Alexander Calder’s work famously relied upon anthropomorphic or zoomorphic associations, but as recently as 1973, he had begun to fashion what amounted to three-dimensional landscape-inspired metal paintings that served as props for staging a world populated by “Critters,” strange metal personages of the sort that had populated his paintings and gouaches for decades. As for the staging, these curvaceous metal sheets echoed the lofty peaks and deep-cut valleys of ancient Chinese paintings and were referred to as “Crags.” Not surprisingly perhaps, Calder’s last two great public sculptures were inspired by his response to the rhythmic flow of the landscape: the monumental Mountains and Clouds installed posthumously in 1984 in the East Building Central Court of the National Gallery in Washington, D. C., and Homage to Jerusalem.

Calder created seven maquette versions for Homage to Jerusalem, the last important commission he would sign before he died in November 1976. The original, a small-scale, twelve-inch-long sheet metal and wire iteration was undoubtedly fashioned by Calder himself. A series of intermediary maquettes (of which this is one) followed. His fragile health was a factor when he arrived in Jerusalem to inspect prospective sights for the installation of the Jerusalem commission. But Martin Weyl, the director of the Israel Museum recalled that when Calder arrived at Holland Square, an underdeveloped intersection on the southeastern slope of Mount Herzl and nodded his approval, he began “moving his hands and arms in rhythmic patterns that echoed the rhythms of the Judean Hills in the distance” that belied his infirm state. (Jed Perl, Calder: The Conquest of Space, The Later Years: 1940-1976, pg. 563) Calder no longer had the strength of an ox, but a new project such as this brought a welcome rush of adrenaline. He returned to his French studio at Sache to create maquettes with the help of Biémont Iron Works, progressive steps in realizing the forty-foot high, sixty-ton colossal edifice that became a striking red presence against the fierce blue sky and which framed through its high arches the famous hill and mountain panorama that had inspired its creation.