Texas History
In a solemn ceremony on Nov. 13, 1940, the Alamo Cenotaph was formally dedicated as a symbolic final resting place for those immortal martyrs denied a decent burial 104 years earlier.
As part of the Texas Centennial celebration, a hundred thousand dollars in federal funds were appropriated for the construction of a permanent tribute to the heroic handful, who gave their lives for Lone Star independence. The site chosen for the memorial was the city-owned plaza across the street from the Alamo chapel, the approximate spot where most of the defenders were believed to have perished.
Opposition to the project was led by the Daughters of the Republic of Texas (DRT), longtime custodians of the Alamo chapel. They argued that a new memorial was unnecessary and might detract from the original mission. The objections of the DRT were carefully considered but ultimately rejected.
As for the artist, an amazing coincidence complicated the selection process. Not one but two internationally renowned sculptors, Gutzon Borglum and Pompeo Coppini, happened to be living in San Antonio at the time.
Borglum was best known for his five-story high presidential portraits on Mount Rushmore, which he began blasting out of solid rock in 1927 but failed to finish before his death in 1941. The official version of his role in the Stone Mountain Confederate memorial was that the temperamental craftsman was sent packing by dissatisfied sponsors. His rival, Coppini, insisted Borglum walked off the job after destroying the miniature model.
Coppini emigrated at age 26 from his native Italy arriving in the United States in 1896 flat broke and unable to speak a word of English. Five years later, a lucrative commission brought him to Texas, which he made his permanent home for the next half century.
Working well into his 80s, the prolific sculptor produced 38 public monuments, 16 portrait statues and an estimated 75 portrait busts. Coppini’s contributions to Lone Star culture include the Littlefield War Memorial Fountain and “The Victims of the Galveston Flood” at the University of Texas in Austin, statues of Rev. Rufus Burleson and Gov. Sul Ross at Baylor and Texas A&M, a gravesite homage to Sam Houston in Huntsville, the “Come and Take It” statue at Gonzales, John H. Reagan Memorial at Palestine, Paris’ Confederate soldier and the Scottish Rite Cathedral doors in San Antonio.
The boastful Borglum claimed in an August 1935 interview that he had lined up several prestigious projects in Texas worth hundreds of thousands of dollars in commissions. The head of the Centennial Division of the State Board of Control assured Coppini that Borglum was talking through his hat, though he did neglect to mention that his nemesis was in the running for the Alamo Memorial.
Coppini feared his larger-than-life stone clones of Austin, Houston, Rusk, Travis, Fannin and Lamar for the Hall of State in Dallas would count against him in the San Antonio competition. And he knew outspoken critics would lobby hard against him receiving the coveted contract.
As expected, J. Frank Dobie jumped at the chance to express on paper his low opinion.
“As for Coppini, he has littered up Texas with his monstrosities in the name of sculpture, and I had rather have nothing than a monument executed by him,” Dobie said.
In his autobiography, Coppini questioned the folklorist’s right to comment on “something of which he was absolutely as ignorant as a hillbilly.” He also accused Dobie of chronic drunkenness and depraved taste.
Coppini was invited at last in January 1937 to submit sketches for the Cenotaph. His original idea was “a funeral Army caisson, supposedly containing the bones or ashes of the bodies of the heroes, covered by the Texas and American flags, driven by two draped horses, guided at the right of the caisson by the figure of Courage and at the left by Texas holding a wreath over the Texas flag.”
This proposal was wisely rejected sending Coppini back to the drawing board. His second concept, which closely resembled the actual work, was accepted that March. Thirty months later in September 1939, the Cenotaph was completed.
The formal dedication was put off more than year. Coppini blamed the delay on the Alamo guardians, claiming no civic group or organization in San Antonio would sponsor the ceremony “for fear of antagonizing the Daughters of the Republic of Texas.”
But the Cenotaph was worth the wait. Travis and Crockett dominate the west panel, while on the east side, Bowie and Bonham stand in the foreground. Alone on the north panel is a female form described as an allegorical representation of Texas.
Rising from the flames of Santa Anna’s funeral pyre on the south end or front of the monument is “The Spirit of Sacrifice.” Beneath are inscribed the sculptor’s own words: “From the fire that burned their bodies rose the eternal spirit of sublime, heroic sacrifice which gave birth to an empire state.”