Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Art and Beauty Tuesday--The Assumption

This is a detail of a sculpture of The Assumption of the Virgin by Egid Quirin Asam who was an 18th century German sculptor and architect. Portraying the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, commemorated on Sunday, is not an easy thing to do in 3 dimensions. Somehow Mary is suspended in the air, wearing a gorgeously patterned gilt dress and being helped to heaven by 2 angels, wearing gold sandals and trailing golden robes.

When looking at the sculpture as a whole, we can see the sculpted clouds above her head as she is taken into heaven and below, the astonished disciples look up into the sky while one (Thomas, perhaps?) reaches into her tomb in disbelief.

The level of artistry in this piece is almost unfathomable. I never cease to be dumbfounded at the skill it must take to turn something like stone into a living form.

There is probably no one who has inspired more great art in the history of mankind, just might be the Blessed Virgin Mary.

4 comments:

Staying in Balance said...

It is!

Barbara Schoeneberger said...

Assam did an awesome job with this. I would love to see it in person and find out how he seemingly suspended Our Lady and the angels in mid air. This should be classified as one of the great sculptures of all time.

I think it was St. Louis de Montfort, or was it St. Bernard? who said "of Mary we can never say too much."

Last Sunday I posted a painting I like of the Assumption by Martin Knoller at my Sunday Snippets post. I like it because it shows Jesus reaching towards her and God the Father and the Holy Spirit are there as well. The address is: http://www.sufferingwithjoy.com/2010/08/15/sunday-snippets-a-catholic-carnival-27/

Thanks so much for your art lessons and comments. I look forward to them every week.

Staying in Balance said...

Thanks, Barbara. I am really enjoying exploring the art world.

TACParent said...

This is one beautiful and amazing sculpture. I would imagine up close the details would almost be mind-boggling.

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"Slavery ended in medieval Europe only because the church extended its sacraments to all slaves and then managed to impose a ban on the enslavement of Christians (and of Jews). Within the context of medieval Europe, that prohibition was effectively a rule of universal abolition. "— Rodney Stark

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