Dome

Overall view from rear, from museum steps; This pair of sculptures flank the north entry stairs of the Cranbrook Art Museum and Library. They are meant to show maternal adoration and protection. The work is also called Modersstolthet (Mother’s Pride) and was purchased by Eliel Saarinen for Cranbrook Foundation in 1938. Born in Helsinki, Finland, Jussi Mäntynen was a professional taxidermist as well as an artist. He specialized in sculpting animals native to Finland and often studied them in the wild. Earlier in his career, his sculptures of animals were executed in a realistic manner, but later he became more stylized in his work. This abstraction can be seen here where the musculature of the cats is reduced to rounded curves and forms. Source: Cranbrook Academy of Art Outdoor Sculpture Guide; http://www.cranbrookart.edu/Images/CAM%20images/CAA-sculpture-guide.pdf (accessed 7/21/2015)