Thursday, May 2, 2024

Release from Deception

“I will burst thy bonds asunder, / being fettered with the bonds of darkness, and a long night, / that you will not be condemned with this world.”
~the inscription (in Latin) on the book at the bottom of the sculpture Disillusion


For Art Thursday, a marble statue that deserves its own post: Disillusion (or Release from Deception) by Francesco Queirolo (1704–1762). Queirolo carved the angel, the fisherman, and the incredible net from one piece of marble. Disillusion was commissioned by Raimondo di Sangro as a memorial for his father in their family burial site, the Sansevero Chapel.
It reportedly took Queirolo seven years to fabricate this marble net, which he crafted without a workshop, apprentice, or other form of external assistance. The Sansevero Chapel Museum notes that this is because even the most specialized sculptors “refused to touch the delicate net in case it broke into pieces in their hands.” (Kelly Richman-Abdou)


A drawing of Disillusion, 1894
by Franz Robert Richard Brendámour

1 comment:

HWY said...

What a magnificent sculpture...that netting is fantastic! Not surprising that other sculptors would be scared to work with fashioning the net. Wow.