Persephone，1952年，阿拉巴马州石灰石，雕刻
照片由Wellesley Colle亚博电竞官网gives提供礼貌

在东边度过了时间（以前被称为新宿舍）的alumnae将通过珀塞弗, a freestanding sculpture by Bates’s entrance, anddemeter.，雕刻的救济板通过第三面板伴随着描绘橡树叶的第三面板，更接近弗里曼。我在我的第一年生活在McAfee，对我来说，这些作品成为了令人兴奋的校园的传递景观的一部分。他们与空间的历史性联系反映了与大学生活中的周到的参与作为增长和独立的空间。

The artist who created these works, John Rood (1902–1974), was an established midcentury sculptor who spent much of his career teaching art at the University of Minnesota. His early education and professional interests included a transformative trip to Europe, where he mingled with the Parisian avant-garde, and the creation of a literary magazine,手稿，他与他的第一任妻子编辑。在20世纪40年代后期，他结婚了1910年的Wellesley班的Dorothy Bridgman Rood。

通过他的妻子与学院作为受托人的联系，Rood正在订婚，为宿舍的新综合体创造一个户外雕塑。在1952年11月，他为此杂志写的文章中，Rood描述了他如何为雕塑制定他的概念。他与建筑师谈过并研究了新建筑的计划，他还制作了一系列初步草图和Maquettes，以设想如何在广场内的表格。1952年夏天，这对夫妇在大学期间花了几个星期，而9月份的奉献宾馆和弗里曼大厅的奉献精神的最终详情。

根据希腊神话，Persephone可以享受与她的母亲的自然世界，侦探每年的一部分，但她必须在冬季返回黑社会。古代叙述解释了季节的生长和衰变的循环和衰变：珀掌声在抵达时让地球变暖，每个春天和侦探快乐地激活了一个生长的季节，随后历史和寒冷的季节哀悼她的女儿的强迫分离。Rood的选择描绘了Wellesley College Campus Foregro亚博电竞官网unds前景的这个故事，以及女性关系的重要性以及妇女与自然世界之间的强大联系。

The towering form ofPersephone is carved in the round, and it is meant to be viewed from all sides. Large leaves create a wide base, from which rise four thick columns that meet at the top. The edges of their undulating shape defines an abstract female form in the negative space—the young Persephone materializes among the carved depictions of plants and animals on the columns’ surface. As the viewer walks around the sculpture, the open void that represents Persephone is filled with distant sky and green trees, or the bright glass and brick geometry of the nearby architecture. Rood described struggling with how to depict the myth’s main character, as well as communicate the temporal narrative. In his 1952 article, Rood explained, “At last I hit upon the idea of enclosing the figure within the stone, so that the space itself becomes the figure of Persephone.” Her identity is both trapped within the heavy stone, yet also liberated as a universal presence made of earth and sky.

珀塞弗anddemeter.是第一次公共户外艺术品之一，以永久安装在校园内。These works, as well as more recent additions such as Kenneth Snelson’s Mozart III, near the Science Center meadow, or the woodland installation by Michael Singer and Michael McKinnell along the lake path, not only enrich our visual experience, but also serve as historic markers in the long arc of Wellesley’s engagement with art and landscape.