sculptures that cut deep

This first sculpture is by Bernini and it angers me and makes me sad the most of almost any piece of artwork I've seen:

Here's a detail:

This next one is called the Veiled Vestal Virgin, I've not seen it in real-life, but I'd love to:

These final few are from the San Severo chapel in Napoli - my favorite city in the South:

I wish I could have found a better one of the fisherman's net... that one in real life made me stop for a good ten minutes and just stare at the beauty of that net. Not to mention the sculpture itself is so playful and full of emotion, it really captures a unique moment. And all of the veiled sculptures. There's just something behind that thin layer of marble and lace that makes the face beyond it all the more dead and untouchable... but this too, at the same time, makes the face behind the veil have a surreal life within it. There's something with that sheer threshold that burns a fire of life deep within those pieces. And the Persephone statue made me so mad the first time I saw it. It was not fair that the young Persephone was stolen from her mother to live and be loved by Hades. This was certainly not the Beauty and the Beast story, it was absolutely uprooting and horrible, I could barely look at her pained face, and to see his greedy hands pulling her down, it made me want to go up and pull the whole marble apart by hand. I couldn't understand why everyone else was so nonchalant about the goings-on of this piece, how could they allow it? It pained me so much. I wanted to cry. I guess it was this progression of emotions that has drawn other people so close to this work, it really carves away deep at your heart.

- c