Chicago area Italians donated Grant Park’s Christopher Columbus monument, which they dedicated on Italian Day in 1933 at A Century of Progress, the city's second World's Fair. Its sculptor, Carl Brioschi (1879-1941), was born in Milan and received his art training in Italy before immigrating to New York at the turn of the century. He settled in Minnesota, where he also sculpted a Columbus monument for the State Capitol Building.
Brioschi’s Chicago monument not only commemorated the arrival of Christopher Columbus (1451-1506) to the New World, but also conveyed the spirit of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal during the Great Depression. In traditional Beaux-Arts style, the realistic bronze figure of Columbus earnestly surveys the horizon with a map in hand.
The contrasting but symbolic Art Deco-style granite pedestal displays relief symbols of the Santa Maria, one of Columbus's 3 ships that sailed to the “New World.” Other relief symbols include Paolo Toscanelli, the famous astronomer and mathematician who charted the course of the journey; Columbus’ tutor Amerigo Vespucci who theorized that the world was round, and for whom America’ was named; and the city seal of Genoa, birthplace of Columbus.
On the four corners of the base, sculptural busts represent faith, courage, freedom, and strength. These allegorical figures were so detailed that, ironically, one visitor contacted the Chicago Park District 30 years after installation with the concern that “strength” was actually a depiction of Fascist Benito Mussolini. Brioschi’s son confirmed that that was not the case.
