Sundial, Boy with Spider

Artwork by Willard Dryden Paddock

Sundial, Boy With Spider

Artist| Willard Dryden Paddock
Year| 1916-1918
Type| Bronze
Dimensions| 76 cm × 56 cm × 71 cm (30 in × 22 in × 28 in)
Location| Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, Indiana, United States
Coordinates| 39°49′38.73″N 86°11′2.24″W﻿ / ﻿39.8274250°N 86.1839556°W﻿ / 39.8274250; -86.1839556﻿ (Sundial, Boy With Spider by Willard Dryden Paddock (1916))
Owner| Indianapolis Museum of Art

Sundial, Boy With Spider is an outdoor sculpture and functional sundial by American artist Willard Dryden Paddock (1873–1956). It is located within the Oldfields estate on the grounds of the Indianapolis Museum of Art (IMA), in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. The bronze sculpture, cast by the Gorham Manufacturing Company, depicts a boy sitting cross-legged with an open scroll in his lap.[1]

## Description

[edit]

A young boy sits with his ankles crossed and knees spread, holding a sundial in the form of a scroll in his lap; this scroll is marked in a grid of lines with month names and geographic coordinates. In his lap beneath the scroll sits a bundle of flowers. The boy’s proper left hand rests on his left knee. His proper right hand, which is in contact with his head, casually holds a twig over the scroll. A wire wrapped around the end of the twig hangs straight down to the base, where it is affixed. A bronze spider is affixed to the wire in the correct place to act as the gnomon of the sundial. (The wire, twig, and spider are restorations from 2004.)[2] The boy rests on an oval base.

### Inscribed text

[edit]

#### Scroll

[edit]

Inscribed on the scroll are a grid of lines and analemmas marked with months, dates, and hours sufficient to plot the time over the course of the year, as well as a set of coordinates that mark the original location of the sculpture:

Lat 39°, 50 N 86°, 10 W Long

Inscribed on the proper left bottom corner:

Dial Marking by Albert C. Crehore, inventor

#### Base

[edit]

Cast in relief along the edge of the base in Roman letters:

MARK YE THE HOURS OF LIGHT THAT SLIP AWAY ~ ~ ~ SPIN THEN THY HOUR OF SUNLIGHT WHILE YE MAY ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Inscribed on the base at proper left:

© by Willard Paddock Sculptor

Scpt. | 1916 1917

PAT. FEB 26 1918-

Stamped along base rim under “WHILE”:

O. BFC GORHAM CO. FOUNDERS

## Condition

[edit]

The bronze sculpture is monitored, cleaned, and treated regularly by the IMA art conservation staff. The surface of the bronze is protected from deterioration and corrosion by the yearly application of a fresh coat of hard wax. This sculpture was surveyed in July 1993 of as part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture database, and it was considered to be well maintained.[1] In 2004 the IMA conservation staff undertook a major treatment of the sculpture in which the surface was repatinated to unify the color and improve its readability, and the newly fabricated wire and spider gnomon were added to restore the functionality of the sundial.[2] In June 2011, the wire and spider are currently missing from the sundial.

## See also

[edit]

* List of Indianapolis Museum of Art artworks

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b Save Outdoor Sculpture! (1993). "Sundial, Boy With Spider". SIRIS. Smithsonian. Retrieved January 17, 2011.
2. ^ a b Indianapolis Museum of Art. Sundial, Boy With Spider, Acc. # 73.123. 2004 Conservation Condition and Treatment Reports. July 25, 2004. Retrieved from Indianapolis Museum of Art Conservation Archives 19 January 2011.

* v
* t
* e

Indianapolis Museum of Art (Newfields)

Significant
artworks at the
Indianapolis
Museum of Art|

| African art|

* Face mask
* Senufo female ancestor figure
* Magbo helmet mask for Oro society
* Palace plaque depicting warrior
* Guardian figure
* Healing of Abiku Children

|

American painting and
sculpture to 1945|

* Afternoon Tea
* Cliff Rock - Appledore
* Dorothy
* Hotel Lobby
* Hurricane
* Jimson Weed
* Morning at Grand Manan
* Preparing for the Matinee
* Red Kimono on the Roof
* Reflections
* Sunlight
* The Boat Builders
* The Flight of Europa
* The Love Song
* The Rainbow
* Tidying Up
* U.S.A.
* Untitled (The Birth)

Asian art|

* Bowl with two violet spots
* Cong-shaped vase
* Covered jar with carp design
* Fine Wind, Clear Morning
* Ksitigarbha bodhisattva
* Ritual wine server
* Shigaraki ware storage jar
* Vase with carved peony scrolls
* Vase with nine peach design

Contemporary art|

* Acton
* Courre Merlan
* Egyptian Barnyard
* LOVE painting
* LOVE (sculpture)
* The Quintet of the Silent
* They Waz Nice White Folks While They Lasted (Sez One Gal to Another)
* Untitled Landfield
* Untitled Judd
* Untitled Irwin

Decorative arts|

* Angel of the Resurrection
* Coffee service
* High chest of drawers
* Portland Vase
* Side chair

European painting and
sculpture to 1945|

* Aristotle
* Battle Between Carnival and Lent
* Breton Women at a Wall
* Broek in Waterland
* Charing Cross Bridge
* Crucifix
* Crucifixion
* Enclosed Field with Peasant
* Entry of Christ into Jerusalem
* Entry of Christ into Jerusalem
* House in Provence
* Landscape near Arles
* Ma Jolie
* Madonna and Child with St. John the Baptist and St. Mary Magdalene
* Man and Woman
* Peasant with a Wheelbarrow
* Rebecca and Eliezer at the Well
* Roman Capriccio: The Pantheon and Other Monuments
* Saint Luke
* Self-Portrait Rembrandt
* Still Life with a Chinese Porcelain Jar
* Still Life with Profile of Laval
* The Banks of the Oise near Pontoise
* The Boy
* The Channel of Gravelines, Petit Fort Philippe
* The Country Dance
* The Crucifixion Cranach
* The Fifth Plague of Egypt
* The Flageolet Player on the Cliff
* The Flight into Egypt
* The Holy Family with Saint John the Baptist
* The House of the Deaf Woman and the Belfry at Eragny
* The Negress
* The Seamstress
* The Triumphant Entry of Constantine into Rome
* The Two Sisters
* The Valkhof at Nijmegen
* Triptych of the Annunciation
* Vorhor, the Green Wave

Art of the Americas|

* Haida ceremonial dance rattle

Oceanic art|

* Helmet mask (Tatanua)

Prints, drawings,
and photographs|

* Blasting St. Vincent's Rock, Clifton
* Boreas and Oreithyia
* Galinthias Outwits Eileithyia by Announcing the Birth of Heracles
* Mother (Mutter)
* Moulin Rouge: La Goulue
* The Holy Family with the Dragonfly
* Young Woman in Blue

Textile and
fashion arts|

* Moroccan wall hanging
* Chinese Souls #2
* Eli Lilly Family Quilt
* Evening dress
* Woman's apron
* Sumbanese woman's ceremonial skirt

Outdoor
artworks
by location|

| Museum grounds|

* Above and Below
* Five Brushstrokes
* La Hermana del Hombre Bóveda
* Memories of Prague
* Mother and Child
* Numbers 1-0
* Snowplow
* Stumbling Man
* Sutphin Fountain
* Two Figures
* Two Lines Oblique Down, Variation III

|

Oldfields|

* Copy of Diana of Versailles
* Diana with Dog
* Female and Male Herm
* Fountain
* Four Seasons
* Landon-Era Birdbath
* Mother and Child (Gordine)
* Nymph and Fawn
* Sundial, Boy With Spider
* The Three Graces
* Pair of Urns

100 Acres|

* Bench Around the Lake
* Eden II
* Free Basket
* Funky Bones
* Indianapolis Island
* Park of the Laments
* Stratum Pier
* Team Building (Align)

Artworks on loan|

* East Gate/West Gate
* Mega-Gem
* Portrait of History
* Sewall Memorial Torches
* Spaces with Iron

Deaccessioned
artworks|

* Broken Walrus II
* Holistic Image VIII
* Weather Tower

Leadership|

* Maxwell L. Anderson
* Charles L. Venable
* Colette Pierce Burnette

*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template