At the southeast corner of New York's Great Central Park on what is officially known as Grant

Army Plaza, stands a dramatic 15-foot-tall gilded bronze statue of Civil War Union General

William Tacompsa Sherman. Perched high on a pedestal of St. Coney Creek Granite, the statue,

sculpted by famed Gilded Age artist Augusta St. Goddens,

portrays the general seated triumphantly on his horse, being led resolutely to victory.

The allegorical symbol of victory is part of the statue grouping as well.

Striding proudly forward with her gown and eagle's wings flowing behind her is the heroic

figure of a woman. Her right arm is raised and outstretched, and in her left she carries a palm

frond, a traditional symbol of victory. Tourists mill about around the pedestal looking up as well as a few

distracted New Yorkers who rush by,

but what captures their gaze more often than not seems to be that figure of victory.

St. Goddons' model for the figure of victory on the statue was Hetty Anderson.

A young woman originally from South Carolina who had come to New York in the 1890s

and began to work as an artist's model for St. Goddons and a number of famous artists of the time.

The plaque at Grand Army Plaza, as well as on a reduced-sized copy of the sculpture at the Metropolitan

Museum of Art notes that she was black.

Over 200 miles away, up in Boston, tourists, art lovers, and Bostonians can help but looking up at the stunningly painted ceiling of the rotunda of the Museum of Fine Arts.

High above visitors' heads in that lofty dome are murals of gods and goddesses telling the tales of mythology

painted by the great portrait painter John Singer-Sargent. When our gaze stops on the figures

of Atlas or Apollo, there's just something arresting about how they're portrayed, a kind of power,

a majesty, an enduring strength.

Despite Sargent's depiction of the ivory-skinned, blonde-haired gods, his inspiration was a 26-year-old

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