TitleAnd they shall beat their swords into ploughshares
Artist
Moissaye Marans
(1902 - 1977)
Date1970 replica of earlier work
MediumWood
DimensionsOverall: 24 1/2 × 7 1/2 × 4 3/4 in.
Other (Sculpture): 20 1/2 × 7 1/2 × 4 1/4 in.
Other (Base): 4 × 4 1/2 × 4 1/2 in.
SubmissionNA diploma presentation, April 5, 1971
Credit LineNational Academy of Design, New York, NY
Object number199-S
Label TextCombining Marans' favorite themes of religion and peace, this sculpture illustrates the passage from Isaiah, "He shall judge between the nations, and shall decide for many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more."The sculpture was conceived in the early 1960s and a bronze version, fourteen feet high, was cast for the facade of the Community Church on East 35th Street in New York City. A small replica won the Henry Hering Memorial Award of the National Sculpture Society in 1963 and the work was chosen as the official emblem of the United States Atomic Energy Commission, Washington, the following year.
It depicts a scowling, bearded male who is almost certainly meant to represent the prophet Isaiah. He wears a plain, ankle-length cloak, is barefoot, and clutches a sword which is broken into two pieces, one part of which he holds above his head. A plow is behind him and to his right.
Other casts of this sculpture are in the collections of The Community Church, New York; Har Zion Temple, Philadelphia; the First Universalist Church, Chicago; Temple Rodef Shalom, Pittsburgh; the San Jose (California) Museum; and the United States Atomic Energy Commission, Washington.
