| Modesty | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Artist | Antonio Corradini |
| Year | 1752 |
| Medium | Marble |
| Location | Cappella Sansevero, Naples |
Modesty or Chastity (Italian : La Pudicizia ) or Veiled Truth by Antonio Corradini is a sculpture completed in 1752 during the Rococo period. Corradini was commissioned by Raimondo di Sangro to sculpt a memorial for his mother in the Cappella Sansevero in Naples, where the marble sculpture still remains.
Corradini worked mostly in Venice but also spent some time in Vienna and Naples before his death in 1752. Modesty was the last in Corradini's series of veiled female nudes, a subject he developed and refined throughout his career. His mastery of the medium of marble is seen in the increasingly skilled representation of seemingly weightless cloth over human flesh in his commissioned pieces. Modesty is positioned on a pedestal in the chapel and can sometimes be lost in the beauty of the space and its surrounding statues created by other various artists. Raimondo wanted this commemoration to depict his mother's untimely death when he was not even a year old. [1]
An image of this statue is painted on the wall of a high building in Naples.
The figure is in a contrapposto stance, having her weight on one foot more than the other. This pose gives her human-like qualities and a motion as if she is in the middle of an action. The way her classical drapery falls on her body also shows this movement. The artists of eighteenth-century Italy were especially interested in the depiction of movement as Corradini was. Her face is turned away from the viewer, shielding her eyes with the transparent veil. Her stance is inviting; however, her face is telling a different story. The veil seems heavy but also see-through. It falls just so over her chest to accentuate her breasts, but also covers her pubic area so that it is not overtly sexual. She is exposed yet metaphorically shielded by the drapery. Her supple body is fluid, a smooth and perfect human. These idealized qualities lead to a feeling that she is a divine woman and not of this world.
Modesty is one of two sculptures Corradini completed for the Sansevero Chapel, both a part of a ten-statue series of the Virtues. The veiled female figure embodies modesty but can also be considered a representation of wisdom. There is a clear reference to the veiled statue of Isis at Sais in Egypt. [1] It is said that there is a quote on the ancient statue that reads "I am past, present, and future…". [2] This allegory furthers Modesty's aspect of wisdom and the statue is often referred to as Veiled Truth. The symbols such as the cracked plaque illustrate her life being cut too short. On the pedestal that the statue stands there is a relief of a biblical scene of Christ appearing to Mary Magdalene as a gardener portraying the importance of the Christian faith to the family. Corradini's other work is Decorum, which is also in the series of virtues. Decorum is a depiction of a youthful male nude scantily clothed in lion skin. He was also commissioned to make the piece Veiled Christ for the chapel but it was completed by Giuseppe Sanmartino instead when Corradini died suddenly. His two statues line the wall of Sansevero along with eight others. Modesty is positioned in its original location giving viewers the ability to see the statue in its intended arrangement.
This series of virtues was commissioned by Raimondo di Sangro who was the seventh Prince of Sansevero. Patronage is imperative in the art world and is meant to convey the visions of the person paying for the artwork. Raimondo was known for his interest in science and the arts. Raimondo acquired the church in the mid eighteenth century and transformed it into what is seen today. [3] He was very particular about his ideas for the mausoleum and hired what he thought were the best artists to work on it. The visual theme of the Rococo movement is seen in the adorned building with a painted ceiling, marble tombs and relief sculptures.
Corradini's interest in the veiled human form spanned his long career. His subjects were usually woman and often allegorical. [4] Early in his career, his works depicted heavily draped figures in a classical manner and then progressed to a thin, translucent layer of marble acting as a veil as he perfected his craft.[ citation needed ] An example of the latter and the work on which Corradini based Modesty is his Vestal Virgin Tuccia , sculpted in Rome in 1743.
Tuccia, was an ancient Roman Vestal Virgin. She is known for an incident in which her chastity was questioned by a spurious accusation. In Tuccia's case, she utilized a flat perforated basket to carry water, without the water falling to the ground through the sieve.
The Veiled Virgin is a Carrara marble statue carved in Rome by Italian sculptor Giovanni Strazza (1818–1875), depicting the bust of a veiled Virgin Mary. The exact date of the statue's completion is unknown, but it was probably in the early 1850s. The veil gives the appearance of being translucent, but in fact is carved of marble. The technique is similar to Giuseppe Sanmartino's 1753 statue Veiled Christ in the Cappella Sansevero in Naples.
Francesco Mochi was an Italian early-Baroque sculptor active mostly in Rome, Piacenza and Orvieto. His dramatic early works in Orvieto are now often regarded as the first truly Baroque sculptures.
Antonio Corradini was an Italian Rococo sculptor from Venice. He is best known for his illusory veiled depictions of the human body, where the contours of the face and body beneath the veil are discernible.
Raffaele Monti was an Italian sculptor, author and poet.
The Cappella Sansevero is a chapel located on Via Francesco de Sanctis 19, just northwest of the church of San Domenico Maggiore, in the historic center of Naples, Italy. The chapel is more properly named the Chapel of Santa Maria della Pietà. It contains works of Rococo art by some of the leading Italian artists of the 18th century.
Francesco Queirolo was an Italian Genoese-born sculptor, active in Rome and Naples during the Rococo period.
Innocenzo Spinazzi (1726–1798) was an Italian sculptor of the Rococo period active in Rome and Florence.
The Veiled Rebecca or The Veiled Rebekah is a 19th century sculpture carved out of marble in Italian neoclassical style by the sculptor Giovanni Maria Benzoni.The sculpture is also referred as The Veiled Lady in several records. It depicts a biblical figure of Rebecca placed on a marble pedestal.
Raimondo di Sangro, Prince of Sansevero was an Italian nobleman, inventor, soldier, writer, scientist, alchemist and freemason best remembered for his reconstruction of the Sansevero Chapel in Naples.
Italian Baroque art is a term that is used here to refer to Italian painting and sculpture in the Baroque manner executed over a period that extended from the late sixteenth to the mid eighteenth centuries. Italian Baroque architecture is not covered.
Giuseppe Sanmartino or Giuseppe Sammartino was an Italian sculptor during the Rococo period.
Saint Longinus is a sculpture by the Italian artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini. Completed in 1638, the marble sculpture sits in the north-eastern niche in the crossing of St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City. It is over four meters high and was commissioned by Pope Urban VIII, a great patron of Bernini.
The Palazzo D'Afflitto is a palace located in the San Giuseppe neighbourhood of Naples, Italy, adjacent to the Palazzo Capomazza di Campolattaro. It used to belong to the princely family d'Afflitto. In the third floor is the recently restored Church of the Real Monte Manso di Scala, built atop the famed Cappella Sansevero. The palace was built in the 15th century but underwent numerous reconstructions.
The Anatomical Machines are a pair of anatomical models reproducing the human circulatory system, displayed in the Cappella Sansevero in Naples. Created in the second half of the 18th century, they are constructed over a male and a female human skeleton. The reproduction of the vessel system is formed of metal wire, wax, and silk, but because of its richness of detail it was for a long time believed to be of natural origin.
The Veiled Nun is a marble bust depicting a female figure that was sculpted by an unidentified Italian workshop in c. 1863. Despite its name, the woman depicted is not a nun. The bust was popular with visitors to the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. from 1874 until the museum closed in 2014. The bust is now displayed in the National Gallery of Art.
The Vestal Virgin Tuccia or Veiled Woman is a marble sculpture created in 1743 by Antonio Corradini, a Venetian Rococo sculptor known for his illusory depictions of female allegorical figures covered with veils that reveal the fine details of the forms beneath. The work is housed in the Palazzo Barberini, Rome.
The Saint Susanna is a marble sculpture by François Duquesnoy. The work is one of four sculptures of Roman virgin martyrs commissioned by the Bakers' Guild to decorate the church of Santa Maria di Loreto in Rome. It was completed in the course of four years from 1629 to 1633. Giovanni Pietro Bellori, comparing Duquesnoy's achievement with the Saint Susanna to that of Polyclitus with his Doryphoros and its Kanon, commented [Duquesnoy has] left to modern sculptors the example for statues of clothed figures, making him more than the equal of the best ancient sculptor. The statue is considered by modern scholars an exemplification of Duquesnoy's 'Greek ideal,' which included an approach to drapery unpopular at the time, established through the study of antique models selected by Duquesnoy.
The Veiled Hestia is an 1847 sculpture by Rafaelle Monti. It was commissioned by William Cavendish, 6th Duke of Devonshire during an 1846 trip to Naples. It is a representation of a Vestal Virgin, the priestesses of the Ancient Roman goddess Vesta. The subject was popular at this time due to the then recent discovery of the House of the Vestals in Pompeii. The depiction of translucent fabrics was popular at the time and Monti was requested to use the technique in this sculpture. Monti completed the sculpture in April 1847 and it was afterwards displayed at Cavendish's West London Chiswick House.
