Lunette from the Springer Block, Chicago, Illinois 1872

This is a lunette, a semi-circular piece carved by Peter Bonnett Wight, from the Springer Block in Chicago. It is a fragment of a larger architectural whole, now repurposed as an artwork. The Springer Block represents Chicago in the late 19th century, a city rapidly rebuilding after the Great Fire of 1871. Wight, a prominent architect, employed a style that evokes the Romanesque Revival, popular at the time for its associations with solidity and permanence – qualities Chicago was keen to project. The floral carving, while decorative, speaks to the city’s aspiration towards culture and refinement, signalling its ambition to be more than just a commercial hub. Looking at this fragment invites us to consider the life of buildings, their role in shaping urban identity, and how architectural details contribute to a city's narrative. Delving into period guidebooks, architectural journals, and city archives can reveal the original context of this lunette, and thus the values and aspirations it embodied. Art, in this sense, becomes a historical document.