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Friday, December 20, 2013

Bulgarian Sculpture No 3

The Monument to the Benefactors, by Georgi Chapkanov
The Monument to the Benefactors (2005) commemorates people from the area who donated money to the town's development.  

Bulgarian Sculpture No 2

Slaveikovi  - the father and the son, by Georgi Chapkanov
 Sofia has its Poets' Bench. You can see the Monument of Petko Slaveikov and Pencho Slaveikov (2001), a father and a son, both poets and writers. At the square there is a big book-market, a fountain, the city librarty, and ... McDonalds. The sculptures look so real as if they have just sat there for a while. You can also sit next to them and watch people going by.

Bulgarian Sculpture No 1

The mother, by Ivan Lazarov 
The sculpture of a mother is constantly waiting in the yard of a house. This is the sculpture of The Mother (1934) and the birthplace of a famous Bulgarian poet Dimcho Debelyanov (1887-1916), whose death in the First World War cut off his promising literary career.

Thursday, December 19, 2013

Italian Sculpture n°2

Psyche revived by Cupid's kiss
by  Antonio Canova


This winged young man who has just landed on a rock where a girl lies unconscious, is the god Eros – Cupid in Latin – and can be recognized by his wings and his quiver filled with arrows. The girl’s name is Psyche. Cupid’s mother Venus, goddess of Beauty, demanded that Psyche bring back a flask from the Underworld, strictly forbidding her to open it.


But Psyche’s curiosity got the better of her; and no sooner had she had breathed in the terrible fumes than she fell into a deep, deathlike sleep. Seeing her lying motionless, Cupid rushed to her and touched her gently with the tip of his arrow, to make sure she was not dead. This is the moment caught by the sculptor: Cupid lifts his beloved Psyche in a tender embrace, his face close to hers. Psyche lets herself sink slowly backwards, languorously taking her lover’s head between her hands.


Canova took his inspiration from a legend recounted by Latin author Apuleius in the Metamorphoses At the close of the tale the gods decide in council to grant Cupid Psyche’s hand in marriage, according her immortality and making her the goddess of the Soul.


Antonio CANOVA (1757 – 1822)
Psyche Revived by Cupid’s Kiss
Marble - H. 1.55 m; L. 1.68 m; D. 1.01 m
MR 1777
Paris, Musée du Louvre

FOR MORE INFORMATION 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psyche_Revived_by_Cupid's_Kiss

http://www.arscentre.com/2012/11/antonio-canova-cupid-and-psyche.html

http://musee.louvre.fr/oal/psyche/psyche_acc_en.html