Enid Yandell's Athena Sculpture

Enid Yandell (1869-1934) was an American sculptor who studied with Rodin and MacMonnies. When she was just 27 years old, she was commissioned to create a monumental sculpture of Pallas Athena for the 1897 Tennessee Centennial Exposition.

According to Wikipedia: "Yandell created the statue in her studio in Paris. She based the design on the Pallas de Velletri, found near Rome, Italy, in the eighteenth century, which was itself a copy of an ancient Greek statue. It depicted Athena with one arm raised victoriously and the other arm with upturned palm in a gesture of welcome. The 40-foot sculpture was shipped to Nashville in sections by ship. The statue was assembled in Nashville and stood before the exposition's Fine Arts Building, which was built as a full-size replica of the Parthenon in Athens."

"Like other statues in the exhibition, Yandell's Athena was made from staff, a non-permanent building material. The sculpture was never cast in bronze and within a year it deteriorated to pieces. The Nashville Parthenon was rebuilt in permanent materials, and still stands today. An entirely different Athena statue by Alan LeQuire, unveiled in 1990, stands inside the Nashville Parthenon."

Enid Yandell on Wikipedia