Towards the beginning of the tour I was struck by this statue when compared to the rest of campus. All of the other statues that we were shown on this trip were made of bronze and were highly militaristic, a stark contrast to the marble monumental nude. Another interesting piece of information that we learned was that it was originally commissioned by Mussolini. However, upon completion the sculptors came to the decision that they did not want to show support for Mussolini by giving him the statue. Italy’s loss however became VMI’s gain offering a brief retrieve from the gothic architecture.
This sculpture shows the Confederate General Stonewall Jackson. In the memorial he is shown as a general rather than in civilian clothes because he was most notable for his contributions to the Confederacy. However, before he became a general, he was a professor of physics at VMI. I found it interesting that the tour guide suggested that Stonewall was a subpar professor. This may account for the fact that in this statue he is not being honored for his role as a professor. It was also interesting that prior to erecting this memorial, a memorial by the same artist had stood in its place. The tour guide explained that the sculptor was a proponent of the larder Stonewall Jackson memorial to fill the place of his former creation because it fit better in the space.
I found this memorial to perhaps be the most interesting of all mostly due to its absurdity. Perhaps with a campus littered by memorials, it should not be surprising that the erected a memorial commemorating a tree. The true reason the tree was commemorated was because it was the site in which the school was founded. None the less I find it to be a humorous addition to the memorial landscape.
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