Aspect of the Oracle: Portentous

Photo Credit: Kris Snibbe, Harvard Staff Photographer A sculpture of a human form, the oracle Portentous, sitting on a pedestal with one arm bracing against its seat and the other raised in the air. The sculpture is framed by leafy trees and shrubs.

Aspect of the Oracle: Portentous

Location: Outside Schlesinger Library, Harvard Radcliffe Institute, Cambridge, MA

Aspect of the Oracle: Portentous sits beside the Schlesinger Library on the grounds of the Harvard Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. It is one of the seven oracle series sculpted by Marianna Pineda, a Buntin Institute Fellow at Radcliffe in the 1960s, and it was dedicated to Constance E. Smith, the first dean of Radcliffe Institute for Independent Study (1961-1970).

Photo Credit: Kris Snibbe, Harvard Staff Photographer Viewed from afar, a sculpture depicting the human form of the oracle Portentous sits outside a red brick building, framed by trees and shrubs.
Photo Credit: Stephanie Mitchell, Harvard Staff Photographer A silhouette of a sculpture, viewed from a lower perspective, depicting a human form with its head lowered and left arm raised in the air.

In Greek mythology, oracles were women gifted with divine power to receive and interpret prophecies through the gods. Produced while she was a fellow at Radcliffe, Pineda's Aspects of the Oracle series suggests oracles in different moods—"ecstatic, rapturous, jubilant, accusative, portentous, and exhausted."

Pineda depicts the oracle Portentous transferring knowledge through open palms, guiding the minds of those who study at the Institute. The statue serves as a "vessel for knowledge," stoic and powerful, offering "what help she could to those who wished to know more about the mysteries of the world." In doing so, the oracle pays tribute to the mission of curiosity, inquiry, and research pursued through Radcliffe's programs.

Photo Credit: Stephanie Mitchell, Harvard Staff Photographer A closer view of a sculpture depicting the human form of the oracle, Portentous. They sit upon a seat with one arm braced against it, and their other arm raised towards the sky.
Photo Credit: Rose Lincoln, Harvard Staff Photographer A side view of a statue depicting the oracle Portentous sitting outside a red brick building. The statue sits upon a seat with its head slightly lowered and one arm raised towards the sky.

Challenging perception and inviting curiosity, the sculpture takes an unbalanced position. "The physical form is set off or liberated from normal worldly boundaries. The feet are not connected to the ground. They are kind of floating. And the arms are kind of out of control," observes sculptor and artist Nora Schultz, former assistant professor of Visual and Environmental Studies. "It is shifting into another sphere, where gesture, gravity, and weight mean something different."