“What is that?” students often ask as they walk across Revson Plaza—the brick-paved bridge over Amsterdam Ave.—and stare at the gigantic metal sculpture perched atop the Columbia Law School. Here is the definitive answer: Bellerophon Taming Pegasus (1964-76) by Lithuanian-born cubist sculptor Jacques Lipchitz (1891-1973).

In 1966, the University gave Lipchitz—whose work has been shown at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art—a commission to create a sculpture for the law school. Lipchitz chose the mythological subject of the piece, and in a November 1966 Spectator article he discussed the project and his artistic choices: “Bellerophon is ‘a simple human’ while ... Pegasus symbolizes ‘the wild forces of nature’ ... Man is trying to tame the wild forces for his own need. In codified form, these forces become man’s laws.”

Pegasus was Lipchitz’s final sculpture. During the seven years he worked on the piece, he commuted between his studio in upstate New York and a bronze foundry in Italy where Pegasus was cast. Unfortunately, Lipchitz died before completing the project. However, he had finished a full-size plaster model of the sculpture, and his widow Yulla Lipchitz oversaw the final casting.

Once finished, the 30-foot tall Pegasus traveled for weeks to make it to Columbia. First, however, the newly completed sculpture had its head and legs cut off in order to fit on trucks that could make it through narrow Italian roads to the nearest port. Pegasus was then shipped to New York. Two weeks later, the sculpture was placed on a flatbed truck and given a police escort for the final leg of its trip to campus. Within hours of its arrival, workmen used a crane to completely install the work—including a 27-foot high pedestal. The 23-ton battle between man and horse hasn’t moved since, and probably never will.