Jane DeDecker | The Women's Suffrage

By Jane DeDecker / The concept of this proposed women’s monument was inspired by a letter from Elizabeth Cady Stanton to Lucretia Mott in which she wrote about the power of words and deeds:

"Every word we utter, every act we perform, waft unto innumerable circles, beyond".

I wanted to capture the collective energy from all women who have made this happen, as well as acknowledge that we still need to keep moving as we strive for equality.

When a water droplet impacts a body of water it pushes waves outward and rebounds upward as a smaller droplet. This droplet, called the daughter droplet - gains height - then falls back to the water in what is called a coalescent cascade.

This describes the height, breadth, and lasting impact of the Suffragists’ work.

Amore non è amore se muta.. | Shakespeare, Sonetto 116

Shakespeare | Let me not to the marriage of true minds | Sonnet 116

Let me not to the marriage of true minds

Admit impediments. Love is not love

Which alters when it alteration finds,

Or bends with the remover to remove:

O no! it is an ever-fixed mark

That looks on tempests and is never shaken;

Alessandro Puttinati | Paolo e Virginia, 1844

Henri Chapu | Mercure inventant le caducée, 1861

Henri Chapu's Mercure inventant le caducée (Mercury inventing the caduceus) was executed for la Villa Médicis in Rome in 1861.

The caduceus (from Ancient Greek: κηρύκειον kērū́keion "herald's wand, or staff") is the staff carried by Hermes in Greek mythology and consequently by Hermes Trismegistus in Greco-Egyptian mythology.

The same staff was borne by other heralds like Iris, the messenger of Hera. The short staff is entwined by two serpents, sometimes surmounted by wings. In Roman iconography, it was depicted being carried in the left hand of Mercury, the messenger of the gods.

Some accounts assert that the oldest imagery of the caduceus is rooted in Mesopotamia with the Sumerian god Ningishzida; his symbol, a staff with two snakes intertwined around it, dates back to 4000 BC to 3000 BC.

Henri Chapu | Mercure inventant le caducée, 1861 | Musée d'Orsay

Spinario (Boy pulling a thorn from his foot)

Boy with Thorn, also called Fedele (Fedelino) or Spinario, is a Greco-Roman Hellenistic bronze sculpture of a boy withdrawing a thorn from the sole of his foot, now in the Palazzo dei Conservatori, Rome.

There is a Roman marble version of this subject from the Medici collections in a corridor of the Uffizi Gallery, Florence.

The sculpture was one of the very few Roman bronzes that was never lost to sight.

The work was standing outside the Lateran Palace when the Navarrese rabbi Benjamin of Tudela saw it in the 1160s and identified it as Absalom, who "was without blemish from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head".

Lo Spinario | Palazzo dei Conservatori, Musei Capitolini

Book sculptures by Jodi Harvey-Brown

- "I have always loved art, and I have always loved to read.

Books pull you into a new world, while art lets you see it.

It made sense to me that these two mediums should come together.

The books that we love to read should be made to come to life.

Characters, that we care so much for, should come out of the pages to show us their stories.

What we see in our imaginations as we read should be there for the world to see.

My book sculptures are my way of making stories come alive" - Jodi Harvey-Brown.

Metropolitan Museum of Art | Storia del Museo

Le prime radici del Metropolitan Museum of Art (Met) risalgono al 1866 a Parigi, Francia, quando un gruppo di americani decise di creare una "istituzione nazionale e galleria d'arte" per portare l'arte e l'educazione artistica al popolo americano.

L'avvocato John Jay, che propose l'idea, portò avanti rapidamente il progetto al suo ritorno negli Stati Uniti dalla Francia.

Sotto la presidenza di Jay, l'Union League Club di New York radunò leader civici, uomini d'affari, artisti, collezionisti d'arte e filantropi alla causa.

Léo Caillard, the photographer who dresses classical statues

Leo Caillard is a contemporary artist internationally recognized for the quality of his marble sculptures as well as for his digital creations at the cutting edge of new technologies.

Leo Caillard opens a dialogue between eras through the use of these two mediums and the unique aesthetic of his art, mixing figures from ancient statuary and abstract digital forms.

Born in Paris in 1985, he graduated from the prestigious Goblins school in 2006 then from fine arts in 2008.

He then left for New York for 2 years, the opportunity there to meet the contemporary art scene and start these first digital creations.

Ferdinando Vichi | Lo scultore Romantico

A raccontarci della vita dello scultore Italiano Ferdinando Vichi riportiamo l'articolo dello scrittore Italiano Marco Vichi, il quale, a sua volta, fa riferimento ad un articolo del giornale "Il Telegrafo", pubblicato il 2 novembre 1932.

Nel 1964, la famiglia Vichi donò all'Archivio Fotografico Toscano di Prato 786 lastre fotografiche realizzate dallo scultore fiorentino Ferdinando Vichi.

Martin Desjardins | The Four Captives, 1682-1686

The "Louis XIV Victory Monument", also known as "Four Prisoners" or "Four Defeated Nations", was an elaborate trophy memorial celebrating the military and domestic successes of the early decades of Louis XIV's personal rule, primarily those during the Franco-Dutch War of 1672–1678, on the Place des Victoires (Victories' Square) in central Paris.

It was designed and sculpted by Martin Desjardins (French sculptor and stuccoist of Dutch birth, 1637-1694) between 1682-1686 on a commission by François d'Aubusson, Duke of La Feuillade.

Martin Desjardins | Spain or Hope (detail) | Louvre Museum

Il Colosso di Rodi

Il Colosso di Rodi fu una delle sette meraviglie del mondo classico; era un'enorme statua di bronzo del dio Elio situata nel porto di Rodi nel III secolo a.C.

Secondo studi contemporanei il colosso non si sarebbe trovato all'accesso del porto, come porta di ingresso per le navi, ma era collocato su un pilastro all'interno di quella che è conosciuta come città vecchia od acropoli di Rodi (che divenne la città dei cavalieri di Malta), in posizione sopraelevata sulla collinetta subito antistante al porto, in modo che fungesse da faro.

Una ipotetica ricostruzione del Colosso Di Rodi

Alda Merini: "Tra le tue braccia"

C'è un posto nel mondo

dove il cuore batte forte,

dove rimani senza fiato,

per quanta emozione provi,

dove il tempo si ferma

e non hai più l'età;

Gis De Maeyer

Le bambine senza tempo di Berit Hildre, 1964

Berit Hildre è nata ad Alesund, in Norvegia. Vive nel Sud della Francia da circa vent'anni con il suo compagno e pittore Louis Treserras ed insegna scultura.

Berit Hildre: - "Le mie bambine sono come i fiori; fragili margherite nell'incavo di una valle, meravigliosamente fresche e belle, vulnerabili, in balia di tante cose che possono distruggere questo piccolo miracolo in un istante; una margherita, una bambina.

Le bambine credono negli angeli, nelle fate e nei troll, nei principi e nei maghi".

Angeles Anglada, 1965

Angeles Anglada si è formata professionalmente presso la School of Fine Arts di Saragozza e ha iniziato la sua carriera professionale nel 1989, quando ha iniziato a sviluppare le sue prime sculture.

In questi 18 anni ha partecipato a oltre 40 fiere ed esposizioni nazionali ed estere, le sue opere sono presenti in oltre 25 paesi.

Le sculture da Angeles Anglada sono tutti caratterizzati da una speciale sensibilità e tenerezza, con allegorie di coppia e maternità.

Leonardo Lucchi, 1952 | Figurative sculptor

Italian sculptor Leonardo Lucchi was born in Cesena.

He lives and works in his hometown.

He accomplished his studies at the Art School of Ceramics in Faenza where he graduated in 1970.

In 1991 he exhibited in London for the first time, at the Accademia Italiana delle Arti e delle Arti Applicate.

Anton Smit, 1954 | New Futurist sculptor

Anton Smit was born in the Transvaal town of Boksburg, RSA.

Completely self-taught, in 1979 at the age of sixteen he was awarded the first prize in the SA Association of Arts New Signatures Competition.

In 2003 Smit established his own Sculpture Park in South Africa, which is dedicated to exhibiting his life's work, a functioning large-scale studio, alive with his creative passions.

Alberto Giacometti | Scultore surrealista

Giacométti, Alberto - Scultore e pittore svizzero (Stampa, Grigioni, 1901 - Coira 1966), figlio di Giovanni Giacometti.

Frequentò la scuola d'arte di Ginevra; nel 1920-21 fu a Roma; nel 1922 si stabilì a Parigi, ove frequentò Bourdelle e s'iscrisse all'Académie de la Grande-Chaumière.

Dal 1925-1928 eseguiva sculture di carattere decisamente cubista.

Nel 1929 aderì al movimento Surrealista, realizzando degli objets e delle constructions-cages (Boccia sospesa, 1930, Zurigo, Kunsthaus) e dall'esperienza surrealista trasse un senso magico dello spazio, talvolta definito per mezzo di fragili strutture lineari (Palazzo alle 4 del mattino, 1932-33, New York, Museum of modern art).

Vincent Magni, 1963 | Abstract artist

Artist since always, Vincent Magni was born in St Etienne. He currently lives and works in France, in Saint-Sauveur-en-Puisaye, in the Yonne.

It is the place where he created in 2006, in an old industrial wasteland of 10 000 square meters, a village of artists called "The Poetry", where he invites other creators to come to settle there.

An innovative and inspired sculptor, the characters he creates are tribute to life and movement, while respecting the materials used.

Playing with the idea of an intrinsic dynamics, its metal mobiles are animated with a life of their own and interact directly with the spectator.

Their brilliant colors, like a hymn to joy, give them the appearance of human-sized toys.

Valerie Otte, 1977 | Figurative sculptor

Valerie Otte is an award-winning sculptor based in Germany whose work has been exhibited both nationally and in the UK.

Valerie Otte's art can be described as a play of the eyes at distance, which is a classical description for figurative sculpture.

The rule: Close observation.

Luisa Roldàn | Baroque sculptor

Luisa Roldàn | The Entombment of Christ, 1700-1701 | Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Entombment is one of the two "jewel-like sculptures" Luisa Roldán gave to the newly installed King Philip V of Spain in 1701, petitioning him to appoint her sculptor to the royal court.

In the previous decade she had pioneered a genre of sculpture - powerfully conceived and exquisitely modelled and painted figural groups, made on a deliberately intimate scale - of which this is perhaps the finest.

Luisa Roldàn | The Entombment of Christ, 1700-1701 | Metropolitan Museum of Art

Victor Prouvé | Art Nouveau painter

Victor Emile Prouvé, born 13 August 1858 in Nancy, dead 15 February 1943 at Sétif (Algeria), was a French painter, sculptor and engraver of the Art Nouveau École de Nancy.

He designed decors of glass works and furniture for Émile Gallé.

He worked for Eugène Vallin, Fernand Courteix, the Daum Brothers and Albert Heymann.