Tate: Sir Jacob Epstein "The Rock Drill" 1913-14

I have always liked this sculpture, since the very first time I saw it: it is simple, stylish and asthestically pleasing. Next it challenges your perception a strange mix of humanity and robot, the hard angular tensions in the figure make me think of a mythical giant bird of prey...

The scultpure has an interesting history, it was emasculated after the horror First World War:

For this sculpture, Epstein initially set a plaster figure on top of an actual pneumatic rock drill. This ‘machine-like robot, visored, menacing and carrying within itself its progeny’ became a symbol of the new age. He even considered adding a motor to make the piece move.Following the carnage of the First World War, Epstein removed the drill, cut the figure down to half-length and changed its arms; this torso was cast in bronze, as shown here. Mutilated and shorn of its virility, the once-threatening figure is now vulnerable and impotent, the victim of the violence of modern life.

This scultpure featured in the recent excellent Futurism exhibit at the Tate.

emasculate |iˈmaskyəˌlāt|

verb [ trans. ]

make (a person, idea, or piece of legislation) weaker or less effective : our winner-take-all elections emasculate fringe parties like neo-Nazis.

• [usu. as adj. ] ( emasculated) deprive (a man) of his male role or identity : he feels emasculated because he cannot control his sons' behavior.

• archaic castrate (a man or male animal).

• Botany remove the anthers from a flower.

ORIGIN early 17th cent.: from Latin emasculat- ‘castrated,’ from the verb emasculare, from e- (variant of ex-, expressing a change of state) + masculus ‘male.’