Stone art

Here are just a couple of images of the amazing statues scattered about Rome.  The one featured is standing in a stairwell within Ill Vittoriano, the Wedding Cake building that I featured in yesterday’s Blip.  I loved the soft light falling on the marble, and the energy of the horses.  It’s a delicate work compared to the impressive, but way more ostentatious and grand statements in stone outside the monument. A full description of the giants outside is available in several places online, including here  on Wikipedia, but I could not locate detail of this angel with horses masterpiece which seems to be lost amongst the others.

The “Veiled Woman”, otherwise known as “The Vestal Virgin Tuccia” stands in the National Gallery of Ancient Art in Barberini Palace (shown 1st Extra). It was sculpted in 1743 by Antonio Corradini.  It’s was another delicate stunner – you wouldn’t believe the veil is made of stone without standing right next to it. Having seen this one, I went on line to discover 100s of veiled marble statues like it, so clearly it was a popular genre to test your sculpting skills.

You don’ have to Rome’s galleries to see amazing stone art – just walk about.  There are many bas-reliefs tucked into walls and alcoves – two examples are in the Extra Photos gallery.