Fontaine des Quatre-Parties-du-Monde

Four bronze women support an armillary sphere while standing in the center of the fountain. They represent the four continents as they were understood in eighteen seventy-three: Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas. The sculptor Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux designed the figures, but when the public first saw them, they caused a scandal. Critics argued the women looked too much like dancers from a cabaret rather than representations of the earth, and the authorities eventually ordered Carpeaux to adjust the height of their hemlines.