Albertus Magnus

Polymath Albertus Magnus (died and buried in Cologne in 1280) led the Cologne school of his order to international acclaim. Subsequently, the city founded the University of Cologne in 1388 to succeed his institution. In front of the university’s main entrance, there is a bronze statue honoring the accomplishments of the theologian and teacher. This statue is one of Gerhard Marcks’s most important works and among the most significant memorials to an individual made after 1945. Albertus Magnus is depicted sitting on a plain bench with a large open book on his knees. His head and hand are raised, as if he were thinking about what to read. There is a cloak wrapped around his back that opens to the front, giving the sculpture a unified silhouette. Reduced to the most essential features, the somewhat abstracted representation adds to this unity. The scholar’s essence is captured in the expression, which is simultaneously calm and introspective, while being highly concentrated and attentive.
A second casting was made for the University of Bogotà in 1965, a third for the University of Texas in Houston in 1970, and finally a casting for the Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena in 1996. Marcks also gave a smaller, more naturalistic version to Chancellor Helmut Schmidt in 1997 for the Federal Chancellery in Bonn.

Reference: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerhard_Marcks