Sculptures

1. David

David is a masterpiece of Renaissance sculpture created between 1501 and 1504, by the Italian artist Michelangelo. It is a 5.17 metre (17 foot) marble statue of a standing male nude. The statue represents the Biblical hero David, a favoured subject in the art of Florence. Originally commissioned as one of a series of statues of prophets to be positioned along the roofline of the east end of Florence Cathedral, the statue was instead placed in a public square, outside the Palazzo della Signoria, the seat of civic government in Florence, where it was unveiled on 8 September 1504. Because of the nature of the hero that it represented, it soon came to symbolize the defense of civil liberties embodied in the Florentine Republic, an independent city-state threatened on all sides by more powerful rival states and by the hegemony of the Medici family. The eyes of David, with a warning glare, were turned towards Rome. The statue was moved to the Accademia Gallery in Florence in 1873, and later replaced at the original location by a replica.

2. Venus de Milo

Aphrodite of Milos, better known as the Venus de Milo, is an ancient Greek statue and one of the most famous works of ancient Greek sculpture. Created at some time between 130 and 100 BC, it is believed to depict Aphrodite (Venus to the Romans) the Greek goddess of love and beauty. It is a marble sculpture, slightly larger than life size at 203 cm (6 ft 8 in) high. Its arms and original plinth have been lost. From an inscription that was on its plinth, it is thought to be the work of Alexandros of Antioch; it was earlier mistakenly attributed to the master sculptor Praxiteles. It is currently on permanent display at the Louvre Museum in Paris.

3. The Thinker

The Thinker is a bronze and marble sculpture by Auguste Rodin, whose first cast, of 1902, is now in the Musée Rodin in Paris; there are some twenty other original castings as well as various other versions, studies, and posthumous castings. It depicts a man in sober meditation battling with a powerful internal struggle. It is often used to represent philosophy.

4. The Pietà

The Pietà is a masterpiece of Renaissance sculpture by Michelangelo Buonarroti, housed in St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City. It is the first of a number of works of the same theme by the artist. The statue was commissioned for the French cardinal Jean de Billheres, who was a representative in Rome. The statue was made for the cardinal’s funeral monument, but was moved to its current location, the first chapel on the right as one enters the basilica, in the 18th century. It is the only piece Michelangelo ever signed (See History after completion). This famous work of art depicts the body of Jesus on the lap of his mother Mary after the Crucifixion. The theme is of Northern origin, popular by that time in France but not yet in Italy. Michelangelo’s interpretation of the Pietà is unique to the precedents. It is an important work as it balances the Renaissance ideals of classical beauty with naturalism. The statue is one of the most highly finished works by Michelangelo.

5. Augustus of Prima Porta

Augustus of Prima Porta is a 2.04m high marble statue of Augustus Caesar which was discovered on April 20, 1863, in the Villa of Livia at Prima Porta, near Rome. Augustus Caesar’s wife, Livia Drusilla, retired to the villa after his death. The sculpture is now displayed in the Braccio Nuovo of the Vatican Museums.

6. The Kiss

The Kiss is an 1889 marble sculpture by the French sculptor Auguste Rodin. Like many of Rodin’s best-known individual sculptures, including The Thinker, the embracing couple depicted in the sculpture appeared originally as part of a group of reliefs decorating Rodin’s monumental bronze portal The Gates of Hell, commissioned for a planned museum of art in Paris. The couple were later removed from the Gates and replaced with another pair of lovers located on the smaller right-hand column.

7. Lady Justice

“Lady Justice” and “Lord Justice” are also titles for judges on the Court of Appeal of England and Wales. “Justitia” redirects here. For the crustacean genus, see Justitia (genus). Lady Justice (Latin: Justitia, the Roman goddess of Justice, who is equivalent to the Greek goddess Dike) is an allegorical personification of the moral force in judicial systems.

8. Discobolus

The Discobolus of Myron is a famous Greek sculpture that was completed towards the end of the Severe period, circa 460-450 BC. The original Greek bronze is lost. It is known through numerous Roman copies, both full-scale ones in marble, such as the first to be recovered, the Palombara Discopolus, or smaller scaled versions in bronze. A discus thrower is depicted about to release his throw: “by sheer intelligence”, Sir Kenneth Clark observed in The Nude (1956:p 239f) “Myron has created the enduring pattern of athletic energy. He has feasible, and he has given it the completeness of a cameo.” The moment thus captured in the statue is an example of rhythmos, harmony and balance. Myron is often credited with being the first sculptor to master this style. Naturally, as always in Greek athletics, the Discobolus is completely nude. His pose is said to be unnatural to a human, and today considered a rather inefficient way to throw the discus. Also there is very little emotion shown in the discus thrower’s face, and “to a modern eye, it may seem that Myron’s desire for perfection has made him suppress too rigorously the sense of strain in the individual muscles,” Clark observes. The other trademark of Myron embodied in this sculpture is how well the body is proportioned, the symmetria.

9. Hermes Logos

Hermes Logos is a statue of Hermes of the Hermes Logios type in the Ludovisi Collection of the Palazzo Altemps (National Museum of Rome), Rome, Italy. It is a marble Roman copy (late 1st century to early 2nd century AD) after a Greek original of the 5th century BC, perhaps by Phidias. The statue is a representation of the god in the act of speaking, one of the attributes of Hermes being his eloquent and persuasive speech. The physique of the Ludovisi Hermes Logos is a combination that is a summation of the attributes of the god; the muscled torso and broad shoulders of a wrestler (Hermes was the god the Greeks held responsible for inventing the sport) and the long lean legs of a runner; his feet and hands not particularly muscular. The body of Hermes is that of a mature man, while the head of the god is beardless, some might say “youthful.” Hermes carries a chlamys (travellers cloak) over his left arm, he is standing with his right arm lifted in a gesture of speaking. Beneath his petasus (winged cap) his hair is an intricate arrangement of tight curls.

10. Bird Girl

Bird Girl is a sculpture made in 1936 by Sylvia Shaw Judson in Lake Forest, Illinois. It achieved fame when it was featured on the cover of the 1994 novel Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. It was sculpted at Ragdale, the summer home of her family.