Head of Christ
The Head of Christ is a marble sculpture created in 1903 by Giuseppe Moretti from a block of Sylacauga marble that he carefully selected for the purpose. It depicts the languid head of Christ, eyes closed, apparently at his death on the cross.
The sculptor considered the artwork one of his finest creations. It represented the spiritual life of Alabama, and also served as a particularly evocative demonstration of the quality of marble being quarried in the state. It was displayed in the Palace of Mines and Metallurgy at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St Louis, Missouri in 1904 where it, like Vulcan, embodied the mineral resources of the Birmingham District.
Moretti, who had invested in commercial marble quarries and other industries in Alabama, kept the piece in his possession throughout his life. He stated that because it was the first block of Alabama marble to be used in sculpture, that it should return to Alabama after his death.
Moretti died in 1935 just as plans were beginning to take shape to move the Vulcan statue from the Alabama State Fairgrounds to a new stone tower on Red Mountain. The Birmingham City Commission declined to accept the gift of the "Head of Christ", claiming that the city had no secure repository for fine artwork. A contemporary newspaper article alluded to a supposed claim of Moretti's that the two works were companions and should remain together. The author interpreted the intent as a desire to balance the material with the spiritual and the pagan with the Christian.
Instead Moretti's widow, Dorothea, donated the piece to the Alabama Department of Archives and History, for display in the Fine Arts Room of the archive's World War Memorial Building in Montgomery.
In 2004, during the renovation of Vulcan Park, then Jefferson County Commission president Larry Langford referred to that claim in calling for the Head of Christ to be displayed alongside Vulcan again. Vulcan Park Foundation director Katherine Billmeier explained that the park's museum was not designed to store fine art.
References
- "Commissioner wants bust of Jesus displayed with Vulcan" (February 20, 2004) Associated Press/Gadsden Times
- Cason, Bob (Summer 2004) "Moretti's Warning: The Myth Demystified." Alabama Heritage. No. 73