UK - London - Knightsbridge: Belgrave Square - Homage to Leonardo by wallyg

Homage to Leonardo, the Vitruvian Man, by Italian sculptor Enzo Plazzotta (1921-81), completed by his assistant Mark Holloway in 1982, and sponsored by Mr. and Mrs. John M Harbert III, of Birmingham, Alabama, is the only statue that sits within the fenced private garden of Belgrave Square. It shows the very recognizable 8-limbed figure in a bronze circle. Belgrave Square was laid out by the property contractor Thomas Cubitt for the 2nd Earl Grosvenor in the 1820s. The Grosvenor family was descended from the chief hunter to Dukes of Normandy before the Conquest, and became immensely rich from mines in the north, and later as landlords. The Belgravia area had been a marshy one, with a topsoil of clay, which Cubitt removed, made bricks from, and so exposed the underlying gravel on which to build. 'Belgrave' was a lesser title of Earl Grosvenor, and so the Square was named. The square consists of four terraces, each made up of eleven very grand white stuccoed houses; detached mansions in three of the corners; and a private central garden. From its construction until World War II, the square was occupied by leading members of the British aristocracy, with an increasing number of plutocrats added to the mix in later decades. It is also, and remains to this day, the home of a number of embassies--- the earliest one being the Austrian embassy in the 19th Century. The present Duke of Westminster remains the freeholder of the square. In all, there are 5 statues surrounding the square including <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/wallyg/298387869/">Sir Robert Grosvenor</a>, <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/wallyg/298387400/">Simón Bolívar</a>, <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/wallyg/298029256/">The Don José de San Martín</a>, and Christopher Columbus.