The Heart of Bexar County

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Top, left: The Lady Justice fountain in
front of the Bexar County Courthouse.
Top, right: Close up view of all sides
of the Ladu Justice fountain base.
We searched all the county’s warehouses, but
we could not find the sculpture. I then persuaded
the San Antonio Express-News to write a story
about the missing Lady Justice fountain. Finally,
an employee of the San Antonio Water System
called me and said the fountain was in their
warehouse at the Dos Rios Treatment Plant.
When we retrieved the fountain, Lady Justice
was missing from the top and we were never
ever able to find her. The three goddesses of the
seasons and the base of the fountain required
extensive repairs.
After looking at the fountain, I called Nelson
and said, “We can restore the fountain and
create a new Lady Justice, but we will need to
find a sculptor who appreciates and
understands Greek history.”
Nelson replied, “Let’s do it.”
After consulting with several artists, we chose
sculptor Gilbert Barrera to create our new lady
justice. Gilbert’s father, Roy Barrera, Sr., is a
highly respected member of our community and
had also served as Texas Secretary of State.
Gilbert along with his two brothers Roy Jr. and
Bobby became lawyers and partners in their
father’s prominent law firm.
Gilbert had been drawn to art at an early age.
He slowly weaned himself away from practicing
law and began pursuing his sculpturing career. I
was impressed with him because he had studied
the classical ancient Greek and Italian
Renaissance periods of art.
After we decided to engage Gilbert, our
friends Ron and Karen Herrmann agreed to
donate $85,000 from the Hermann Family
Foundation to fund the work.
At our first meeting Gilbert showed us a
picture of “Aphrodite of Knidos” a sculpture
created by Praxiteles in the fourth century B.C.
Aphrodite was the Greek goddess of love,
beauty, pleasure and procreation.
Gilbert then told us his research found that
Lady Justice sculptures are based on Praxiteles’
“Aphrodite of Knidos.” Even though all Lady
Justice sculptures in front of courthouses are
clothed, he wanted to sculpt her in the nude
form based on Praxiteles sculpture.
Nelson said that when we visited John Paul
Getty’s replica of the Villa Dei Papiri in Santa
Monica, California we saw a 350 B.C. carving on a
gold piece showing Aphrodite sitting down with a
scale in her hand weighting justice.
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