SOM#029, Richard Recchia, Aspiration and Inspiration, 1944, Silver, 51 mm

From the collection of John Birks

Numbers Issued: 57 Bronze (51 mm), 891 Silver (51 mm); Bronze issues limited due to wartime shortage

Reissued in 1973: 150 Bronze (73 mm), 100 Silver (73 mm)

FROM THE ARTIST

Aspiration and Inspiration
The theme of this medal is Inspiration and Aspiration. It is a tribute to the human spirit's struggle to reach the unattainable, to which it aspires. We may never reach our ideal in this life but "what we truly and earnestly aspire to be, that in some sense we are. The mere aspiration, by changing the frame of the mind, for the moment realizes itself." Jameson.

The idea is portrayed in the figure of aspiring youth, standing on a pinnacle high above his fellow men, and straining his every muscle towards the stars which symbolize the future and the intense longing of his soul to reach the summits. The background of mountains and water represent the earth, and the rolling clouds and light rays are aspirational symbols. The quotation, "Too low they build who build beneath the stars," is from "Night Thoughts," by Edward Young.

The other side of the medal is the bust which shows the man's mind stretching upwards, to and beyond the flight of the wings of imagination and passing time and depicting man's dreams seeking higher realms of inspiration. The inscription is from "Ars Victrix," by Henry Austin Dobson.

This theme is one outside of all propaganda and one which I have always wished to delineate. Though one may never reach the heights to which his spirit soars, he may still be able to contribute something which will make the world seem a better place because of his having lived in it. - Richard Recchia, 1944

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Richard Recchia was born in Quincy, Massachusetts. He studied at the Boston Art Museum School and was sent abroad by Daniel Chester French and Bela Pratt for further study in Paris and Italy. Afterwards he was assistant to Bela Pratt for nine years.

At the museum school he was twice awarded the Kimball Prize. In 1915 he received a medal at the Panama Pacific Exposition and in 1931, a gold medal and cross of honor at the International Exposition at Bologna, Italy. In 1939 he won the Lindsay Morris Memorial prize of the National Sculpture Society. Mr. Recchia was recently awarded the Elizabeth Watrous Gold Medal in the 118th Annual Exhibition of the National Academy of Design.

Member: Guild of Boston Artists, National Sculpture Society and Associate of the National Academy of Design. In 1923 he founded the Boston Society of Sculptors, which was active in that city for many years.

His work is on the facade of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and in the Speed Memorial Museum, Louisville, Kentucky; the Museum of Arts and Sciences, Buffalo, N.Y.; the Red Cross Museum, Washington, D.C.; the Red Cross Memorial, Nashua, N.H.; Brookgreen Gardens, South Carolina; Davenport School, Malden, Mass.; Boston State House, the Governor Guild Memorial Gate, Boston Common; Public Library, Somerville, Mass.; in Harvard, Brown and Purdue Universities and the Square of Northeaston, Mass. His General Stark equestrian, in quarter size, is to be placed in the art museum in Bennington, Vermont.

Besides public works and memorials, he has made many symbolic and ideal figures and garden fountains for private homes. His Baby and Frog fountain and his Mother Goose group have been widely exhibited. His portrait busts and bas-reliefs include many distinguished men.

The sculptor's studio is at Rockport, Massachusetts, where his own garden makes an excellent setting for his works.