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Bethesda Fountain, Central Park, Borough of Manhattan, New York City, New York State, USA is the central feature on the lower level Bethesda Terrace, constructe...
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Bethesda Fountain, Central Park, Borough of Manhattan, New York City, New York State, USA is the central feature on the lower level Bethesda Terrace, constructed between 1859 and 1864, which is enclosed within two elliptical balustrades.

The bronze, eight-foot statue depicts a female winged angel touching down upon the top of the fountain, where water spouts and cascades into an upper basin and into the surrounding pool. It was the only statue in the park called for in the original design. Beneath her are four four-foot cherubs representing Temperance, Purity, Health, and Peace. Also called the Angel of the Waters, the statue refers to Healing the paralytic at Bethesda, a story from the Gospel of John about an angel blessing the Pool of Bethesda, giving it healing powers. In Central Park the referent is the Croton Aqueduct opened in 1842, providing the city for the first time with a dependable supply of pure water. Thus the angel carries a lily in one hand, representing purity, and with the other hand she blesses the water below.

The base of the fountain was designed by the architect of all the original built features of Central Park, Calvert Vaux, with sculptural details, as usual, by Jacob Wrey Mould. In Calvert Vaux and Frederick Law Olmsted's 1858 Greensward Plan, the terrace at the end of the Mall overlooking the naturalistic landscape of the Lake was simply called The Water Terrace, but after the unveiling of the angel, its name was changed to Bethesda Terrace.
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Superb Composition
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