Out & About | Looking Back
Queen of the Sea: A Spirited Sculpture By: Jeff King Photo: Rachel Durrent
Often overlooked, the iconic Queen of the Sea at Lower Broadway and Peoples Street paved the way for public art in the Coastal Bend. Pompeo Coppini was commissioned for over twenty-six public works of art in Texas alone, one of which is the “Spirit of Sacrifice,” aka The Alamo Cenotaph that stands in Alamo Plaza in San Antonio.
116 The Bend
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he early 1900s were a defining time for Corpus Christi and its evolving identity. Alongside the Broadway Bluff renovation project, the Daughters of the Confederacy commissioned Pompeo Coppini, a famed Italian-born American sculptor, to design a sculpture in honor of fallen Texans of the Civil War. Ironically, Coppini was abhorrent of war, and in 1914, he crafted a sculpture that symbolized peace and captured the spirit of Corpus Christi. Coppini chose to depict Corpus Christi as a young maiden, being crowned by Father Neptune and Mother Earth, holding gifts of a bouquet and the keys of success in her hands. Coppini’s perspective captured the identity of the city found in its unique geography,
where earth and sea meet to bestow the gifts needed for industry and a prosperous future. By 1990, the Queen of the Sea was in desperate need of preservation efforts. The Rotary Club of Corpus Christi, who helped fund the original project, sponsored a renovation project that was completed by Ron Sullivan, an art professor at Del Mar College. Sullivan must have known that the sculpture’s preservation meant much more to the Coastal Bend than its aesthetic appearance – the Queen of the Sea was Corpus Christi’s first public work of art, paving the way for a century of artwork that is now further celebrated by the Marina Arts District and the local artists who strive to beautify Corpus Christi and the Coastal Bend.
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