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Prometheus is a 1934 gilded cast bronze sculpture by Paul Manship, located above the lower plaza at Rockefeller Center in Manhattan, New York City. Created by Roman Bronze Works in Queens, the statue is 18 feet (5.5 m) tall and weighs 8 tons. Four Prometheus maquettes exist: one at the Smithsonian Institution, one at the Minnesota Museum of Art, and two in private collections.Prometheus stands in a 60-by-16-foot (18.3 by 4.9 m) fountain basin in front of a grey rectangular wall in the Lower Plaza, located in the middle of Rockefeller Center. The statue depicts the Greek legend of the Titan Prometheus recumbent, bringing fire to mankind by stealing it from the Chariot of the Sun. The Titan statue is flanked by two smaller gilded representations of Youth and Maiden, which were relocated to Palazzo d'Italia from 1939 to 1984 because Manship thought the representations did not fit visually. The model for Prometheus was Leonardo (Leon) Nole, and the inscription, a paraphrase from Aeschylus, on the granite wall behind, reads: "Prometheus, teacher in every art, brought the fire that hath proved to mortals a means to mighty ends."Prometheus is considered the main artwork of Rockefeller Center, and is one of the complex's more well known works of art. The seasonal Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree is erected above the statue every winter. During the rest of the year, Prometheus serves as the main aesthetic draw in the lower plaza's outdoor restaurant.
