Time and the Fates Sundial

This bronze sundial is a model for a larger sculpture that Paul Manship was commissioned to make for the 1939 World's Fair in New York. Manship knew the theme of the fair was "Fair of the Future." He knew his sculpture would be outdoors, close to the fair's center, near a giant globe and pointed tower called the Perisphere and Trylon. Manship wrote, "The Perisphere and Trylon at the World's Fair suggests to me measurements of time and space, so my sundial . . . relates to the background of the central motif of the Fair." When Manship was finished, his white plaster sculpture was the biggest sundial in the world, standing 80 feet tall! See it at the fair.

The bronze sundial is a model for the World's Fair Sculpture. Why make a model?

The three women sitting under the sundial's tree are the Three Fates. Who are they?

Why would an art critic call Paul Manship a master of the silhouette?

Both the bronze sculpture and the plaster version at the fair were designed to be sundials. What's a sundial anyway?