Take A Look At An Unbelievable Sculpture Carved From A Single Block Of Marble
In this video I show one of the most amazing sculptures ever created! The name of the piece is "The release from deception". The artist who created it was named Francesco Queirolo (1704-1762) was an Italian Genoese-born sculptor, active in Rome and Naples during the Rococo period. He trained together with Giuseppe Rusconi in Rome. He is known for several other works of art but I only cover "deception" here. It is said that he worked on this piece from 1752-1759.
The sculpture shows a fisherman being released from a net by an angel. It was carved from a single piece of marble and can be seen in the Chapel of Santa Maria della Pietá alongside almost 30 other stunning masterpieces from various Artists of the time.
The inscription on the book at the bottom of the sculpture depicts in Latin the words of the angel to the fisherman, made up of three different quotations from the Vulgate Holy Bible put together:
VINCULA TUA DISRUMPAM (Nahum i. 13)
VINCULA TENEBRARUM ET LONGÆ NOCTIS (QUIBUS ES) COMPEDITUS (Sapientæ xvii. 2)
UT NON CUM HOC MUNDO DAMNEBIS (St. Paul 1 Corinthians. xi. 32)
"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."
This is one of the most fascinating pieces of art my eyes have ever gazed upon. The stunning detail and sheer complexity of this sculpture will leave you mesmerized when you realize it was all done with a few hammers and some chisels. This was the 1700's. Long before electricity or power tools. Sculptors of today employ pneumatic hammers,3D modeling technology, and A.I. powered computers to do most of the work. And even with all of these modern tools at our disposal, artists today can't even come CLOSE to producing a piece of art that is this magnificent. So, has this kind of grand artistry just dwindled away as the generations pass? It's almost as if Francesco was the baseline for talent, with each generation that came after him the talent was halved and halved and halved again until we arrive at our modern time. That seems fair to say when comparing the works of art from then and now. Just a hammer and chisel. By hand. Just absolutely breathtaking.