Sculptures

There is a sculpture in the heart of Florence that seems to breathe. A young man cast in bronze holds aloft a severed head, crowned with serpents, its eyes still half-open as if the instant of decapitation had not yet ended. Legend has it that whoever dares look into those stone eyes meets the same fate as its victims.

Some sculptures impress by their size. Others, by the beauty of their figures. And then there's Disillusion, a work that produces a reaction much harder to explain: it's hard to believe that what we're looking at is really marble.

Francesco Queirolo finished this sculpture in 1753-1754 for the Cappella Sansevero in Naples.

Hercules and Deianira undertook the challenge of crossing the Evenus River. However, Nessus, the centaur tasked with guiding them, had dark intentions. In a despicable act, Nessus first crossed with Hercules and his supplies, leaving Deianira alone on the opposite bank. Taking advantage of this opportunity, he attempted to kidnap and violate the defenseless woman.

The story of the abduction of Persephone is more a story about Demeter than about her daughter Persephone. The violation of Persephone had terrible family precedents, beginning with the relationship of her mother Demeter with one of her brothers, the father of her daughter, Zeus, king of the gods, who also refused to intervene to help the girl, at least in a timely manner. Demeter, goddess of the earth and grain, as we have already told in La Vida es Arte, was the sister of Zeus, as well as of Poseidon and Hades.