Bay Area Art Quake

Miguel Cervantes Memorial Sculpture 

Jo Mora, Sculptor

Golden Gate Park

 

The Miguel Cervantes Memorial Sculpture, by Uruguayan sculptor Joseph Jancinto "Jo" Mora, is found just off the corner of Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive and John F. Kennedy Drive, near where the portable organic weenie stand often beckons.

 

Presented to the City of San Francisco by J. C. Cebrian  and  E.J. Molera in 1916, three hundred years after the  passing of Cervantes, the large stone mass has a bust and nameplate of Cervantes at the top and a commemorative plaque at the bottom.   Kneeling, reverently looking up at Cervantes, are Don Quixote and Sancho Panza.  

The sculpture is nestled between aloes and Echium candicans, the Pride of Madeira. 

                  

 wikipedia picture  Echium candicans             

A large single spike Echium pininana would have been a natural reminder of Quixote’s lance. 

 
Echium pininana By  Derek Harper , CC BY-SA 2.0,

Quixote and Pancho are a long way from the two Golden Gate Park windmills, but if DQ could turn his bronze head, he could see the 150 foot Observation Wheel, installed for the Golden Gate Park 150th Anniversary, on the Music Concourse opposite the Band Shell.

On the JFK side of the corner, this giant gnarly wood spider stretches its limbs.

Plenty to observe when everything is closed.

Tags:  #GoldenGatePark150, #GGP150, #donquixote, #goldengatepark, #windmills

Posted by Phil Gravitt