I put you on a pedestal, they put you on the pill

[venta]

So, ages ago I invited people to name me the ten most famous statues in the world. From that, we could deduce what the ten most famous statues actually were, and people who got the most right (and got the fewest obscure ones along the way) could feel massively superior.

I've been a bit too busy to faff about adding up the answers (LJ poll results are really not in the most helpful of formats). But vicarage politely requested the results, and last night my bus was stuck in a traffic jam for ages, so I managed to tot up the scores and write the below.

This was prompted by a picture round at our local Sunday pub quiz, where we had to name the country in which the pictured statues stood. The statues came from a top ten list online and were:

1. The Statue of Liberty, New York
2. Christ the Redeemer; Rio de Janeiro
3. The Great Sphinx of Giza
4. Moai, Easter Island
5. Michelangelo's David
6. Olmec colossal heads, Mexico
7. The Motherland Calls, Volgograd
8. Rodin's Thinker
9. The Little Mermaid, Copenhagen
10. The Terrace of the Lions, Delos Island, Greece

(We got 8/10, if you're interested - we failed to identify the Terrace of the Lions, as none of the four of us recognised it and from the picture we guessed Iran. We also failed to recognise the Olmec colossal head, but guessed Mexico correctly. We lost the other point because we didn't know what country the Easter Island heads were in. Clue: the answer isn't Easter Island, which isn't a country.)

So, according to us - and I'm fairly certain that a sample of nineteen people is definitely enough to be statistically significant - the top ten most famous statues in the world are actually:

1. The Statue of Liberty (16 votes, out of 19 voters)
1. Michelangelo's David
1. Christ the Redeemer
1. Venus de Milo
5. Nelson (of 'Column' fame) (13)
6. Gormley's Angel of the North (10)
7. Little Mermaid (8)
8. Rodin's Thinker
9. The Sphinx (7)
9. Manneken Pis, Brussels

So, as predicted our list is pretty Western-centric (but, to be honest, so was the internet's). I think Nelson and the Angel of the North give away that the voters were largely British.

Other statues in our list voted for by more than one person are (in no particular order): Mt Rushmore, Lincoln Memorial, Rodin's Kiss, Michelangelo's Pieta, Zeus at Olympus, Colossus of Rhodes, Easter Island Moai, and Greyfriar's Bobby.

A number of people also said something very vague about Buddha, which made it difficult to determine whether they were thinking of the same one or not :-) (Kudos to zotz and ghoti who both mentioned a specific Buddha, though sadly not the same one as each other.)

Winners are, by my rather hasty counting, bopeepsheep and drdoug who both managed 8 statues from the top ten list. In very narrow second place are Ghoti and kotturinn who both also managed 8 statues - but both included a statue no one else mentioned, so are penalised one point. I think this is actually mildly unfair in both cases: I can't be sure that none of the vague Buddhas wasn't actually Ghoti's Tian Tan Buddha, and Kotturinn went for the Trafalgar Square Lions, which is near as dammit Nelson's Column anyway. Hence the narrowness of the second place.

The wooden spoon goes to stegzy who managed to name six statues no one else came up with, all of them of such Anglocentric obscurity that I believe he was doing it on purpose.

Venus de Milo is at the top of our list, but didn't even make it into the internet's. I'd have said she was pretty famous. She's certainly a pretty common artistic reference point.

When I was trying to come up with my list, I toyed with the idea of the Winged Victory of Samothrace. Although I'd never heard of it when I went to the Louvre nearly twenty years ago, it's one of the artworks that has its own special signpost for those doing the whistlestop tour, so presumably they think it's famous. Wikipedia describes it as "one of the most celebrated sculptures in the world". You folks don't appear to agree :)

No one here listed The Motherland Calls, which is pretty interesting in its own right. It was the tallest statue in the world from 1967 until 1991 - it's about the same height as the Statue of Liberty, but Liberty is half pedestal and Motherland is all, err, woman. She's also of interest because unlike subsequent, taller statues she's quite sticky-out-y. The current tallest statue, the Spring Temple Buddha is half as big again, but basically a column.

The Motherland Calls is also falling over. Unless you are the Russian government, in which case she is absolutely doing nothing of the kind.

The Olmec heads and the Terrace of the Lions, which both featured in the internet's list, weren't mentioned by anyone here, and I conceded I'd never heard of either of them. The Olmec head (there are many) which was used to illustrate the entry in the list is apparently known as La Venta Monument 1, which is pleasing.

I'm not entirely sure whether I'd accept Mt Rushmore as a statue. It's clearly quite a Thing, and quite famous; I might call it a sculpture. However, these things aren't terribly well defined. From the mock-ups, it looks like the Crazy Horse Memorial might be something I'd be more willing to accept as a statue (should it ever be finished).

I recently saw the Manneken Pis for the first time when I went to Brussels and was extremely underwhelmed. I hadn't realised how small it was, and I don't really understand why it's famous. It doesn't seem an especially impressive piece of sculpture; maybe everyone just likes a slightly risqué statue. I also hadn't realised that it was regularly dressed up in costumes, which I find somewhat odd. Apparently there are similar statues all over Belgium (independent ones, I mean, not replicas). There are also replicas, like one in a station in Tokyo, which are also regularly dressed up.

Comments

[vicarage.livejournal.com]

"colossal headers"... You've either been a programmer too long, or have visions of that great Mexican World Cup team of 1970...

Since your first posting I've been to see Northumberlandia, now she's a big girl, as I chanted dancing on her right nipple! BTW I knew Matt Ridley was a climate change denier, but didn't realise he owned the open-cast coal mine next door!

[ghoti.livejournal.com]

Ooh, how exciting! I thought my unique statue would be the Epstein. Or did I bump that? I was pretty surprised to discover I could think of more than 10 famous statues when I stopped to think about it, though, so I did have to leave some of my thoughts (including the Motherland Calls) off.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Oops, headers corrected. Thanks.

I've not seen - or actually heard of - Northumberlandia. I might have to investigate next time I'm home.

[vicarage.livejournal.com]

Only finished 3 years ago, she's 1300' long!

[bopeepsheep.livejournal.com]

I saw Manneken Pis for the first time on Tuesday! He's a tiny wee boy, if you'll excuse the phrase. :)

[ylla.livejournal.com]

The little mermaid was the one I was doubting was life size, but I think actually she's ok and the little boy isn't!

[bopeepsheep.livejournal.com]

He is just about lifesize. But only if you remember that he is a toddler. :D

[ylla.livejournal.com]

Hmm, fair enough! :)

[venta.livejournal.com]

I dunno, I'm not entirely clear how big mermaids are in real life!

[ylla.livejournal.com]

Good point - never thought of that!

[venta.livejournal.com]

No Epstein - you listed all the winners apart from The Thinker and the Manneken Pis, plus you included the Tian Tan Buddha and the Pieta :-) I think you commented about Night and Day at the time, though!

[drdoug.livejournal.com]

Having won, I should confess I was cheating. I was not giving my genuine answer to "what are the most famous statues in the world", but to "what are the respondents to a quiz on venta's LJ likely to list as the most famous statues in the world", which is an easier question to answer.

[drdoug.livejournal.com]

One of the things I like about Manneken Pis is how rubbish it is. How can such an ordinary, nondescript statue be so famous? Only in Brussels. Once he's finished wearing a costume, it gets added to a pointless collection in the Musée de la Ville. I think there must be thousands by now. All rubbish, and entirely unworthy of a visit, as is the statue itself. Except you have to go to reassure yourself that it really is that rubbish. I've been several times, and can attest that it is.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Yes, shermarama pointed out at the time that that was an issue. I foolishly assume that everyone will try and answer my questions accurately, which of course people never do :-)

Out of interest, what would your genuine list of top ten statues be?

[ghoti.livejournal.com]

Ooh, cool thanks. I couldn't remember if I put The Thinker or Pieta, I kept changing my mind.

[bopeepsheep.livejournal.com]

However - if you play Ingress, he's worth visiting several times in the same day! (For those that do, my IGN is the same as here, and you can spot the mission badges very easily. I ran out of time/dry weather to do *all* of them, though.)

[bopeepsheep.livejournal.com]

Oh, since it doesn't seem to have been mentioned, A New England. Bragg not McColl, because of the pronouns. But I still prefer her version!

[shermarama]

I wonder how much irony there is involved in it, or affection for the very daftness of it, that many people aren't picking up on? I mean, we all know Nelson's Column is famous, but we know it's famous as something tourists come and look at, not something anyone British goes to see - or maybe it's more like cheese rolling, which people do by now just *because* it's a Thing, and one they tried to ban so clearly it should be done just for the sake of it. (I wonder if tourist guides could do with an irony index for things?)

[shermarama]

Oooh, who else said Greyfriars Bobby? (And for some reason I now can't imagine why I didn't say Rotterdam's Santa Claus, aka the Buttplug Gnome.)

[ylla.livejournal.com]

Hey, I've been to see Nelson's column *twice*!
(Once many years ago as a plain tourist from the wilds of the north, when you could still feed the pigeons, once after I actually got interested in Trafalgar and all the Age of Sail stuff :) )

I've been to see the Mannekin Pis too, but I don't remember it being very exciting.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Um, huskyteer, I think!

[venta.livejournal.com]

Someone (who shall remain nameless) did actually list "Napoleon in Trafalgar Square" as one of their statues. I assumed that was a brainfart and counted it as a vote for Nelson ;) Unless there really is a statue of Napoleon hiding away somewhere, subversively!?

[venta.livejournal.com]

One kudo to you. (It actually was originally the McColl version, then I changed it just before posting.)

[zotz]

If anyone can make Bobby non-famous, I'd be quite grateful.

Also, thanks for the Kudo. I haven't had one in ages.

[bopeepsheep.livejournal.com]

The skeletal horse might be called Napoleon? There are some obscure busts lurking around the square but I'm pretty sure Boney isn't one of them.

[huskyteer.livejournal.com]

Who else?

[ylla.livejournal.com]

I don't *think* it was me - I think I forgot Nelson completely :)

Forgot Greyfriar's Bobby too, despite working 5 minutes from it...

[shermarama]

*grins* I suppose I've been to Trafalgar Square a few times as a tourist myself, but I still don't feel like I've ever seen Nelson. There's all that other stuff - the lions, the fourth plinth, the National Gallery, and just the space itself - oh, and yeah, there's some bloke on top of the stick, isn't there?

When I went to see the Manneken Pis there happened to be some sort of traditional society having a gathering in front of him, with banners, all in fancy robes and with the Manneken in matching ones, so I remember it as more impressive than it would otherwise be, I think.

[shermarama]

The Amsterdam equivalent (can't remember if I put it down or not now) would have been the statue of Andre Hazes. He was a bad singer of hideously sentimental songs and even the statue of him is pretty naff, but Amsterdammers do love him.

[shermarama]

The Amsterdam equivalent (can't remember if I put it down or not now) would have been the statue of Andre Hazes. He was a bad singer of hideously sentimental songs and even the statue of him is pretty naff, but Amsterdammers do love him.

[zotz]

I'm really not sure how people here generally think of Bobby, but the tourists can't leave it alone even though the story's probably mostly fictional. The guest shop in the churchyard will sell you, if you want, postcards of portraits allegedly drawn from life. These show that this remarkably talented dog was apparently able to belong to at least two different breeds.

As for public statues, though, Glasgow's got a good one.

[stegzy.livejournal.com]

I'm surprised nobody else got Dickie Bird or Dickie Lewis for that matter. Perhaps if they were in Belgium they would be better known. Incidentally, someone once told me, so it's probably a lie, that Liverpool has more statues than most other cities in the UK. Dickie Lewis would be proud.

[shermarama]

Just had a weird moment with something statue-related, which I why I mention it here - did you know the Easter Island heads aren't just heads, but have bodies below ground level? It gave me deja vu for having thought 'really? Wow!' the first time I learnt it, but then evidently I forgot again.

[venta.livejournal.com]

That sounds like an April fool :) but Wikipedia backs you up, so wow! I did not know that, thanks for sharing it!