{"product_id":"hermon-atkins-macneil-hopi-prayer-for-rain-1931-porcelain-art-mug","title":"Hermon Atkins MacNeil: Hopi — Prayer for Rain, 1931 – Porcelain Art Mug","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e250th Anniversary · Jubilee Edition\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\u003cimg src=\"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0816\/8475\/8859\/files\/Gemini_Generated_Image_5999r55999r55999_4a4d9d37-9593-4186-9fb3-a89fdfd98dfe.jpg?v=1783343892\" alt=\"250th Anniversary · Jubilee Edition\" style=\"max-width: 180px; width: 100%;\"\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThirty-Six Years Later\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn the summer of 1895 a young American sculptor climbed the mesa in northern Arizona and watched the Hopi snake dance. Within two years Hermon Atkins MacNeil had made a bronze of it — a runner carrying serpents down from the mesa, cast at Fonderia Nelli in Rome. Then he let the subject rest.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThirty-six years later the Society of Medalists asked him for their third issue. He went back to the same moment and cut it into a medal seventy-two millimetres across. The runners again, and this time more of them: four figures strung out along the trail, lightning breaking overhead, the mesa low on the horizon, and the words \u003cem\u003ePRAYER FOR RAIN\u003c\/em\u003e set into the foot of the disc.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMacNeil explained the choice himself: \u003cem\u003eAll these Southwest Indians, living as they do in an arid region, have developed their religion along the lines of their greatest need — water.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe medal was issued in 1931: one thousand seven hundred and thirteen pieces in bronze, twenty-five in silver. MacNeil chose four patinas for it — tan, sea green, hematite red — and the piece is very slightly oval, not round, because he drew it that way.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA relief is a different thing from a statue. It has no silhouette; everything in it is made of light. Held in the hand at breakfast, it does what a coin does — it asks to be turned towards the window.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFine Porcelain — 10 oz. Dishwasher and microwave safe.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHermon Atkins MacNeil (1866–1947), \u003cem\u003eHopi — Prayer for Rain\u003c\/em\u003e, medal, 1931, reverse. Smithsonian American Art Museum, 1972.167.10, gift of the heirs of Albert Laessle. Free to use. The medal is in the public domain in Switzerland, Germany, Austria and the United Kingdom, and in the United States: it was published in 1931 with a copyright notice, but no renewal was registered in 1958 or 1959.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSelected by Dr. Walther Fuchs for the Tazzarte collection.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Tazzarte","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":58298345455947,"sku":"5ec197fc-3864-447d-8950-061cbb038d1a","price":34.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0816\/8475\/8859\/files\/d14b58e8-fe56-44d8-8e40-b87e434b0ecc.webp?v=1788015086","url":"https:\/\/tazzarte.com\/products\/hermon-atkins-macneil-hopi-prayer-for-rain-1931-porcelain-art-mug","provider":"Tazzarte","version":"1.0","type":"link"}