Founder: Quick Bite

Today on Museum Quick Bites we’re celebrating Presidents’ Day with an up close and personal look at Jean-Antoine Houdon’s terracotta bust of George Washington. Sculpted in the late 1780s, Houdon portrays a pensive, post-Revolutionary War Washington. Houdon’s goal was to depict Washington as a noble, Roman statesman, hence the toga he added to the sculpture. But for a man who eschewed pomp and displays of ego, who would go on to insist on serving only two terms in office, Washington balked at these lofty portrayals.

Renaissance Man

Nicolaus Copernicus debunked the belief that the earth was at the center of the universe. Christopher Columbus, Ponce de Leon, and Sir Francis Drake set sail across the globe, and quintessential Renaissance man, Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (1452-1519) made his debut.

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