder des türkischen Staatsgründers. He was the reigning President when the monument was created, he was unusually fond of the West, and he was a friend of the sculptor.The other three — Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln — are unrivaled as the greatest among the 44 Presidents in the history of the United States. The sculptor of the statue, Gutzon Borglum, is far better known as the sculptor of the heads of Presidents at Mount Rushmore in South Dakota.