Atlas holds up the sky as a punishment from Zeus. This early sculpture would help define our concept of Atlas. The symbols on the globe are signs of the Zodiac.
Sculpture in the Archeological Museum of Naples.
09 Thursday Oct 2014
Posted Sculpture
inAtlas holds up the sky as a punishment from Zeus. This early sculpture would help define our concept of Atlas. The symbols on the globe are signs of the Zodiac.
Sculpture in the Archeological Museum of Naples.
20 Sunday Jul 2014
John Deare – English, 1785 – 1787 – Venus Reclining on a Sea Monster with Cupid and a Putto
Venus, the goddess of love and beauty, reclines on a fantastic goat-headed sea monster in this allegory of Lust. The goddess entwines her fingers in the creature’s beard–a so-called “chin-chucking” gesture that represents erotic intent–while the monster licks her hand in response. Cupid, astride the monster’s long tail, is poised to shoot an arrow at Venus, while in the background a putti adds to the amorous imagery by holding a flaming torch, undoubtedly meant to suggest the burning ardor of desire. The sea goat carries Venus through the frothy waves, carved with energy and precision.
John Deare displayed his great skill in carving a variety of levels and textures in this sculpture, from the low relief of the Cupid and putti to the smooth, half-relief of Venus, and finally to the sea-goat’s fully three-dimensional snout and wavy strands of hair. Deare’s depiction of Lust as a woman riding a goat forms part of an iconographic tradition that has been popular since the Middle Ages.
02 Sunday Feb 2014
Fernandes de Sá (1898)
Jardim da Cordoaria, Porto, Portugal
The first work of Fernandes de Sá, “The Abduction of Ganymede,” was born in 1898, an admirable proof of assimilation of the spirit of French art then taught by the Masters Falguière and Puech two vanguard of opposition to the aesthetic revolutionism Rodin.
“It has served me as a model for a beautiful Italian boy Ganymede. I worked for days with all the ardor and all will. Sometimes I forgot to eat and went to lunch at three-four in the afternoon. Ah, but it was worth it! The Abduction of Ganymede, to amazement of my 23 years, was admitted to the Salon (1989), the Universal Exposition in Paris (1900) and Exhibition of the Society of Fine Arts of Lisbon (1902).”