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April 22, 2005 |
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Friday flashback
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Alma Mater, the angelic countenance at the center of this canvas, is robed in the blue and gold colors of the State of Indiana while a dragon at her feet, representing the spirit of barbarism, devours books. Above her head are swirling angelic figures while a young man with a half-drawn sword is depicted in the lower-left quadrant of this work by American painter Edwin Howland Blashfield. The painting was commissioned by IU President William Lowe Bryan and his wife, Charlotte Lowe Bryan. The canvas was presented to the university at the June 1924 commencement and was the subject of President Bryan’s commencement oration. “I do not know whether the American college boy will fight the dragon or not,” the artist had commented to the Bryans. Blashfield’s Alma Mater hangs on the second-floor balcony level of the IU Bookstore at the Indiana Memorial Union in Bloomington.
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IU Home Pages + 400 E. 7th Street. Bloomington, IN 47405 + Phone: (812) 855-6494
Publication Date: April 22, 2005 + Comments: homepgs@indiana.edu
Copyright ©2003, The Trustees of Indiana University
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