File:Lascar Havis Amanda (4548691815).jpg

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Description Havis Amanda is a nude female statue in Helsinki, Finland. It was sculpted by Ville Vallgren (1855-1940) in 1906 in Paris, but was not erected at its present location at the Market Square in Kaartinkaupunki until 1908. Havis Amanda is one of Vallgren's Parisian Art Nouveau works. It is cast in bronze and the fountain it resides in is made of granite. She is a mermaid who stands on seaweed as she rises from the water, with four fish spouting water at her feet and surrounded by four sea lions. She is depicted leaning backwards as if to say goodbye to her element. Vallgren's intention was to symbolize the rebirth of Helsinki. The height of the statue is 194 centimetres and with the pedestal it stands 5 metres tall. According to Vallgren's letters the model for the statue was a then 19-year-old Parisian lady, Marcelle Delquini. Vallgren himself simply called the work Merenneito (English: The Mermaid), but it quickly started to get additional nicknames. The Finland-Swedish newspapers dubbed it Havis Amanda and the Finnish Haaviston Manta or simply Manta. Havis Amanda is the common name used in brochures and travel guides. It was unveiled on September 20, 1908. The work drew a lot of criticism at first, especially from women. Its nakedness and seductiveness were considered inappropriate. Not all groups objected to the nudity per se, but putting it on a pedestal was thought to subjugate women by making them appear weak and create sexual objectification and belittling of women (equal and common suffrage was introduced in 1906). Some women's rights groups criticised the look of the figure as plain and some even as "a common French #####", lacking pristine and innocence. The sea lions, with their human tongues hanging out, were said to represent men lusting after the mademoiselle. Vallgren considered himself a worshipper of women. Many in the cultural elite of Finland considered Vallgren an outsider and had judged his work even before it was finished. A good friend of his, Albert Edelfelt, was instrumental through his influence in getting the work ordered. Thanks to a small group of mainly Finland-Swedish supporters, the work gradually started gaining wide acceptance and natives started seeing it as the spirit of the city. Today it has been consistently voted the most important and most beautiful piece of art in Helsinki. Every year on Vappu, Manta serves as a centrepiece for the celebrations. Students of the local universities put a cap on the statue on an elaborate ceremony. [Wikipedia.org]
Date
Source Havis Amanda
Author Jorge Láscar from Australia
Camera location60° 10′ 04.3″ N, 24° 57′ 03.42″ E Kartographer map based on OpenStreetMap.View this and other nearby images on: OpenStreetMapinfo

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w:en:Creative Commons
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This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
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This image was originally posted to Flickr by Jorge Lascar at https://www.flickr.com/photos/8721758@N06/4548691815. It was reviewed on 2 April 2014 by FlickreviewR and was confirmed to be licensed under the terms of the cc-by-2.0.

2 April 2014

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current09:17, 2 April 2014Thumbnail for version as of 09:17, 2 April 20143,216 × 2,136 (2.95 MB)Russavia (talk | contribs)Transferred from Flickr

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