Holy Water basins began to appear at the entrances of Christian churches between the 8th and 9th centuries. They were small and shallow containers, designed to hold blessed water with which believers, dipping the fingers of one hand into it, made the sign of the cross as a gesture of purification and a reminder of …
Ivory sculpture, from mid-16th century and over the next two centuries, was considered one of the finest artistic disciplines inside the European courts to such an extent that princes, nobles and major ecclesiastical figures were contending Flemish, German and Austrian artists, among the most skilled in working with that noble material. Such is the case …
Known and widespread since Ancient times, padlocks are portable locks used for locking boxes, chests, furniture and other domestic containers as well as for closing doors and gates of houses, cities and sacred places. Over the centuries, especially in the vast geographical area from Turkey to India, many padlocks of different shapes, sizes and types …
The tobacco plant was introduced to Europe, and more precisely to Spain, by Christopher Columbus who, having seen the Native Americans pulverise and inhale its dried leaves, brought it to the Old Continent on his return from the second voyage to the New World in 1496. Tobacco thus spread through Europe in the 16th century, …
Along with locks and keys, doorknockers are the most intricately executed iron objects in which the highest aesthetic levels are reached, so that they can be considered true works of art. They usually originate from the inspiration of anonymous iron craftsmen who mould a hard and elusive material into small sculptures. From the Middle Ages …
Attilio Torresini (1884 – 1961), Venetian artist by birth and artistic training, learned sculptural techniques from his father, a skilled marble worker. After graduating from his city’s Academy of Fine Arts, he settled in Rome in 1914, managing to rent a studio in Villa Strohl-Fern – a famous residence of several artists and men of …
This unpublished bronze statuette is a small-scale reproduction of one of the best-known masterpieces of late 16th-century Lombard sculpture: the marble Madonna Assunta by Annibale Fontana (1540-1587), made for the façade of the Milanese church of Santa Maria dei Miracoli presso San Celso. Achieved in 1583-1584 and installed in 1590, just thirty years later the statue was …
These rare and unpublished metal sculptures were made by riveting together several foils of embossed iron, polychromed with red on the inner side and then fully gilded. The birds rest their talons on what looks like a rock or a drift of burning ashes, with little grassy tufts or small tongues of fire, placed over …
This impressive head depicts a bearded man caught in a moment of powerful dramatic expression. The head swerve, the gaze turned suddenly upwards, the contraction of the forehead, his corrugated eyebrows and the small mouth with fleshy lips, describe effectively the intense emotion of the character. The sculptor lingered in the detailed rendering of the …
A wide and deep frame encloses the figure of the Child Jesus placed in a landscape at sunset. The Redeemer is represented as a naked little boy, resting on his side, with the right hand on his chest, the eyes looking upwards, and his mouth half open. The scene is rich in meaningful details: Jesus …