Perhaps it is evolving mores or bad translations or changed linguistic meanings but the sculpture Modesty, 1749-52, by Antonio Corradini (1688-1752) seems misnamed to me. It is also called Chastity or Veiled Truth, also improbable candidates it would seem. Lightly Veiled Truth if one were accurate.
Click to enlarge.
More provocatively.
Click to enlarge.
The patron who commissioned the work, Raimondo di Sangro, did so as a memorial for his mother who died when he was young. His respect for his mother translated into a beautiful work of art.
It is an exquisite work of art. But for one's mother? It is relatively easy to switch back and forth, like one of those optical illusions involving silhouettes (vase versus faces, old crone, young woman, etc.) between a classical conceptualization of modesty and modesty that borders on a sensuous tease. You have to choose the former over the latter, but you are choosing.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment