Abel (2) by Vincent Emile Feugère des Forts

The other Abel sculpture I want to share is from the French sculptor Vincent Emile Feugères des Forts (1825-1889). His 'death of Abel' was first created in plaster, and he showed it at the 'Salon' in 1864, for which he got a medal. You can see the plaster sculpture in Chartres, at the 'Musée des Beaux- Arts'.
He then sculpted it in marble, and presented it two years later. It is a very sensual sculpture of a young man lying on the ground.

The marble sculpture is in Paris, at the Musée d'Orsay. A cast in bronze was reportedly also visible at the Chateau des Forts (Illiers), during the end of the 19th century but I could not find any trace of it.

In March 2007, the Musée d'Orsay, in his 'Correspondance' serie (in which an artist is invited to choose a Museum art piece and to present his work next to it), displayed the contemporary visions of the French artists Pierre & Gilles (previously mentioned in this blog here), who choose 'The death of Abel', and painted him, not once but 3 times, so as to give a 3D vision of this Abel, around his sculpture. An interesting way to see that sculpture with a new eye.

Here are the photographs of their 3 paintings, taken by 'Lunettes Rouges', an art blogger from the French newspaper 'Le Monde'.

Sources :

Wikipedia
Musée d'Orsay

Pierre & Gilles video interview (Italian & French)
The ''Amateur d'Art'' blog of Lunettes Rouges

Abel (1) by Giovanni Dupré

Dupré's family originated initially from France, but settled long time ago in Tuscany (Italy). Giovanni Dupré was born in Siena in 1817, and died in Florence in 1882. His father was already a carver (in wood).

The Abel marble sculpture, seen above and below, was achived in 1842, and greatly contributed to his reputation, as it was purchased by the Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna, Duchess of Leuchtenberg (wife of Maximilian de Beauharnais).  The marble sculpture is visible at the Hermitage Museum.

Abel by Dupré - Marble - Hermitage

And here is the bronze copy, casted later, and now displayed at the Palazzo Pitti in Florence.

Abel by Dupré - Bronze - Palazzo Pitti

Numerous sculptures done by Dupre can be seen in Tuscany, like the Savonarola bust, which is visible in his cell at the monastery of San Marco in Florence. And a museum existed previously, managed by a relative of Dupre (Amalia), located in Fiesole, a wonderful hill near Florence. Unfortunately that museum is now closed. 

 

Dupre wrote his memoirs (Pensieri sull'arte e ricordi autobiografici) in 1879, and it was later translated into English by F. Peruzzi (Edinburgh, 1886). 

You can have access to it easily here with the project Gutenberg. 

Sources

http://www.britannica.com/biography/Giovanni-Dupre

La Fraternité des Peuples, by Jules Dalou

This interesting sculpture made by the French artist Jules Dalou (1838-1902) - his official name was Aimé-Jules Dalou - is visible in Paris (Xème) Town Hall.

Jules Dalou's family were glover artisans. He was raised with the love of the Republican values, and he demonstrated very young great skills in drawing and clay modelling. He became the pupil of the famous French sculptor Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux.

Workshop / Studio of Jules Dalou in 1899

Jules Dalou

This sculpture 'La Fraternité des Peuples' was initially done in plaster, in 1883, and is a huge haut-relief. It is located specifically in the Weddings Room!

Numerous sculptures from Dalou can be seen in Paris, among them 'Le Triomphe de la République' (1899) located on Place de la Nation.

And a monument for Eugène Delacroix (1890) at the Jardins du Luxembourg.

Sources :
Wikipedia

Francesco Jerace - Angels, busts and Beethoven

Seeing recently the angels from the Vatican Museum, I recalled another angel, sculpted by Francesco Jerace, famous Italian sculptor (1853-1937), educated in Naples. He traveled to Holland, where he did some busts. In Italy, among his master pieces,  several sculptures can be seen such as the statue of Vittorio Emmanuele II, Donizetti, Beethoven. He exhibited in Paris, Vienna, Munich, Antwerp, St Petersburg, Buenos Aires, San Francisco, Melbourne, London, Barcelona, Venice and even St Louis and got numerous awards.

Below is a subjective selection of some of  his sculptures.

The child and the angel, marble, 1900, located at the Tomb of the Greek Chapel of Cosenza (Calabria, Italy).

Bust in plaster.

Child. In plaster.

 Beethoven, done in 1895, and located in the cloister of San Pietro a Majella Conservatory (Napoli, Italy).

   

Sources
Famedisud.It

Male art in Vatican (1) : a guided tour

Numerous gay artists have decorated, painted, and sculpted wonderful treasures visible in the Vatican and Vatican Museums. Sometimes their works or inclination had to be discreet, still many expressed a strong eroticism in their male beauties.

A guided tour is now offered by Quikky, an Italian travel agency, called 'the secret gay Vatican tour'. This tour shows several homoerotic pieces, a sort of 'gay art history' of the Vatican. And the tour has got a large success, with articles published in the New York Times, The Guardian, The Huffington Post, Out Traveler, Attitude, Vanity Fair, etc.

Lets have a look at some of these 'gay' treasures.

For paintings, of course there is the Sistine Chapel painted by Michelangelo, and the famous Ignudi.  And also the Last Judgment. 

One of the guide is Tony Adams, who used to be a Catholic priest. He said about that painting : ''And it's erotic art. It tells a spiritual story, but it doesn't deny the physical dimension." Quikky also organizes a tour in Milan, where you can see the Last Supper, by Leonardo Da Vinci. The tours are always given with extensive explanations linked to the 'hidden history' and private life of the artists, their models, or their lovers, and their art pieces of course.

In terms of sculptures observed during the tour, you can see the Apoxyomenos from Lysippus, who was a sculptor for Alexander the Great. Here with the fig leaf, which was added later on.

The Belvedere Apollo. Some considered it 'the sublime expression of Greek art'.

The busts from Hadrian, and from his lover Antinous.

 

The Laocoon and his sons. A famous and large sculpture, attributed to sculptors from the island of Rhodes. And a very old sculpture too, as it was discovered in 1505 in Rome.

St Sebastien, icon of many gays (see our previous posts on St Sebastien here).

And of course you can see many more sculptures, like angels, etc.

Sources:
The Guardian article
Quikky website
Yahoo style

The Sluggard by Lord Frederic Leighton

I guess the title of this sculpture reflects well the month of February 2016 for this blog : only one post published! :) The Sluggard is one of the famous male sculptures made by Lord Frederic Leighton (1830-1896), who was also a painter.

The sculpture represents an athletic young male, awakening or stretching his body. Leighton was inspired to create this bronze because one of his male models – Giuseppe (Gaetana) Valona – stretched himself after he was sitting for a long while posing for one of Lord Leighton painting.

  

The first model of this sculpture was made of gypsum in 1885 and was a life-size sculpture of "The Sluggard" that is nowadays exhibited at the London Tate Gallery'', in bronze. Another version of smaller size (52 cm) was casted in bronze with Laughton's approval and signature. 

Leighton was born at Scarborough, UK, and went early to Florence, Italy, to study. He spent some time in Frankfurt, Germany, and again in Italy, in rome, before going back to UK at the age of 30.

Below photo is a statue of Lord Leighton, located on the façade of the Victoria and Albert Museum. London, near the Brompton Avenue entrance. [Photograph by George P. Landow, December 1999.]

The portrait of Leighton was Brock’s diploma work for the Royal Academy and the cast which he exhibited in 1893 is at Burlington House. Lord Leighton was elected to the Athenæum in 1866.

Photograph courtesy of the Athenæum. Frederic Leighton by Thomas Brock. c. 1892. Bronze. 32 1/2 inches.

 

Two years ago, Stuart Sandford, young British artist, was inspired by the Sluggard sculpture of Leighton and made a contemporary version by photographing a model (Brad) in 3D, making a 3D printed model, later casted in aluminium, marble dust & resin, silver etc. of different sizes.

Sources :
Tate Gallery
Stuart Sandford website
Victorian Web

Achille & Patrocle (3) in contemporary sculpture & other art

To start 2016, lets continue with our famous loving couple of Achille & Patrocle! And lets have a look at how this love was expressed in more recent time. In terms of sculpture, or more precisely bas-relief,  there is one portraying Achille & Patrocle, sculpted by Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770-1844).

And for the pleasure of the eyes, some more bas reliefs from Thorvaldsen with Achille! Like below, called Briseis and Achille.

And this one, called Chiron and Achilles, was done in plaster initially, around 1888-1990. The centaur Chiron, half man half horse, teached medicine to Aesculapius, and Achille learned to play the lyre from him.  

And the last sculpted bas-relief selected from Thorvaldsen is Priam who pleads with Achille for Hector's body.

Bertel Thorvaldsen did also some drawings, like the one below showing Chiron teaching the young Achille in archery.

In more contemporary sculptures, I have found this one made by SERRA, 'Achille & Patrocle'.

And also this one, entitled Achille crying Patrocle death, sculpted by Guy van den Steen (1906-1999), which sit on one side of the entrance of his previous castle of Jehay, near Liège (Belgium), castle now sold to the city of Liege.

In terms of painting, and to end with the 20th century, here is one from the American painter David Ligare, done in 1986. 'Achille and the body of Patrocle'.

Sources:
Blog Les diagonales du temps
Blog Le chateau de jehay   
Wikipedia
Thorvaldsen Museum