Idolatry View 4

Leonard Baskin

Leonard Baskin, Sculptor: A Retrospective

24×14.5×14 in

Wood

1971-1972

During the 1960s Baskin had experimented with hybrid figures or birds and men. Major works during this time also played with the Eagle as a symbol of imperial oppression. Perhaps the four-headed eagle owes its imagery to this passage from Ezekiel 1:5-11

5 Also out of the midst thereof came the likeness of four living creatures. And this was their appearance; they had the likeness of a man.

6 And every one had four faces, and every one had four wings.

7 And their feet were straight feet; and the sole of their feet was like the sole of a calf’s foot: and they sparkled like the colour of burnished brass.

8 And they had the hands of a man under their wings on their four sides; and they four had their faces and their wings.

9 Their wings were joined one to another; they turned not when they went; they went every one straight forward.

10 As for the likeness of their faces, they four had the face of a man, and the face of a lion, on the right side: and they four had the face of an ox on the left side; they four also had the face of an eagle.

11 Thus were their faces: and their wings were stretched upward; two wings of every one were joined one to another, and two covered their bodies.