Female beauty, which is frozen in marble. How ancient sculptors saw female beauty

Sculpture is a unique art form that captures the essence of life and brings it to life in stone. It is known that the best sculptors "defeated the stone", turning its hard, rough surface into something supple, living, and breathing. Even with the advent of computer special effects, weightless stone clothes, soft marble bodies, and tense marble muscles, carved hundreds of years ago, continue to amaze and delight viewers. In this article, we will look at the work of three great sculptors who breathed life into their stone sculptures: Giovanni Bernini, Auguste Rodin, and Raphael Monti.

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1. "The Rape of Proserpina" by Giovanni Bernini

masterpiece of the first quarter of the 17th century. The Italian master embodied in stone a whole plot from Greek mythology. The sculpture depicts the moment of the abduction of Proserpina by Pluto. The figures of Pluto and Proserpina seem to spiral upwards, and the viewer sees how Pluto's hands grab Proserpina's body, and the stone beneath them is crushed like living flesh.

The hair of the figures is disheveled in a light breeze and the fabric of clothing slips off naked bodies. Bernini himself said that in this sculpture he defeated the stone, but he was only 23 years old.

2. Auguste Rodin "Young Danaida"

One of the most famous sculptors in the world, known for his Symbolist and Romantic styles. Rodin's characters seem to struggle with their non-existence and overcome it with the expressiveness and emotionality that the author gives them. Young Danaida Lying on a Stone is one of his works that can be confused with a living person. In this work, Rodin refers to the myth of the fifty daughters of King Danae, who killed their husbands on their wedding night, and only one of the girls saved her husband's life.

3. Rodin has placed the girl with her back to the viewer, and she lies face down on the stone, showing the seductively lively curves of her body. The whole figure looks natural and familiar, as if on this stone lies not a marble heroine of an ancient Greek myth, but a beloved girl who is about to wake up.

4. Raphael Monti's "The Vestals"

The stone veil technique appeared in the middle of the 18th century thanks to the work of the Italian sculptor Antonio Corradini. The technique was forgotten for almost a century until Rafael Monti turned to it in the middle of the 19th century. Monty was the first to reveal the secret of the "transparent" stone. Great sculptors used a special two-layer variety of marble, with the top layer being much more transparent.

5. Creating a stone curtain before the advent of high technology was an extremely delicate and time-consuming job. The transparent layer of marble was polished until it was almost weightless, then carved by the sculptors to create a veil that looked like it was floating in the air. Raphael Monti's Vestal Virgins is an example of this technique, showing the sheer veils of vestal virgins in great detail.

These three sculptors, Bernini, Rodin, and Monti, were able to breathe life into their sculptures by turning stone into poetry. Their work continues to fascinate and inspire viewers centuries after they were created. The ability to transform something as hard and unyielding as a stone into a soft, living, and breathing work of art is truly an extraordinary feat.

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