There are scores of miraculous, amazing, world-renown sculptures here at the Philadelphia Zoological Garden. When my children and I discovered this piece, I photographed it and stared at it for while knowing something was off about it or not quite right. I could not put my finger on it but it just seemed weird, almost surreal and certainly did not look like a real sculpture. It wasn't until much later when I found a book about this sculpture did I learn why it seemed 'wrong'. In its wrongness, can be found its 'rightness' in its complex simplicity. The artist, Heinz Warneke, was able to get this entire thing carved (both elephants mind you), from a single block of granite. The uniformity, smoothness and singularity of the sculpture makes it look almost fake.
I found several terrific sources about these elephants, besides the SIRIS site. If curious, a terrific read on the entire journey to create this piece can be found and read HERE.
Obviously one of the major problems in creating this piece would be to find something big enough from which to carve his original model. In the autumn of 1960, after Warneke's quarter-scale plaster model was approved by the Fairmount Park Association, it was sent to Rochette and Parzini Corporation in New York City to be enlarged to full-scale in clay and then cast in plaster. Meanwhile, Warneke had run into difficulty locating an American quarry that could supply him with a large enough piece of gray granite within the budget of his commission. Finally, through the Norwegian embassy, he discovered that a quarry in Bergan, a small community near Larvik, Norway, could supply him with an appropriate piece of granite for $11,000.. This price tag along with hiring a carver, the original contract had to be rewritten as the cost exceeded the original estimate. Rolf Fredner, a Norwegian expert in N.Y.C. was hired as the general contractor for the project and he worked with the fellow in Norway to make this project reality.
I also read many people working at the zoo objected to his representation of the elephants as parts of the bodies did not look like real elephants so they made suggestions on how he could improve it. Heinz Warneke was furious, He wrote a letter back to the zoo telling them he could care less what they thought. Basically, he thought they were a bunch of idiots as they totally missed the point. He wanted to represent motherhood and didn't give a cr@p if the elephants had three or four toes.
Some facts from the SIRIS site. The artists employed were Heinz Warneke (1895-1983), he was the principal artist/sculptor who made the original model, Rochette & Parzini, modelers and Al Steinskulptur Atlier, carver. Curiously, the contractor, Rolf Fredner, is not mentioned on the SIRIS site. The sculpture is approximately 132 x 84 x 60 inches and the base is approximately 6 x 103 x 48 inches. Both elephants weight in at 37 tons. At $11,000 for the original rock, that comes to $297.30 per ton. The dates appear to be off as well. SIRIS lists 1962. Copyrighted 1962. Installed Oct. 24, 1962. Dedicated May 25, 1963. The original model and negotiations with the Fairmount Park Art Assoiation people began in 1960. The piece is simply described as an elephant protecting calf with her trunk.
Finally, the following are remarks from the SIRIS site. This sculpture is the largest monolithic, freestanding sculpture in the United States. In 1959 Warneke won the Fairmount Park Art Association competition with his one-quarter scale plaster model for this sculpture; however, enlarging it was a lengthy process. First, the model was scaled up in clay and then plaster by the New York firm of Rochette & Parzini. The piece was then shipped to Al Steinskulptur Atlier in Oslo, Norway to be cut into large pieces of granite and then Norwegian stone cutters under the direction of Warneke carved the piece. A fence was installed around the sculpture in 1993.
Another nice site can be found HERE. This is a Google Documents site which contains an article about the Zoo's centennial on July 1, 1974, presumable scanned from the original source.