The Middlebury Panther, 1997

Bronze, over life-size. Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Phillip H. Morse and Shelley H. Morse, Class of 1995. 1997.022

Location: Youngman Field and Alumni Stadium

The symbolic function of animals has made them ubiquitous presences in western art. Rulers often commissioned sculptures of their heraldic counterparts from the animal world and used them to represent either themselves or their realms. No image evoked greater awe—from antiquity through the nineteenth century—than equestrian statues of rulers astride a horse.