Junípero Serra Memorial Original staff plaster memorial to Fray Junípero Serra (1713-1794), founder of the Franciscan missions in Alta , in an 18th Century style frame of scrolled curves and foliage. The Mission San Diego de Alcalá was the first mission founded in Alta California. The bust portrait of Serra was designed by Architect Carleton Monroe Winslow (1876-1946) from a historical portrait. It was modeled in clay for casting in 1914 by Henry R. Schmohl (1874-1941). This memorial group stood outside the semicircular apse at the rear of the church-like northeast wing (shown below) of the 1915 Exposition’s Varied Industries and Food Products Building. When this wing of the building was reconstructed in 1971 as the Casa del Prado Theatre, the apse and the Serra Memorial were not replicated.

The castle on the left side of the base of the Serra Memorial depicts the heraldic emblem of the former Spanish . A lion, the emblem of the former Spanish Inside Kingdom of León, is shown on the right side. The emblems of Castile Story and León appear in the coat-of- arms when it is displayed on the national of .

17th Century Spanish Artists Three original reinforced plaster-of-Paris casting models for the portrait sculptures above the main entrance of the San Diego Museum of Art. Designed in 1924 by San Diego architect William Templeton Johnson (1877-1957), these sculptures were executed by Furio Piccirilli (1868-1949) in New York City. Along with his brothers, Piccirilli created the architectural sculptures for the 1915 Panama- California Exposition’s California State Building and its arched entry gate from the Cabrillo Bridge.

After these casting models were used to make the final cast stone versions for the Museum Spain’s most admired “Old Master” painters: Inside of Art, they were abandoned and largely forgotten under the floor of another Balboa Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez (1599-1660) Story Park building, where they remained until they were rediscovered in 1975 and moved to this Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (ca. 1617-1682) Sculpture Court for preservation. Francisco de Zurbarán (1598–1664) Madonna

This original “staff” plaster, freestanding figure of a woman in flowing robes was titled “Religion.” In the photo on the right it stands at the top of the “retablo,” an altar-like set of niches and pilasters that enlivens the upper portions of the southeast façade. The entire retablo was reproduced for the 1971 reconstruction of this building, which was renamed the Casa del Prado.

Unfortunately, the 1971 replacement statue Inside deteriorated faster than the original. It was removed out of concern for the safety of visitors. A third version of the statue was made in 2012 Story from this restored original.