Thought and Memory

Tag: Sculpture

  • Hector and Andromache

     Hector and Andromache by Giovanni Maria Benzoni 1871

    He stretched his arms towards his child, but the boy cried and nestled in his nurse’s bosom, scared at the sight of his father’s armour, and at the horse-hair plume that nodded fiercely from his helmet. His father and mother laughed to see him, but Hector took the helmet from his head and laid it all gleaming upon the ground. Then he took his darling child, kissed him, and dandled him in his arms, praying over him the while to Jove and to all the gods. “Jove,” he cried, “grant that this my child may be even as myself, chief among the Trojans; let him be not less excellent in strength, and let him rule Ilius with his might. Then may one say of him as he comes from battle, ‘The son is far better than the father.’ May he bring back the blood-stained spoils of him whom he has laid low, and let his mother’s heart be glad.’” – Iliad. Homer

  • Pietà (Michelangelo)

    The Pietà is a work of Renaissance sculpture by Michelangelo Buonarroti, housed in St. Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City. It is the first of a number of works of the same theme by the artist. The statue was commissioned for the French Cardinal Jean de Bilhères, who was a representative in Rome. The sculpture, in Carrara marble, was made for the cardinal’s funeral monument, but was moved to its current location, the first chapel on the north side of the entrance of the basilica, in the 18th century. It is the only piece Michelangelo ever signed. It is also the only known sculpture created by a prominent name from the Renaissance era that was installed in St. Peter’s Basilica that was accepted by the Chapter of St. Peter. This famous work of art depicts the body of Jesus on the lap of his mother Mary after the Crucifixion.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piet%C3%A0_(Michelangelo)

  • Lion man of the hohlenstein stadel, 40,000 years old

    The Löwenmensch figurine or Lion man of the Hohlenstein Stadel is a very early prehistoric sculpture that was discovered in the Hohlenstein-Stadel, a German cave in 1939. The lion-headed figurine, alternately called (by its German names) Löwenmensch (lion-human) and Löwenfrau (lion-woman), is an ivory sculpture that is both the oldest known zoomorphic (animal-shaped) sculpture in the world, and the oldest known uncontested example of figurative art. The figurine was determined to be about 40,000 years old,[1] by carbon dating of material from the same layer in which the figurine was found.

  • Pallas Athena by Theophil Hansen in front of the Austrian Parliament Building

    Baron Theophil Edvard von Hansen was a Danish architect who later became an Austrian citizen. He became particularly well known for his buildings and structures in Athens and Vienna, and is considered an outstanding representative of neoclassicism.

    Austrian Parliament Building – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austrian_Parliament_Building

    Theophil Hansen – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theophil_Hansen

  • Jockey of Artemision

    The Jockey of Artemision is a large Hellenistic bronze statue of a young boy riding a horse, dated to around 150–140 BC. It is a rare surviving original bronze statue from Ancient Greece and a rare example in Greek sculpture of a racehorse. It may have been dedicated to the gods by a wealthy person to honour victories in horse races, probably in the single-horse race (Greek: κέλης). The artist is unknown. The statue was found in a shipwreck off Cape Artemision, in north Euboea, which was discovered in 1926. The statue was reassembled, after restoration of the horse’s tail and body, and it went on display at the National Archaeological Museum, Athens in 1972.

  • Jeanne d’Arc

    Jeanne d’Arc is a gilded bronze equestrian sculpture of Joan of Arc by Emmanuel Frémiet inaugurated in 1874.

    The original statue was commissioned by the French government after the defeat of the country in the 1870 Franco-Prussian War. It is the only public commission of the state from 1870 to 1914, called the Golden Age of statuary in Paris, the other statues were funded by private subscriptions.

    The sculptor took as his model Aimée Girod (1856–1937), a young woman from Domrémy, Joan of Arc’s village in Lorraine.

    The statue was inaugurated in 1874. The pedestal was designed by the architect Paul Abadie.

    The artist, who made another version of the monument for the city of Nancy in 1889, replaced the horse of the Parisian monument 10 years later by a copy of the smaller Nancy one, which earned him criticism.

    The monument was classified as a historic monument on March 31, 1992.

    via Wikipedia 

    Joan_of_Arc_Emmanuel_Fremiet

  • Thorfinn Karlsefni

    Statue of Thorfinn Karlsefni by Einar Jónsson in Philadelphia.

    Vandals topple Philadelphia statue of Viking explorer into Schuylkill River 

    Why would anyone do this?

    Thorfinn_Karlsefni_1918

    Thorfinn Karlsefni is a bronze statue by Icelandic sculptor Einar Jónsson. The first casting of it is located in Fairmount Park on Kelly Drive, at the North end of Boathouse Row, Philadelphia. The sculpture was commissioned by Joseph Bunford Samuel through a bequest that his wife, Ellen Phillips Samuel, made to the Association for Public Art (formerly the Fairmount Park Art Association), specifying that the funds were to be used to create a series of sculptures “emblematic of the history of America.” Thorfinn Karlsefni (1915–1918) was installed along Philadelphia’s Kelly Drive near the Samuel Memorial and unveiled on November 20, 1920. The artwork is one of 51 sculptures included in the Association for Public Art’s Museum Without Walls: AUDIO™ interpretive audio program for Philadelphia’s outdoor sculpture.There is another casting of the statue in Reykjavík, Iceland.

    The inscription reads: (Sculpture, lower proper left:)
    Einar Jonsson
    sculptor
    1915-18

    (On back of Karlsefni’s shield: Icelandic verse)
    From the island of the North, of ice and snow,
    Of blossoming valleys and blue mountains,
    Of the midnight sun and the dreamy mists,
    The home of the goddess of northern lights.

    (Base, front:)
    Thorfinn Karlsefni
    Icelander
    1003-1006

    (Base, front plaque:)
    Following Leif Ericson’s Discovery of
    North America in 1003, Thorfinn Karlsefni
    with 165 men and 35 women established a
    settlement which lasted for 3 years and
    his son Snorri was born in North America
    Leif Ericson Society of Pennsylvania
    Scandinavian Craft Club of Philadelphia
    October 9, 1974

    Via Wikipedia

     

  • Captain Cook statue to be removed

    Captain Cook statue to be removed

    A statue of Captain Cook will be removed from a hill in New Zealand following protests by the local Maori community which says its ancestors arrived there long before the famous British explorer. via The Telegraph

    Unable for comment, the Moriori.

    cc2

     

  • The Dying Gaul and the Ludovisi Gaul

  • Bust of Jesus Christ

    Bust of Jesus Christ

    Bust of Jesus Christ by Gianlorenzo Bernini.

    Gian Lorenzo Bernini ( 7 December 1598 – 28 November 1680) was an Italian sculptor and architect. A major figure in the world of architecture, he was the leading sculptor of his age, credited with creating the Baroque style of sculpture. As one scholar has commented, ‘What Shakespeare is to drama, Bernini may be to sculpture: the first pan-European sculptor whose name is instantaneously identifiable with a particular manner and vision, and whose influence was inordinately powerful…’ via Wikipedia

    Bust_of_Jesus_Christ_by_Gianlorenzo_Bernini