Translucent Marble Statue
Received safely from rome a beautiful statue of the blessed virgin mary in.
Translucent marble statue. Sculpture is among the oldest of the arts. From these beginnings artifacts have evolved to their current complexity. Marble sculpture is the art of creating three dimensional forms from marble. The veiled rebecca or the veiled rebekah is a marble sculpture created by the italian neoclassical sculptor giovanni maria benzoni.
The rooms devoted to modern sculpture opened in 1824 gradually became the department of medieval renaissance and modern sculpture. It was sent to canada in 1856 where the. But then they began to discover the efficacy of marble in sculpture. One wrestler on his knees with his arm twisted behind his back by the other wrestler.
And i m sure you are too. This high quality marble offered the perfect canvas for carving veils a sculptural motif that was popular among strazza and his peers. Separate collections were founded in 1848 for antiquities and in 1893 for objets d art. The veiled virgin is made out of carrara marble a material derived from tuscany and historically used by ancient roman builders and italian renaissance artists.
The veil gives the appearance of being translucent but in fact is carved of marble the technique is similar to giuseppe sanmartino s 1753 statue veiled christ in the cappella sansevero in naples. About an exceptional early 19th century italian large scale translucent marble of wrestlers raised on a rock shaped base. A third type used for the masterpiece apollo belvedere c 330. Due to these characteristics early sculptors opted to carve from marbles instead.
Marble has always been the most preferred material among sculptors even in the early times. It depicts the scene from the hebrew bible when a modest rebecca covers. Even before painting cave walls early humans fashioned shapes from stone. For years the translucent marble veil of this masterpiece has mystified people who have set eyes on it.
The miracle of transparent marble strazza was born in 1818 and carved the sculpture from carrara marble in rome around the year 1850. The statue was transported to newfoundland in 1856 as recorded on december 4 in the diary of bishop john thomas mullock. When the muséum central des arts opened in 1793 little modern sculpture. Another popular variety was parian marble a coarser grained but translucent white stone obtained from the aegean islands of naxos and paros.
Benzoni first executed the work in 1863 for robert winthe of london. Marbles are metamorphic rocks that are softer than stones making them easier to carve and shape. Furthermore marbles have a translucent surface that closely resembles the texture of human skin.