by Jon Lackman | 10 November 2006 | Americas
Adam Mazmanian reviews Visual Shock: A History of Art Controversies in American Culture by Michael Kammen in the Washington City Paper: “When sculptor Henry Kirke Brown previewed a bronze of Gen. Winfield Scott for his heirs in the early 1870s, the family was aghast to see the Civil War hero portrayed atop a mare. Although Scott reportedly did ride a mare into battle, the noted sculptor graciously amended his design to placate the widow Scott’s desire to see her late husband posed astride a stallion. The finished bronze can be viewed today in Scott Circle, complete with the attached sex organs. Thus concluded the only art controversy in U.S. history to be resolved by the addition of male genitalia.”
