Dusty Art

My prior Art posts can be found HERE.

How do we move away from being a civilization that produces art that causes comments like, “my five year old could make this,” back to being one that creates beauty and inspires deep questions? We must reject modernity and embrace tradition. To embrace tradition, we must first learn about it..

Let’s study art history together.

The Veiled Virgin

Artist	Giovanni Strazza
Year	Before 1856
Type	Carrara marble
Dimensions	48 cm (19 in)
Location	Presentation Convent, St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada

Sometimes you see a piece of art and wonder why we aren’t doing things like this anymore. Truthfully, though, there are still artists making this type of work – but they are usually overshadowed within culture and in the art world by the depraved modern scammers who create either to intentionally uglify the world or to assist in money-laundering endeavors. You have to look harder in the present find beauty. You might also need to look backward in time to re-calibrate your expectations away from the ugly dross you’ve been surrounded by for your entire life. (That’s what we’re doing here.)

This incredible sculpture is entirely made of marble. Strazza manages to do two unbelievable things here. First, he gives *marble* a sense of being translucent. That’s mind-boggling. Second, and just as incredible in my opinion given the medium, the face beneath is recognizable as that of the Virgin Mary.

(more via wiki)

The Veiled Virgin is a Carrara marble statue carved in Rome by Italian sculptor Giovanni Strazza (1818–1875) depicting the bust of a veiled Virgin Mary. The exact date of the statue’s completion is unknown, but it was probably in the early 1850s. The veil gives the appearance of being translucent, but is carved of marble. The technique is similar to Giuseppe Sanmartino‘s 1753 statue Veiled Christ in the Cappella Sansevero in Naples.

The statue was transported to Newfoundland in 1856, as recorded on December 4 in the diary of Bishop John Thomas Mullock: “Received safely from Rome, a beautiful statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary in marble, by Strazza. The face is veiled, and the figure and features are all seen. It is a perfect gem of art”. It was then kept at the Bishop’s Palace next to the Catholic Cathedral in St. John’s until 1862, when Bishop Mullock presented it to Mother Mary Magdalene O’Shaughnessy, the Superior of the Presentation Convent. The bust has since remained under the care of Presentation Sisters, in Cathedral Square, St. John’s.

In the context of the Risorgimento, the Veiled Virgin was intended to symbolize Italy.

Marble busts of veiled women were a popular theme among Strazza’s contemporaries, the most important of whom were Pietro Rossi and Raffaele Monti.

For a couple of review videos on the work, I direct you toward and recommend the following: