Antinous (2) in Naples, and some contemporary versions

Other beautiful Antinoüs sculptures are displayed in the Archeological Museum of Naples, in the Farnèse collection.

 

 

This sculpture face has been used extensively in many media, being paintings, drawings, book covers.

 

                                                                         

 

 

Antinous & Hadrien's love (1)

Currently working on another male couple sculpture, I will not post pictures of a new personal work before some time. So, lets discover other ones!

A tout seigneur tout honneur ! We will start with Antinoüs, probably the most sculpted young man ever, despite the fact he was neither a Statesman nor a philosopher, but simply who was loved.
(Marguerite Yourcenar, in Mémoires d'Hadrien : "alors que son visage, ne fut ni celui d'un homme d'Etat ni celui d'un philosophe, mais simplement qui fut aimé'''.

Everything is said. Antinoüs became in spite of himself a gay icon.

To make a short story : the Roman Emperor Hadrian fell in love with Antinous, who joined him on many trips (Italy, Greece, Egypt). Antinous drowned in the Nile at 20. Mad with grief , Hadrian founded Antinoopolis. And through the Roman Empire, many cities erected statues in honor of Antinous and a cult developed in favor of the 'god' Antinous, as well as the construction of temples in his honor. This cult was extremely developed, and the last one before Christianity.
From the hundreds of interpretations in stone, besides painting or drawings, we will only retain those that move us the most. And also those who are perhaps less known but important.

The one below is from the Vatican museum - The sculpture was reportedly found in Palestrina. White marble. First 3 photos by S. Sosnowskiy.

                                             

 

Marguerite Yourcenar's Mémoires d'Hadrien was very present in my mind while preparing this Antinoüs series, together with other sources that will be summarized at the end.

So I will dare to share a little family souvenir: surprisingly both my grandfathers have maintained a small correspondence with Marguerite Yourcenar (without colluding one suspects). One of them even had the privilege (?) of helping her to 'strip' at his home (and it took some time given the amount of buttons!) before she put on her official coat for her entrance at the 'Academie Française'. She was the first female member to be elected at the French Academy.

Next month we celebrate the 25th anniversary of her death, December 17, 1987.

Antinoüs B&W photo below from Animula Vagula Blandula blog.

                                                               Marguerite Yourcenar
                                 (Brussels Belgium June 8, 1903 - Maine USA, Dec 17, 1987)

Thinking : the sculpture (2)

Other view of the sculpture.

It is such a sensual and powerful feeling to pass the hand on that muscular back, to feel the smoothness of patina together with the strength and weight of the bronze.

Thinking : the sculpture (1)

Here it is!
A few dozens of hours of hard work...
Made in bronze, numbered I/IV (Artist proof), dimensions 7 x 5 x 4 in.

Thinking : the start

One of my sculpture of a male nude man, who seems to rest and think, was inspired by my mentor Patrick Poivre de la Freta who draw me an outline that you can see below.

Patrick was an incredible artist, and I will write more about him and his work and fabulous life later this year.

I spent a fair amount of time thinking about the sculpture that I would create from that little drawing.
Should I start from the top ? From the face ?
I wanted to express some strength, still in a kind of sleeping or resting mode...

Stand by Me

This is the overall view of the sculpture on his red-wood base. The base still has to be waxed to even further render the beauty of that wood.

Stand by Me - details

I hesitated a while for the title of this new sculpture, which I consider my master piece so far.

Stand by Me or Tenderness ?

The movie 'Stand by Me' is quite strong in my memories and emotions, ... so this sculpture showing two guys, one resting his head and nose on the other one's shoulder, got his title easily.

Bronze, 12 x 7 x 7 inches without the base in red wood (7 x 7 x 7 in).

Intimacy 3

This is the 3rd part of my serie Intimacy, expressing male love.
Showing tenderness of two males lying on their bed, 'spooning' and resting. This was made possible thanks to 2 guests of Villa Rainbow, posing for me during their stay.

Bronze with green patina 8 by 8 by 3 in. Limited Edition /8.

Intimacy 2

Intimacy 2 is part of my willingness to first sculpt a serie of male couples, maybe because I would have loved to see or touch similar sculptures as a teenager...!

Intimacy 1

The overview of this bronze sculpture.