What about pure intention, thought form, consciousness interacting with the quantum structures of minerals? Not without tools at hand, of course.
Original taken from masterok in It's a stone!
« marble veil". Virgin Mary in marble by Giovanni Strazza. Mid 19th century.
In general, there are a lot of amazing works of old masters. Here are a couple more examples under the cut:
Statue "Chastity" by Antonio Corradini. Marble. 1752. Chapel of San Severo in Naples. The sculpture represents tombstone mother of Prince Raimondo, who gave him life at the cost of her own.
Sculpture "The Rape of Proserpina". Marble. Height 295 cm. Galleria Borghese, Rome. Lorenzo Bernini created this masterpiece when he was 23 years old. In 1621. "I conquered marble and made it malleable like wax."
Can anyone explain how it is possible to make this net out of stone?
An even more complex allegory is the monument (father of Prince Raimondo -Antonio de Sangro (1685 - 1757 ). Italian name this monumentDisingannooften translated into Russian as "Disappointment", but not in the current generally accepted meaning, but inChurch Slavonic — « Getting rid of the spell» (San Severo Chapel, in Naples)
"Getting rid of the spell" (after 1757) completed Francesco Quiroloand is the most famous of his works. The monument is valuable for the finest work on marble and pumice from which it is made net . Quirolo was the only one of the Neapolitan masters who agreed to such a delicate work, while the rest refused, believing that with one touch of the chisel, the network would crumble to pieces.
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Original taken from sibved
in It's a stone!
similar, almost contemporary works(late 19th century) set. It is amazing that it is impossible to make many angles in the elements with a chisel, drill and grinder. There must be a chip, marriage, etc. But he is not! The statues are perfect!
Bust of a Veiled Woman (Puritas) 1717 - 1725
Museo del Settecento Veneziano, Ca" Rezzonico, Venice, Italy
Sculpture, Marble
Done by Antonio Corradini
Veiled Woman (Puritas)
Antonio Corradini
Giuseppe Sanmartino, one of the most famous sculptor of his time, which masterpiece, Il Cristo Velato, is hosted by Sansevero Chapel, the legend says that a real veil was petrified thanks to alchemical processes.
"Sleep of Sorrow and Joy of Dream"
Made in London by Raffaelle Monti, 1861
The Sleep Of Sorrow And the Dream Of Joy By Raffaelle Monti
This one is made out of clay...
Giovanni Battista Lombardi (1823-1880): Veiled Woman, 1869.
Stefano Maderno 1576-1636
A few more works:
Original taken from gallica in Intermedia. Girl in the Vorontsov Palace
Have you ever seen such statues? With lively sparkling eyes and silky eyebrows? 
With clothes on which not only lace is visible, but also the seams and the texture of the fabric. With a body with folds and pockmarks. And they say that on closer inspection there are pores ... 
This is the "Girl" by the Italian sculptor Quintillian Corbellini, early XIX century. She stands in winter garden Palace of Count Vorontsov in Alupka. And indeed it is his treasure. 
The first look at it gives a completely different impression. Not so bad, living face, a playful pose, the dress is frivolously, not for age, half-mast with only emerging breasts. 
But it's worth taking a closer look... Lord! She's real! 
And it is not so much the filigree of lace as the folds and wrinkles on the knees that attract attention. 
Swollen baby feet with dirty toes. 
The pose is caught in motion, so unstable. 
Seams on fabric! 
Gentle, childish, but at the same time playful face... 
And a childish angle. 
But the fabric! 
Texture, folds, seams! How is this possible? 
On the other side. 
Pockmark over the elbow. 
Unforgettably alive. 
This is the girl in all her charms that I wanted to show you. Do you believe this happens? 
Unfortunately, I could not find any information about its author. Does anyone know what else he created?
Judging by the remark of Lorenzo Bernini “I defeated marble and made it plastic, like wax”, until recently the recipe for “softening” any stone was known. I'm not talking about the plasticine technology of the ancients, especially in Mesoamerica.
What a delicate work, because the veil looks so natural that it seems that at the slightest breath the fabric will begin to move.
There were several sculptors who so skillfully conveyed the impression of the thinnest fabric that one is amazed - how is it done?
However... The technique of veils in sculpture has been known since ancient Greece.
Terracotta head of a woman in a veil, Cyprus, 2nd - 1st century BC
Terracotta head of a veiled woman, 4th century BC
Ancient Greece, 4th century BC Metropolitan Museum.
Ancient Greece, 3rd - 2nd century BC e. Bronze.
"Christ under the shroud"
Antonio Corradini (Antonio Corradini, September 6, 1668, Este, Padua - June 29, 1752, Naples) and Giuseppe Sanmartino (Giuseppe Sanmartino, 1720 - 1793) combines the 18th century, the profession - they are both Italian sculptors, and the work "Christ under the Shroud", commissioned by Raimondo de Sangro (the seventh prince of San Severo) for the San Severo Chapel in Naples .
Initially, the prince entrusted the work to Antonio Corradini, but he managed to make only a clay model (kept in the Certosa San Martino Museum). After the death of Corradini, Prince Raimondo entrusted the completion of the work to the young and obscure Neapolitan sculptor Giuseppe Sanmartino.
Sanmartino kept the main feature original intention- the thinnest marble canvas.
Prince Raimondo intended to place "Christ under the Shroud" not in the chapel itself, but under it - in the crypt, where the sculpture of Sanmartino, according to the prince's plan, was to be illuminated by a special "eternal light" invented by him.
Antonio Corradini, "Sarah"
Antonio Corradini
For the most part he worked for Venetian customers. His sculptures are on the squares and in parks, cathedrals and museums in Este, Venice, Rome, Vienna, Gurk, Dresden, Detroit, London, Prague, Naples, where he commissioned Raimondo de Sangro to decorate the San Severo Chapel. The statue of Christ under the Shroud, begun by him in the chapel (he managed to make only a clay model), was executed by the young and then unknown Neapolitan sculptor Giuseppe Sanmartino.
"Purity"
Antonio Corradini, Bust of a Veiled Woman (Puritas) 1717/ 1725 Marble Museo del Settecento Veneziano, Ca" Rezzonico, Venice
Chastity, Naples, San Severo Chapel.
The statue "Chastity" (Pudizia) is a tombstone of Cecilia Gaetani del Aquila d'Aragona (1690 - 1710), the mother of Prince Raimondo, who died shortly after giving birth.
"The Veiled Lady"
"Veiled Girl"
Bust "Veiled Girl"(Carrara marble) - a fragment of the famous statue "Vera" by sculptor Antonio Corradini (1688-1752), bought for the collection of Peter the Great in Venice by S. Raguzinsky for "100 golden ducats". was in summer garden before late XVII I century, then - in St. George's Hall Winter Palace where it was damaged in a fire in 1837. The upper part of the statue, after restoration, was placed by A.I. Shtakenshneider in the Inner Garden of the Tsarina's Pavilion in Peterhof.
Giuseppe Sammartino
Giuseppe Sanmartino."Christ under the shroud"
Giuseppe Sammartino (1720-1793) - Italian sculptor of the southern Italian school. Worked in Naples. In his manner, the traditions of the Baroque were combined with the verismo of Neapolitan plastics.
The first dated work is the marble sculpture "Christ under the Shroud" (1753), originally commissioned from the sculptor Antonio Corradini, in the San Severo Chapel.
The sculpture aroused the admiration of Antonio Canova, who, according to him, would give ten years of his life to become the author of such a work. Legend has it that the real veil was petrified.
Raffaello Monti
"Sleep of Sorrow and Joy of Dream". Raffaello Monti, London, 1861.
"Night", 1862
"True"
"Vestal"
The marble bust of a Vestal Virgin under a veil was created by the Italian sculptor Raffaello Monti (1818-1881) in 1860.
The bust is exhibited at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, and for the English estate of Chatworth, the sculptor made the same vestal in full growth.
The sculpture depicts a priestess of Vesta, a Vestal Virgin, covered with a veil. Vesta is the Roman goddess-keeper of the sacred fire, symbolizing the center of life - the state, city, home. It was believed that in any fire there is a particle of the spirit of Vesta.
"Circassian Slave" (1851)
Marble Bust of a Veiled Maiden Signed By Raffaello Monti
Giovanni Strazza
"Virgin Mary" from marble performed by Giovanni Strazza (1818-1875)), mid XIX century.
Sculptural bust "Woman in a hat with a veil". Marble. Western Europe. Early 20th century
Musee d'Orsay in Paris
"In a transparent veil", XX century. Elizabeth Ackroyd. Bankfield Museum, UK.
The effect does not disappear at any angle and at any distance.
"Undine emerging from the water", 1880. Chansey Bradley Ives. Yale University Gallery, USA.
Veil Lady. Artist Rossi, Pietro. 1882
The block, which was to become a statue, had to have two layers - one more transparent, the other more dense. Such natural stones are hard to find, but they exist. The master had a plot in his head, he knew what kind of block he was looking for. He performed it, observing the texture of a normal surface, and walked on the border separating the denser and more transparent part of the stone. As a result, the remains of this transparent part "shone through", which gave the effect of a veil. The peak of popularity for the image of a veil in stone fell on the 17th century. Almost two hundred years later, at the beginning of the 19th century, there was another surge.
Vestal. Raphael Monty.
Raphael Monti is an Italian sculptor, writer and poet. A native of Milan, he took his first steps under the guidance of his father, also a sculptor, Gaetano Matteo Monti, in Imperial Academy. He debuted early and won the gold medal for group composition. He was one of the sculptors who managed to create real masterpieces of vestals with a marble veil - priestesses Greek goddess Vesta.
Vesta is a Roman goddess, the guardian of the sacred fire. Raphael Monty.
The sculpture depicts a priestess of Vesta, a Vestal Virgin, covered with a veil. Vesta is the Roman goddess-keeper of the sacred fire, symbolizing the center of life - the state, city, home. It was believed that in any fire there is a particle of the spirit of Vesta.
Soft flowing folds are so skillfully carved by the sculptor that they come to life in the rays of the sun, letting in light. The effect is enhanced by the contrast with the unpolished wreath of wildflowers. The marble in the front part is amazingly clean, has practically no visible defects and inclusions, revealing all its nobility and beauty.
A veil ennobles, making a woman attractive and desirable, because she is inaccessible under a veil. And for centuries they have been admiring this beauty and do not understand how it is done.
The Vestal Virgin, purchased in 1847 by the Duke of Devonshire before the exhibition began, is currently in the Victoria and Albert Museum.
The marble bust of a Vestal Virgin under a veil was created by the Italian sculptor Raffaello Monti in 1860.
The bust is exhibited at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, and for the English manor of Chatworth. The sculptor made the same vestal woman in full growth.
Rafael Monti worked for some time in Vienna and Milan, made his first visit to England in 1846, but returned to Italy again in 1847 and joined the People's Party, became one of the chief officers of the National Guard.
After the disastrous failure of the Risorgimento campaign of 1848, he again fled from Italy to England. His career in England was very successful and fruitful. Monty's work was exhibited at the Royal Academy and he soon earned recognition as a leading sculptor.
Antonio Corradini, Bust of a Veiled Woman (Puritas) 1717.
Veiled girl.
The Virgin Mary.
Virgin Mary in marble by Giovanni Strazza (1818-1875), mid-19th century.
Chastity, San Severo Chapel. Antonio Corradini, 1752, Naples.
The statue "Chastity" (Pudizia) is a tombstone of Cecilia Gaetani del Aquila d'Aragona (1690 - 1710), the mother of Prince Raimondo, who died shortly after giving birth.
Monument "Chastity" defines clarity given name in work, because in its forms, it expresses in volume the meaning of its name: virtue, spirituality and frank purity.
"Sleep of Sorrow and Joy of Dream". Raffaello Monti, London, 1861.
The Sleep of Sorrow and the Joy of a Dream was acquired in 1847 by the Duke of Devonshire before the exhibition began. It is currently in the Victoria and Albert Museum.
In a transparent veil, Raphael Monti.
Antonio Сorradini, "Tuccia", detail.
Antonio Сorradini, "Tuccia" (la velata).
"Undine emerging from the water", 1880. Chansey Bradley Ives. Yale University Gallery, USA.
"True".
Veiled Lady Femme voilée Louvre, Paris.
The fabric, as if becoming damp from oil fumes from the lamp, fits elegantly and naturally. female body. The fabric is so thin that it is like a weightless web.
"Circassian slave". 1851, Raphael Monti.
At the ends of the falling veil, you can see how quiveringly the sculptor sculpted marble openwork lace.
Veiled Girl by Giuseppe Sammartino.
"Night", 1862, Raphael Monti.
"Christ under the shroud". Giuseppe Sammartino.
Initially, Prince Raimondo de Sangro commissioned the work of Antonio Corradini for the San Severo Chapel in Naples, but he managed to make only a clay model (kept in the Certosa San Martino Museum). After the death of Corradini, Prince Raimondo entrusted the completion of the work to the young and obscure Neapolitan sculptor Giuseppe Sanmartino.
Sanmartino retained the main feature of the original design - the thinnest marble canvas.
Prince Raimondo intended to place "Christ under the Shroud" not in the chapel itself, but under it - in the crypt, where the sculpture of Sanmartino, according to the prince's plan, was to be illuminated by a special "eternal light" invented by him. The statue of Jesus Christ, realized by Giuseppe Sanmartino, is one of the greatest sculptural masterpieces of all time.
Giovanni Battista Lombardi, 1869.
Veil Lady. Artist Rossi, Pietro. 1882.
skulptury pokrytye vualyu ot livio Scarpella.
Kevin Francis Grey.
Prosper D. Epine "Cupid under a veil, asking for alms", 1887
Watch and...
From the end of the 17th century, began to appear amazing sculptures hitherto unseen. They are made so finely that some contemporaries can’t even believe that they were made by ordinary, albeit very talented, masters, ordinary human hands. It's about about marble sculptures adorned with a veil. The veil, of course, is also marble.
These works are so striking in their elegance and subtlety of work that they are even seriously cited as arguments by some supporters of "non-traditional" historical theories. First of all, this concerns the works of Raphael Monti. However, he was not the pioneer on this path.
The first sculptor who managed to create that same marble veil was the Neapolitan master Antonio Corradini, born in 1668. His most famous sculpture "under the veil" is "Chastity", 1752, now located in Naples, in the Chapel of San Severo.
You can see that in the same Chapel there is another sculpture, no less amazing - "Getting rid of the spell", which Francesco Quirolo completed in 1757. Although it has nothing to do with "marble veils", nevertheless, the imagination is no less striking - it is simply incomprehensible to the mind how such a masterpiece could be manually created.
However, returning to the topic of our material - the authorship of Corradini belongs to several more busts, made using the same “marble veil” technique, and for the creation of another work of art with a similar effect, Antonio was overtaken by death.
The master had just begun to fulfill the order of Raimondo de Sangro, Prince of San Severo, but he managed to create only a clay model of the sculpture, now known as "Christ under the Shroud." Luck in such a peculiar way smiled at another Neapolitan sculptor, Giuseppe Sammartino, whose name became famous thanks to this particular work. He somewhat changed the original ideas of Corradini, but left the essence unchanged.
The very image of Christ, the symbolism of the compositional elements and that very amazing marble veil - all this turned this work art into an imperishable masterpiece, the greatest of those that keeps the Chapel of the Princes of San Severo. Surprisingly, Giuseppe Sammartino never created anything even approximately equal in greatness.
For almost a century, sculptors did not turn to the most complex and, at the same time, the most effective technique of the “marble veil”. “On the little things” in the middle of the 19th century, Giovanni Strazza distinguished himself by sculpting a bust of the Virgin Mary, using the same effect. Another similar sculpture about that same period - "Rebecca under the veil", sculptor - Giovanni Maria Benzoni. Surprisingly, no other similar works of sculptors have been preserved, and the sculptors themselves have not gained much fame.
However, another Italian sculptor, Rafael Monti, who ended up in England by the will of fate, nevertheless returned the fashion to the marble veil, so to speak. Moreover, he described technological process the creation of such sculptures, which, presumably, he learned back in his homeland, in Italy, and later successfully applied in England.
The essence was simple - Monty used a special material. He selected marble with an unusual structure, two-layer. The top layer was more transparent, the bottom layer was more dense. The effect of the veil was achieved through the finest processing, as a result of which the very “transparent” veil was obtained from the top layer of marble - such a thin layer of material remained.
The complexity of this technique in conditions where everything is done manually - try to imagine. More early masters, probably also used marble with a similar structure. The rarity of the material and the complexity of manufacturing can explain the small number of sculptures with marble veils.
In the 20th century, sculptors such as Elizabeth Ackroyd or Kevin Francis Gray also turned to the effect of the marble veil, but modern technologies, the variety of tools that have appeared and access to specialized information do not allow putting their works on a par with the works of masters previous centuries who created their masterpieces virtually by hand.
If you think about it, the titanic complexity of the works now gathering dust peacefully in the Chapel of San Severo willy-nilly suggests that we definitely do not know something about the people who created these ingenious sculptures and the conditions under which they worked. So it remains only to enjoy their beauty and marvel at the skill with which they are created, imbued with respect for human nature and the ability to create something beautiful.
What a delicate work, because the veil looks so natural that it seems that at the slightest breath the fabric will begin to move.
There were several sculptors who so skillfully conveyed the impression of the thinnest fabric that one is amazed - how is it done?
However... The technique of veils in sculpture has been known since ancient Greece.
Terracotta head of a woman in a veil, Cyprus, 2nd - 1st century BC
Terracotta head of a veiled woman, 4th century BC
Ancient Greece, 4th century BC Metropolitan Museum.
Ancient Greece, 3rd - 2nd century BC e. Bronze.
"Christ under the shroud"
Antonio Corradini (Antonio Corradini, September 6, 1668, Este, Padua - June 29, 1752, Naples) and Giuseppe Sanmartino (Giuseppe Sanmartino, 1720 - 1793) combines the 18th century, the profession - they are both Italian sculptors, and the work "Christ under the Shroud", commissioned by Raimondo de Sangro (the seventh prince of San Severo) for the San Severo Chapel in Naples .
Initially, the prince entrusted the work to Antonio Corradini, but he managed to make only a clay model (kept in the Certosa San Martino Museum). After the death of Corradini, Prince Raimondo entrusted the completion of the work to the young and obscure Neapolitan sculptor Giuseppe Sanmartino.
Sanmartino retained the main feature of the original design - the thinnest marble canvas.
Prince Raimondo intended to place "Christ under the Shroud" not in the chapel itself, but under it - in the crypt, where the sculpture of Sanmartino, according to the prince's plan, was to be illuminated by a special "eternal light" invented by him.
Antonio Corradini, "Sarah"
Antonio Corradini
For the most part he worked for Venetian customers. His sculptures are on the squares and in parks, cathedrals and museums in Este, Venice, Rome, Vienna, Gurk, Dresden, Detroit, London, Prague, Naples, where he commissioned Raimondo de Sangro to decorate the San Severo Chapel. The statue of Christ under the Shroud, begun by him in the chapel (he managed to make only a clay model), was executed by the young and then unknown Neapolitan sculptor Giuseppe Sanmartino.
"Purity"
Antonio Corradini, Bust of a Veiled Woman (Puritas) 1717/ 1725 Marble Museo del Settecento Veneziano, Ca" Rezzonico, Venice
Chastity, Naples, San Severo Chapel.
The statue "Chastity" (Pudizia) is a tombstone of Cecilia Gaetani del Aquila d'Aragona (1690 - 1710), the mother of Prince Raimondo, who died shortly after giving birth.
"The Veiled Lady"
"Veiled Girl"
Bust "Veiled Girl"(Carrara marble) - a fragment of the famous statue "Vera" by sculptor Antonio Corradini (1688-1752), bought for the collection of Peter the Great in Venice by S. Raguzinsky for "100 golden ducats". It was in the Summer Garden until the end of the 18th century, then in the St. George Hall of the Winter Palace, where it was damaged in a fire in 1837. The upper part of the statue, after restoration, was placed by A.I. Shtakenshneider in the Inner Garden of the Tsarina's Pavilion in Peterhof.
Giuseppe Sammartino
Giuseppe Sanmartino."Christ under the shroud"
Giuseppe Sammartino (1720-1793) - Italian sculptor of the southern Italian school. Worked in Naples. In his manner, the traditions of the Baroque were combined with the verismo of Neapolitan plastics.
The first dated work is the marble sculpture "Christ under the Shroud" (1753), originally commissioned from the sculptor Antonio Corradini, in the San Severo Chapel.
The sculpture aroused the admiration of Antonio Canova, who, according to him, would give ten years of his life to become the author of such a work. Legend has it that the real veil was petrified.
Raffaello Monti
"Sleep of Sorrow and Joy of Dream". Raffaello Monti, London, 1861.
"Night", 1862
"True"
"Vestal"
The marble bust of a Vestal Virgin under a veil was created by the Italian sculptor Raffaello Monti (1818-1881) in 1860.
The bust is exhibited at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, and for the English estate of Chatworth, the sculptor made the same vestal in full growth.
The sculpture depicts a priestess of Vesta, a Vestal Virgin, covered with a veil. Vesta is the Roman goddess-keeper of the sacred fire, symbolizing the center of life - the state, city, home. It was believed that in any fire there is a particle of the spirit of Vesta.
"Circassian Slave" (1851)
Marble Bust of a Veiled Maiden Signed By Raffaello Monti
Giovanni Strazza
"Virgin Mary" made of marble by Giovanni Strazza (1818-1875), mid-19th century.
Sculptural bust "Woman in a hat with a veil". Marble. Western Europe. Early 20th century
Musee d'Orsay in Paris
"In a transparent veil", XX century. Elizabeth Ackroyd. Bankfield Museum, UK.
The effect does not disappear at any angle and at any distance.
"Undine emerging from the water", 1880. Chansey Bradley Ives. Yale University Gallery, USA.
Veil Lady. Artist Rossi, Pietro. 1882
