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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  

Italian Sculpture n°1

The Three Graces
Antonio Canova’s statue ‘The Three Graces’ is a Neoclassical sculpture, in marble, of the mythological three charites, daughters of Zeus. The Three Graces illustrates Canova's outstanding ability to transform cold hard marble into soft lustrous skin. According to Greek mythology the three daughters of Zeus and Euryoneme were called Euphrosyne, Aglaia and Thalia. They were traditionally associated with Aphrodite, the goddess of love and  were said to represent beauty, charm and joy. Canova arranged the beautiful sisters in a loose semi-circle so that they complement one another in their poses and gazes, entwined arms and narrow swathes of drapery. The sculpture was commissioned by the 6th Duke of Bedford and installed on a pedestal (which could be rotated) in a specially built Temple at his country house, Woburn Abbey. The Graces presided over banquets and gatherings primarily to entertain and delight the guests of the Gods.
The piece itself is carved exactingly from a single slab of white marble. Canova's assistants roughly blocked out the marble, leaving Canova to finish the final carving and shape the stone to highlight the Graces’ soft flesh. This was a trademark of the artist, and the piece shows a strong allegiance to the Neo-Classical movement of which Canova is the prime exponent in the field of sculpture. The lines are exquisite, refined and elegant.
The three goddesses are shown nude, huddled close together in embrace, their heads almost touching in what many have referred to as an ‘erotically charged’ piece. They stand, leaning slightly inward – perhaps discussing a common issue, or simply enjoying being close to one another. Their hair-styles are all similar, with the hair braided and held on top of their heads in a knot.
The style is elegant and suggests refinement and class – there is a delicate beauty to them that is commonplace in Canova’s sculpture. Art historians have often commented on the peaceful balance that seems to exist between the Three Graces’ heads. Unlike compositions of the Graces, which were derived from antiquity (where the outer figures turn out towards the viewer and the central figure embraces her friends with her back to the viewer) - Canova's figures stand side by side, facing each other.
The three slender female figures become one in their embrace, united by not only their linked hands, but also by the scarf which links all of them together. The unity of the Graces is one of the piece's main themes.

THE ARTIST

Antonio Canova     (Italian, 1757 - 1822)
Canova, who was based in Rome, was one of the most famous artists in eighteenth-century Europe . His sculpture was celebrated for its classical character and convincing lifelike qualities. Canova successfully emulated and, in the view of some contemporaries, even surpassed sculptors of Antiquity and more recent times, such as Michelangelo and Bernini. He was also inspired by painters, especially those from Venice, near his birthplace, Possagno. In 1801 he was knighted by the Pope and in 1814 honoured with the title of Perpetual President of the Academy of St Luke. His work attracted distinguished patrons from all over Europe, including Britain.


FOR MORE INFORMATION:


http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O70425/the-three-graces-group-canova-antonio/

http://news.bbc.co.uk/dna/place-lancashire/plain/A853021

Italian Sculpture n°3




The Statue of Moses is a part of the tomb of Pope Julius II. It was originally intended to be for the upper portion of a massive three storey monument which was to hold more than 40 statues. The project was later scaled down step-by-step until it the plan had become a simple wall tomb with less than one third of the intended number of statues. This was a cause of much personal frustration to him, as an artist who was primarily a sculptor. He considered the Statue of Moses as his most important and most life-like of all his creations.
Moses shows a seated figure, not in any dynamic action, yet somehow managing to exude restless energy and  anger. This is at the point in the story where Moses returns from the Mount Sinai with the two tablets of testimony with the intent to deliver the Ten Commandments to his people but instead breaks them in his terrible anger when he sees them worshipping the Golden Calf. His left leg is pulled back, so the hips are turned towards the left, with the torso turned a little towards the right, the face is again turned towards the left and he pulls his beard to the right side. This creates an interesting and dynamic composition. The figure looks disproportionate, with a long torso, because the statue was meant to be on the upper storey and he had proportioned it to look right when viewed from below.
 




 1513-1515
Marble, height 235 cm
San Pietro in Vincoli, Rome

THE ARTIST
Michelangelo Buonarroti was arguably the most famous artist of the High to Late Italian Renaissance, and inarguably one of the greatest artists of all time -- along with fellow Renaissance men Leonardo DiVinci and Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio). He considered himself a sculptor, primarily, but is equally well known for the paintings he was induced (grudgingly) to create. He was also an architect and an amateur poet.

FOR MORE INFORMATION
 http://youtu.be/mglpxDh9dws




Wednesday, December 18, 2013

French Sculpture n°3

Bronze Waltz by Camille Claudel (1893)

Camille Claudel (8 December 1864 – 19 October 1943) was a French sculptor and graphic artist. She was the elder sister of the poet and diplomat Paul Claudel.

Fascinated with stone and soil as a child, as a young woman she studied at the Académie Colarossi with sculptor Alfred Boucher. (At the time, the École des Beaux-Arts barred women from enrolling to study.) In 1882, Claudel rented a workshop with other young women, mostly English, including Jessie Lipscomb. Alfred Boucher became her mentor and provided inspiration and encouragement to the next generation of sculptors such as Laure Coutan and Claudel. The latter was depicted in "Camille Claudel lisant" by Boucher and later she herself sculpted a bust of her mentor. Before moving to Florence and after having taught Claudel and others for over three years, Boucher asked Auguste Rodin to take over the instruction of his pupils. This is how Rodin and Claudel met and their tumultuous and passionate relationship started.

Around 1884, she started working in Rodin's workshop. Claudel became a source of inspiration, his model, his confidante and lover. She never lived with Rodin, who was reluctant to end his 20-year relationship with Rose Beuret. Knowledge of the affair agitated her family, especially her mother, who never completely agreed with Claudel's involvement in the arts.As a consequence, she left the family house. In 1892, after an unwanted abortion, Claudel ended the intimate aspect of her relationship with Rodin, although they saw each other regularly until 1898.

Beginning in 1903, she exhibited her works at the Salon des Artistes français or at the Salon d'Automne.
It would be a mistake to assume that Claudel's reputation has survived simply because of her once notorious association with Rodin. The novelist and art critic Octave Mirbeau described her as "A revolt against nature: a woman genius". Her early work is similar to Rodin's in spirit, but shows an imagination and lyricism quite her own, particularly in the famous Bronze Waltz (1893). The Mature Age (1900) whilst interpreted by her brother as a powerful allegory of her break with Rodin, with one figure The Implorer that was produced as an edition of its own, has also been interpreted in a less purely autobiographical mode as an even more powerful representation of change and purpose in the human condition.

French Sculpture 2

The Quarantine by Marc Petit (Clay)

Marc Petit made ​​his first sculptures at the age of 14 in Cahors, where he spent his childhood.
Then he met two sculptors, students of the Fine Arts in Paris, who regularly corrected his work. René Fournier taught him the basics of modelling and transmitted him the teaching of Marcel Gimond. Jean Lorquin, Grand Prix de Rome in 1949, brought him his vision, his knowledge, but also a true reflection about sculpture.
He now lives in Haute-Vienne, near Limoges.

 "The ontology by Marc Petit is that of life itself, of every life, as anonymous as it can be. In modelling, he visits us in many ways, he shows the viewer endless possibilities: our shortcomings, our mistakes, our failures but also successesHis work is neither sad nor violent. It depicts life with that indefinable nostalgia that only the Portuguese know how to express with an untranslatable word 'saudade' which evokes sadness, nostalgia, regret and melancholy, the painful distance that we may establish with ourselves. "- Bernard-Marie Dupont

French Sculpture n°1

The Cry by Auguste Rodin 1886

François-Auguste-René Rodin (12 November 1840 – 17 November 1917), known as Auguste Rodin, was a French sculptor. 
Although Rodin is generally considered the progenitor of modern sculpture, he did not set out to rebel against the past. He was schooled traditionally, took a craftsman-like approach to his work, and desired academic recognition, although he was never accepted into Paris's foremost school of art.

Sculpturally, Rodin possessed a unique ability to model a complex, turbulent, deeply pocketed surface in clay. Many of his most notable sculptures were roundly criticized during his lifetime. They clashed with the predominant figure sculpture tradition, in which works were decorative, formulaic, or highly thematic. Rodin's most original work departed from traditional themes of mythology and allegory, modeled the human body with realism, and celebrated individual character and physicality. Rodin was sensitive to the controversy surrounding his work, but refused to change his style. Successive works brought increasing favor from the government and the artistic community.
From the unexpected realism of his first major figure – inspired by his 1875 trip to Italy – to the unconventional memorials whose commissions he later sought, Rodin's reputation grew, such that he became the preeminent French sculptor of his time. By 1900, he was a world-renowned artist. Wealthy private clients sought Rodin's work after his World's Fair exhibit, and he kept company with a variety of high-profile intellectuals and artists. He married his lifelong companion, Rose Beuret, in the last year of both their lives. His sculptures suffered a decline in popularity after his death in 1917, but within a few decades, his legacy solidified. Rodin remains one of the few sculptors widely known outside the visual arts community.