Early 20th Century Traditional Style Bas-Relief Marble Bust of Dante

Description

Traditional Style Bas-relief Marble Bust of Dante

This sculpture is a beautiful classic style hand carved marble bust of the … more Traditional Style Bas-relief Marble Bust of Dante

This sculpture is a beautiful classic style hand carved marble bust of the famous 14th century Italian poet and scholar Dante Alighieri. We do not know when it was carved or who carved it. But judging from the style, I believe that it was carved in the late 19th century or early 20th century.
The very talented artist has carved deep chisel marks on most of the surfaces of the marble and the remaining surfaces of the marble he chiseled lightly and smoothly to carve the face. This contrast of textures creates visual excitement and attention to the most important part of the sculpture, which is the beautiful, "idealistic" and realistic face of Dante..
Although this heavy marble sculpture is not large, it commands a lot of attention because of the skills of the artist in creating a one of a kind marble masterpiece.
The sculpture can stand alone as an object d'art or it can act as a bookend because the back of the sculpture is flat back and the marble itself is heavy. We displayed the sculpture both ways: we had it sitting alone on a small table and when we downsized, it was used as a bookend. less