Friday, February 09, 2007

Did Charles Moulton Know About this Image?

I was looking up images of Justice, Lady Justice, and Blind Justice in art history today and stumbled onto this little jewel:

I found the image on the Springfield Museums website. Here's the website's description of the image:

"The Star Spangled Banner, no date
Nathaniel Currier
Hand-colored lithograph

The Star-Spangled Banner, a song written by Francis Scott Key in 1814, was a popular tune during the 19th century, especially at 4th of July celebrations. Though not recognized officially as the national anthem until 1931, Currier & Ives created two different allegorical portraits of freedom using the title of the song as their inspiration. Here, Lady Liberty wears a tiara with a shield bearing the stars and stripes and a veil decorated with stars. She carries the American flag as she strides forward toward liberty. Several phrases from the song emphasize the patriotic nature of the print:

O! long may it wave,
O'er the land of the free,
And the home of the brave"

The resemblance of this Currier and Ives lithograph of Lady Liberty is uncannily similar to that jewel of Americana--Wonder Woman. I wonder what sort of art research, the creator of Wonder Woman, Charles Moulton did to come up with the Amazon's garb. Does anyone else see a striking similarity?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Very interesting, to say the least.