The Mounted Amazon Attacked by a Panther
Philadelphia Museum of Art
Philadelphia PA
2016

The original Amazon sits at the steps of the Altes Museum across from Albert Wolff’s The Lion Fighter

This artwork is a cast of the original and sits at the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art across from a cast of Wolff’s The Lion Fighter

The Mounted Amazon Attacked by a Panther was the work of German sculptor August Kiss. Caught in the midst of the attack, the figures convey the violence and emotional tension of the moment. The Amazon was installed in 1837 at the steps of the newly built Altes Museum, standing alone for several years until Albert Wolff completed a companion piece, The Lion Fighter. The Fairmount Park Art Association (now the Association for Public Art) acquired the plaster casts for both works in 1889, but the Amazon cast was in such poor condition that it could not be shipped to the United States.

With the assistance of the German government, a new plaster cast was made from the original bronze and exhibited in Memorial Hall until 1909. The decision to commission only American art prompted the Association to present the Amazon as a gift to Harvard’s Germanic Museum. However, once construction began on the new building for the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Association arranged to cast another copy so that it could sit across from The Lion Fighter.