Marble Veils - ru_art links. Colored antiquity, cross-eyed David and other unexpected facts about famous sculptures

Sleep science is a fairly young science, and many aspects of it still baffle scientists - from amazing disorders like sexsomnia to the question of why we need dreaming at all.

Somnologist Irina Zavalko told Theories and Practices about fragmented sleep and Kleine-Levin syndrome, whether gadgets like Jawbone Up help you get enough sleep, whether it is possible to extend the deep sleep phase at all and whether it is useful to do so.

Time recently reported that nearly half of American teens don't get enough sleep. Sleep deprivation is the disease of our time?

Indeed, attitudes towards sleep have changed in many ways - and in late XIX century, people slept on average an hour more than we do now. This is attributed to the "Edison effect", and the root cause of this is the invention of the light bulb. Now there is more more fun, which can be done at night, instead of sleeping - computers, TVs, tablets, all this leads to the fact that we reduce the time of sleep. In Western philosophy, sleep has long been regarded as border state between being and non-being, which grew into a belief about him as a waste of time. Even Aristotle considered sleep as something borderline, unnecessary. People tend to sleep less, following another Western, especially popular in America, belief that those who sleep less are more efficient in spending their time. People don't understand how important sleep is for health, for wellness, - and normal performance during the day is simply impossible if you do not get enough sleep at night. But in the East there has always been a different philosophy, it was generally believed that sleep is an important process, and they devoted enough time to it.

- Due to the acceleration of the pace of life, there are more sleep disorders?

It depends on what is considered a disorder. There is such a thing - inadequate sleep hygiene: insufficient sleep duration or incorrect, inappropriate conditions for sleep. Maybe not everyone suffers from this, but a lot of people all over the planet do not get enough sleep - and the question is whether to consider this a disease, a new normal, bad habit. On the other hand, insomnia is quite common today, which is also associated with the “Edison effect”, which we talked about earlier. Many people spend time in front of the TV, computer or tablet before bed, the light from the screen shifts the circadian rhythms, making it difficult for a person to fall asleep. The frantic rhythm of life also leads to this - we return late from work and immediately try to fall asleep - without a pause, without switching to a more calm state from such an excited one. The result is insomnia.

There are other disorders - sleep apnea, stopping breathing during sleep, which manifests itself along with snoring, which few people know about. The person himself, as a rule, does not know about them, if the relatives sleeping nearby do not hear the pauses in breathing. We have a short statistics on the duration of the measurement, but this disease is also likely to occur more often - apnea is associated with the development overweight in adults, and given that the prevalence of overweight and obesity is increasing, it can be assumed that sleep apnea is also. The frequency of other diseases is increasing, but in lesser degree- in children, these are parasomnias, for example, sleepwalking. Life becomes more stressful, children sleep less, and this may be a predisposing factor. Due to the fact that life expectancy is getting longer, many people live to neurodegenerative diseases, which can be manifested by a violation of the behavior in the dreaming phase, when a person begins to demonstrate his dreams. This is often the case with Parkinson's disease or before symptoms begin. Quite often there is also a syndrome of periodic movement, the syndrome of "restless legs", when a person feels discomfort in the legs in the evening. It can be pain, burning, itching, which make you move your legs and prevent you from falling asleep. At night, the movement of the legs continues, the person does not wake up, but the dream becomes restless, more superficial. If the periodic movement of the legs in a dream interferes with a person, then it is considered a separate disease. If it does not disturb his sleep - a person gets enough sleep, feels comfortable, does not wake up often at night, falls asleep calmly, wakes up refreshed in the morning, then this is not a disease.

I wanted to discuss with you the strangest sleep disorders - the Internet mentions the sleeping beauty syndrome, and the syndrome of twenty-four hours on the legs (non-24), when a person sleeps day after day, and fatal familial insomnia, and sexsomnia, and overeating during sleep . Which of this list are real clinical disorders recognized by science?

The last three are real. Sleep-eating and sex-somnia exist, but are quite rare - this is a disease of the same kind as sleepwalking, but manifested in a specific activity in a dream. Fatal familial insomnia is also a fairly rare disease, it occurs mainly in Italians, and is hereditary. Illness is called a certain kind proteins, and this is a terrible disease: a person stops sleeping, his brain begins to deteriorate, and gradually he passes into a state of oblivion - either sleeping, or not sleeping and dying. Many patients with insomnia fear that insomnia will destroy their brain in some way. Here, the mechanism is reversed: first, the brain is destroyed, and from this a person does not sleep.

Daily cycles of sleep and wakefulness - this is theoretically possible. When scientists conducted experiments in a cave where there were no time sensors - no sun, no clock, no daily routine, then their biorhythms changed, and some switched to a forty-eight-hour sleep and wake cycle. The probability that a person sleeps twenty-four hours without a break is not very high: rather it will be twelve, fourteen, sometimes sixteen hours. But there is a disease when a person sleeps a lot - the so-called hypersomnia. It happens that a person sleeps a lot all his life, and this is normal for him. And there are pathologies - for example, Kleine-Levin syndrome. It most often occurs in boys during their teenage years when they hibernate, which can last for several days or a week. During this week they get up only to eat, and at the same time they are quite aggressive - if you try to wake them up, there is very pronounced aggression. This is also a rare syndrome.

- What is the most unusual disease you have seen in your practice?

I examined the boy after the first episode of the Kleine-Levin syndrome. But there is another very interesting disorder of sleep and wakefulness, which is not much talked about - this is narcolepsy. We know the absence of which substance causes it, there is a genetic predisposition to it, but it probably has autoimmune mechanisms - this is not fully understood. In patients with narcolepsy, the stability of being in a state of wakefulness or sleep is disturbed. This is manifested by increased drowsiness during the day, unstable sleep at night, but the most interesting symptoms are the so-called cataplexies, when a mechanism is turned on in wakefulness that completely relaxes our muscles. A person has a complete drop in muscle tone - if in the whole body, then he falls like a slab and cannot move for a while, although he is fully conscious and can retell everything that happens. Or a drop in muscle tone may not affect the body completely - for example, only the muscles of the face or chin relax, hands fall. This mechanism normally operates during dreaming, and in these patients it can be triggered by emotions, both positive and negative. Such patients are very interesting - I had a patient who argued with his wife at the reception. As soon as he got irritated, he fell into this unusual state, and his head and hands began to fall.

When do you think science talked more about sleep - in the last century, when it was given undue attention in connection with psychoanalysis, or now, when these diseases are increasingly occurring?

Previously, there was a more philosophical approach to everything - and the study of sleep resembled philosophical reasoning. People began to think about what causes sleep. There were ideas about sleeping poison - a substance that is released during wakefulness and lulls a person. This substance was searched for a long time, but was never found; now there are some hypotheses regarding this substance, but it has not yet been found. At the end of the 19th century, our great compatriot Marya Mikhailovna Manaseina, conducting experiments on sleep deprivation on puppies, found out that lack of sleep is deadly. She was one of the first to declare that sleep is an active process.

Many people talked about sleep then, but few supported their reasoning with experiments. Now a more pragmatic approach is being taken to the study of sleep - we study specific pathologies, smaller mechanisms of sleep, its biochemistry. The encephalogram, which was invented by Hans Berger at the beginning of the last century, allowed scientists to use specific brain waves and additional parameters (we always use eye movement and muscle tone) to understand whether a person is sleeping or awake - and how deeply. The encephalograph made it possible to reveal that sleep is a heterogeneous process and consists of two fundamentally different states - non-REM and REM sleep, and these scientific knowledge gave further impetus to development. At some point, sleep became of interest to doctors, and this process was triggered by the understanding of sleep apnea syndrome - as a factor leading to the development of arterial hypertension, as well as heart attacks, strokes and diabetes mellitus, in general, to a greater risk of death. From that moment on, a surge in clinical somnology in medicine begins - the emergence of sleep equipment and laboratories among specialists, most of which are represented in America, Germany, France, and Switzerland. A sleep doctor is not such a rarity there as it is with us, he is an ordinary specialist. And the appearance a large number doctors and scientists led to new research - new diseases began to be described, the symptoms and consequences of previously known ones were clarified.

The importance of sleep was initially underestimated. Doctors most often ask their patients about everything related to being awake. We somehow forget that normal wakefulness is impossible without proper sleep, and during wakefulness there are special mechanisms that support us in a state of activity. Not all experts understand why it is necessary to study these mechanisms - the mechanisms of transition between sleep and wakefulness, as well as what happens in sleep. But somnology is a very interesting area, still fraught with many secrets. For example, we do not know exactly why this process is needed, during which we are completely disconnected from the outside world.

If you open a biology textbook, sleep is only one small chapter. From doctors and scientists who are engaged in some specific function organism, few people try to track what happens to it in a dream. That's why sleep scientists look a little different. There is no wide dissemination of knowledge and interest - especially in our country. Biologists and doctors practically do not study the physiology of sleep during their training. Not all doctors know about sleep disorders, the patient may not receive a referral to the right specialist for a long time, especially since all of our specialists are rare and our services are not covered by compulsory medical insurance (compulsory medical insurance system). We do not have a unified system of sleep medicine in the country - there are no standards of treatment, no referral system to specialists.

Do you think that in the near future somnology will move from a special medical field to a general one, and a gastroenterologist, an allergist, and a phthisiatrician will be involved in it?

This process is already underway. For example, the European Respiratory Society has included sleep apnea, its diagnosis and treatment in the list of necessary knowledge for any pulmonologist. Also little by little this knowledge is spreading among cardiologists and endocrinologists. Whether this is good or bad is debatable. On the one hand, it is good when a doctor who is in direct contact with the patient has a variety of knowledge, can suspect and diagnose the disease. If you do not ask a person with persistent hypertension about whether he snores in his sleep, you can simply miss the problem and the cause of this arterial hypertension. And such a patient simply will not go to a sleep specialist. On the other hand, there are cases that require deeper knowledge, a doctor who understands the physiology and psychology of sleep, changes occurring in the respiratory and cardiovascular systems. There are difficult cases when consultation with a sleep specialist is required. In the West, such a system is gradually taking shape, when one is referred to a somnologist only if the diagnostic procedures and the selection of treatment, which are done by broader specialists, are not successful. And it happens the other way around, when a somnologist makes a diagnosis, and to select a treatment for a patient with apnea, he refers to a pulmonologist. This is also an option for successful interaction. Somnology is multidisciplinary and requires an integrated approach, sometimes involving a number of specialists.

How speculative do you think the New York Times article is that white Americans generally sleep more than people of color. Are genetic and cultural differences possible here?

No, this is not speculation. Indeed, there are interethnic and interracial differences in both sleep duration and frequency. various diseases. The reasons for this are both biological and social. The norm of sleep varies in a person from four hours to twelve, and this distribution differs in different ethnic groups, as well as some other indicators. Differences in lifestyle also affect the duration of sleep - the white population tries to monitor their health to a greater extent, to lead healthy lifestyle life. Cultural differences are also possible - Western philosophy says that you need to sleep less and that successful person can control his sleep (decide when to go to bed and wake up). But in order to fall asleep, you need to relax and not think about anything - and adhering to such a philosophy when slightest problems with sleep, the person begins to worry that he has lost control over his sleep (which he never had), and this leads to insomnia. The notion that sleep can be easily manipulated—like going to bed five hours earlier or later—is wrong. In more traditional societies there are no such ideas about sleep, so insomnia is much less common.

The desire to control one's life in our society has become, it seems, excessive. Do you recommend any sleep apps for your patients?

Sleep regulation devices are in high demand and common in modern world. Some can be called more successful - for example, running and light alarm clocks that help a person wake up. There are other gadgets that supposedly catch when a person sleeps more superficially and when more deeply, that is, they allegedly determine the structure of sleep by some parameters. But the manufacturers of these devices do not talk about how the measurements are made, this is a trade secret - therefore, their effectiveness cannot be scientifically confirmed. Some of these gadgets allegedly know how to wake a person at the most suitable time for this. The idea is good, there is scientific data on the basis of which such approaches can be developed, but it is not clear how they are performed by a specific gadget, so it is impossible to say anything definite about this.

Many patients begin to worry about the information that these gadgets give out. For example, in one young, healthy person, according to the gadget, only half of the sleep was deep, and the other half was superficial. Here it should be noted again that we do not know what this gadget calls superficial sleep. Besides, it's normal not to sleep deeply all night. Usually twenty to twenty five percent of our sleep duration is dream sleep. Deep slow-wave sleep lasts another twenty to twenty-five percent. In older people, its duration is reduced, and it may disappear completely. But the remaining fifty percent can occupy more superficial stages - they last quite a long time. If the user does not have an understanding of the processes behind these numbers, then he may decide that they are not up to par, and begin to worry about this.

But what is the norm? It only means that most people sleep like this. This is how norms are built in medicine and biology. If you are different from them, it is not at all necessary that you are ill with something - maybe you just did not fall into this percentage. To develop norms, you need to conduct a lot of research with each gadget.

Can we somehow prolong the phases of deep sleep, which, as is commonly believed, bring more benefits to the body?

In fact, we do not know much - we have an idea that deep slow-wave sleep restores the body better, that REM sleep is also necessary. But we don't know how important the first and second stages of superficial drowsiness are. And perhaps what we call superficial sleep has its own very important functions - related, for example, to memory. In addition, sleep has some architecture - we constantly move from one stage to another during the night. Possibly has special meaning not even so much the duration of these stages as the transitions themselves - how frequent they are, how long and so on. Therefore, it is very difficult to talk about exactly how to change sleep.

On the other hand, there have always been attempts to make your sleep more efficient - and the first sleeping pills appeared precisely as a tool for optimal regulation of your sleep: to fall asleep at the right time and sleep without waking up. But all sleeping pills change the structure of sleep and lead to the fact that there is more superficial sleep. Even the most modern sleeping pills adversely affect the structure of sleep. Now they are actively trying - both abroad and in our country - a variety of physical effects that should deepen sleep. It can be tactile and sound signals a certain frequency, which should lead to more slow-wave sleep. But we must not forget that we can influence our sleep much easier - by what we do while awake. Physical and mental activity during the daytime makes sleep deeper and helps you fall asleep more easily. Conversely, when we are nervous and experiencing some exciting events immediately before sleep, it becomes harder to fall asleep, and sleep can become more superficial.

Somnologists have a negative attitude towards sleeping pills and try to avoid their long-term daily use. There are many reasons for this. First of all, sleeping pills do not restore the normal structure of sleep: the number of deep stages of sleep, on the contrary, decreases. After some time of taking sleeping pills, addiction develops, that is, the drug begins to act worse, but the developed dependence leads to the fact that when you try to cancel sleeping pills, sleep becomes even worse than before. In addition, for a number of drugs, the duration of excretion from the body is more than eight hours. As a result, they continue to operate for next day, causing drowsiness, a feeling of weakness. If a somnologist resorts to prescribing sleeping pills, then he chooses drugs with faster elimination and less addiction. Unfortunately, other doctors, neurologists, therapists, and so on, often have a different view of sleeping pills. They are prescribed at the slightest complaint bad dream, and also use those drugs that are removed for a very long time, for example, Phenazepam.

It is clear that this is the topic of an entire lecture, and perhaps more than one - but still: what happens in our body during sleep - and what happens if we do not get enough sleep?

Yes, this topic is not even a lecture, but a series of lectures. We know for sure that when falling asleep, our brain is disconnected from external stimuli, sounds. Instead of the well-coordinated work of the orchestra of neurons, when each of them turns on and falls silent at its own time, the synchronization of their work gradually comes, when all neurons either fall silent together or are activated all together. During REM sleep, other processes take place, it is more like wakefulness, there is no synchronization, but different parts of the brain are activated differently than in wakefulness. But during sleep, changes occur in all body systems, and not just in the brain. For example, growth hormones are released more in the first half of the night, and the stress hormone, cortisol, has a peak concentration in the morning. The change in the concentration of some hormones depends precisely on the presence or absence of sleep, others - on circadian rhythms. We know that sleep is necessary for metabolic processes, and lack of sleep leads to obesity, the development of diabetes. There is even a hypothesis that during sleep the brain switches from processing information processes to processing information from our internal organs: intestines, lungs, heart. And there is experimental evidence to support this hypothesis.

With sleep deprivation, if a person does not sleep at least one night, efficiency and attention decrease, mood and memory worsen. These changes disrupt a person's daily activities, especially if these activities are monotonous, but if you pull yourself together, you can get the job done, although the possibility of error is greater. There are also changes in the concentration of hormones, metabolic processes. An important question, which is much more difficult to study, is what happens when a person does not get enough sleep every night? From the results of animal experiments, we know that if a rat is not allowed to sleep for two weeks, then it irreversible processes- not only in the brain, but also in the body: stomach ulcers appear, hair falls out, and so on. As a result, she dies. What happens when a person systematically lacks sleep, for example, two hours a day? We have indirect evidence that this leads to negative changes and various diseases.

What do you think about fragmented sleep - is it natural for a person (before electric light, they allegedly slept like that) or vice versa, harmful?

Man is the only living being who sleeps once a day. It's rather social aspect our life. Although we consider this to be the norm, it is not the norm for any other animal, and apparently not for the human species either. Siesta in hot countries testify to this. Initially, we tend to sleep in separate pieces - this is how small children sleep. Building a single sleep occurs in a child gradually, at first he sleeps several times a day, then sleep gradually begins to shift at night, the child has two periods of sleep during the day, then one. As a result, an adult sleeps only at night. Even if the habit of sleeping during the day persists, our social life hinders this. How modern man sleep several times a day if he has an eight-hour work day? And if a person is used to sleeping at night, some attempts to get sleep during the day can lead to sleep disturbance, interfere with normal sleep at night. For example, if you come home from work at seven or eight o'clock and lie down for an hour to take a nap, then falling asleep later at the usual time - at eleven o'clock - will be much more difficult.

There are attempts to sleep less due to the fact that sleep is broken - and this is a whole philosophy. I take this as negatively as any attempt to change the structure of sleep. First, it takes us a long time to get into the deep stages of sleep. On the other hand, if a person is used to sleeping several times a day and this does not cause any problems for him, if he always falls asleep well when he wants, does not feel tired and weak after sleep, then this schedule suits him. If a person does not have the habit of sleeping during the day, but he needs to cheer up (for example, in a situation where you have to drive a car for a long time or office worker during prolonged monotonous work), it is better to take a little nap, fall asleep for ten to fifteen minutes, but do not fall into a deep sleep. Superficial sleep is refreshing, and if you wake up from a state of deep sleep, then there may be “sleep inertia” - fatigue, weakness, a feeling that you are less alert than you were before sleep. You need to figure out what is best for a particular person at a particular moment, you can try certain options - but I would not firmly believe and unconditionally follow certain theories.

What do you think about lucid dreams? Seems like everyone is into them now.

Dreams are very difficult to study scientifically, because we can only judge them from the stories of the dreamers. To understand that a person had a dream, we need to wake him up. We know that lucid dreaming is something different as a process from ordinary dreaming. Technologies have appeared that help to turn on consciousness during sleep, to begin to fully realize your dream. It - scientific fact: People who are lucid dreaming may give eye movement signals to indicate that they have entered a lucid dream state. The question is how necessary and useful it is. I will not give arguments for - I believe that this dream can be dangerous, especially for people with a predisposition to mental illness. In addition, it has been shown that if you practice lucid dreams at night, then deprivation syndromes arise, as if a person does not get enough sleep with dreams. We need to take this into account, because we need sleep with dreams for life, why - we do not fully know, but we know that it is involved in vital processes.

- Can lucid dreaming cause paralysis during sleep?

During the sleep phase with dreams, including lucid dreams, there is always a drop in muscle tone and the inability to move. But upon awakening, muscle control is restored. Sleep paralysis is quite rare, and it can also be one of the symptoms of narcolepsy. This is a state when consciousness has already returned to a person upon awakening, but control over the muscles has not yet been restored. This is a very frightening condition, scary if you cannot move, but it passes very quickly. Those who suffer from this are advised not to panic, but simply to relax - then this condition will pass faster. In any case, real paralysis from whatever we do with sleep is impossible. If a person wakes up and cannot move an arm or leg long time- most likely, at night there was a stroke.

One Bavarian city is developing a whole program to improve the sleep of its inhabitants - with a lighting regime, special schedules for schoolchildren and working hours, improved treatment conditions in hospitals. What do you think the cities of the future will look like - will they take into account all these specific requests for good sleep?

It would be a good option developments, one might say, ideal. Another thing is that the same rhythm of work is not suitable for all people, everyone has their own optimal time to start the working day and the duration of work without interruptions. It would be better if a person could choose what time to start working and what time to finish. Modern cities are fraught with many problems - from bright signs and street lighting to constant noise, all of which disrupt a night's sleep. Ideally, you should not use the TV and computer late at night, but this is the responsibility of each individual.

- What are your favorite books and films about sleep? And where do they talk about dreams in principle incorrectly?

There is a wonderful book by Michel Jouvet called The Castle of Dreams. Its author more than 60 years ago discovered paradoxical sleep, a dream with dreams. He worked in this field for a very long time, he is well over eighty, and now he is retired, writes art books. In this book, he attributed many of his discoveries and discoveries of modern somnology, as well as interesting reflections and hypotheses, to a fictional person who lives in the 18th century and tries to study sleep through various experiments. It turned out interesting, and it really has a real bearing on scientific data. I highly recommend reading it. From popular science books, I like the book by Alexander Borbelli - this is a Swiss scientist, our ideas from the regulation of sleep are now based on his theory. The book was written in the 1980s, quite ancient given the speed with which modern somnology is developing, but very good and at the same time interestingly explains the basics.

Who wrote fundamentally wrong about sleep ... In science fiction there is an idea that sooner or later a person will be able to get rid of sleep - with pills or exposure, but I don’t remember specific work where it would be discussed.

- Do somnologists themselves suffer from insomnia - and what habits do you have that allow you to observe sleep hygiene?

Our wonderful psychologist who deals with the regulation of sleep and insomnia, Elena Rasskazova, says that somnologists rarely suffer from insomnia, because they know what sleep is. In order not to suffer from insomnia, the main thing is not to worry about the emerging syndromes. Ninety-five percent of people experience insomnia for one night at least once in their lives. We find it difficult to fall asleep on the eve of an exam, wedding, some bright event, and this is normal. Especially if you suddenly have to rearrange the schedule - some people are very rigid in this regard. I myself was lucky in life: my parents adhered to a clear daily routine and taught me to do this in childhood.

Ideally, the mode should be constant, without jumps on weekends - this is very harmful, this is one of the main problems modern look life. If on weekends you went to bed at two and got up at twelve, and on Monday you want to go to bed at ten and get up at seven, this is unrealistic. Falling asleep also takes time - you need to give yourself a break, calm down, relax, not watch TV, not be in bright light at this moment. You should not sleep after dinner - most likely, as a result, it will be difficult to fall asleep at night. When you can’t fall asleep, the main thing is not to be nervous - I would advise in such a situation not to lie and turn in bed, but to get up and do something calm: a minimum of light and quiet activity, reading a book or doing household chores. And sleep will come.

. a marble sculpture of a female head, as if alive, as if covered with transparent, flowing silk

This bust Milanese sculptor of the 19th century Giuseppe Kroff "The Veiled Nun" - "The Veiled Nun" meets you immediately on the stairs, at the entrance to the gallery, then I many more times when I came to Washington DC went to look at it.

Then my husband tried to recreate a similar head from cold porcelain and wood http://www.liveinternet.ru/users/mi...a/post226324472 , and I was completely sure that this Washington sculpture was unique until recently until unexpectedly in LiveJournal with her friend uzoranet and with my reader Li-rushnaya Galina_vel found that there are such ladies, then a whole community in the world exists.

See for yourself:

it Sculpture of a Vestal Virgin in Chatsworth Written by Raffaelo Monti.

The marble bust of a Vestal Virgin under a veil was created by the Italian sculptor Raffaello Monti (1818-1881) in 1860. The bust is exhibited at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, and for the English estate of Chatworth, the sculptor made the same vestal in full height.

Undine Rising from the Waters
ca. 1880-1882, by Chauncey Bradley Ives (1810-1894), Chrysler Museum of Art, Gallery 263
Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, C.T., United States Of America
Yale University Gallery (USA), by Chauncey Bradley Ives. .

Sculpture in marble. "Undine emerging from the water", 1880,

The sculpture of the Vestal Virgin was filmed in the movie "Pride and Prejudice" 2005

The beautiful "The Veiled Virgin", at the Presentation Convent in St. John's, Newfoundland.

Giovanni Strazza (1818-1875)

White Carrara marble. Sculptor V.P. Brodzsky. 1881

Lady from the Kochubey Palace.

Marble bust with transparent veil, 20th century, Bankfield Museum -
This sculpture is given as an example of the creation optical illusion- a technique in art, the purpose of which is to create the illusion that the depicted object is in three-dimensional space, while in reality it is drawn in a two-dimensional plane.) The effect does not disappear at any angle and at any distance

The pearl of the Petrodvorets collection "The Veiled Lady" by Antonio Corradini.
The sculptor became famous for his skill in depicting faces and figures covered with a thin cloth. Acquired by Peter. This sculpture was once in full growth, but split in half and is now exhibited here in a truncated form)))

Veiled Virgin
Giovanni Strazza

Biblical Rebecca, at Salarjung Museum in India.
Giovanni Benzoni

Veiled Lady
Chatsworth,
Femme Voilée (la foi?), by Antonio Corradini, early to mid 1700s, in the Louvre

The Veiled Lady. The Gibbs Museum of Art, Charleston, SC

We continue the theme of the masters of the marble veil. Today we will get acquainted with the works of the Italian sculptor Raphael Monti 1818-1881

He was one of the sculptors who managed to create real masterpieces vestal virgins with a marble veil - priestesses Greek goddess Vesta.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

A native of Milan, he took his first steps under the guidance of his father, also a sculptor, Gaetano Matteo Monti, at the Imperial Academy. He debuted early and won gold medal for a group called "Alexander Tames Bucephalus."

He and other young sculptors belonged to the Lombard school,, which dominated Italian sculpture in the first half of the nineteenth century. He worked for some time in Vienna and Milan, made his first visit to England in 1846, but returned to Italy again in 1847 and joined the People's Party, became one of the chief officers of the National Guard.

After the disastrous failure of the Risorgimento campaign of 1848, he again fled from Italy to England.

His career in England was very successful and fruitful. Works Monty were exhibited inRoyal Academy, and he soon earned recognition as a leading sculptor.

His Prize and Medal-winning Eve after the Fall was especially fine, but two other sculptures in the exhibition, Slave Circassian and Vestal, the finest in technique, became his trademark: the fine workmanship of hard marble figures wrapped in sheer veils.

The Vestal Virgin, purchased in 1847 by the Duke of Devonshire before the exhibition began, and The Dream of Sorrow and the Joy of a Dream, is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum.

A LITTLE DISCUSSION ABOUT THE VESTALS. I thought it was interesting.

Vestals- priestesses of the goddess Vesta Ancient Rome who enjoyed great respect and honor. Their person was inviolable . Vestals were freed from paternal authority, had the right to own property and dispose of it at their discretion. Anyone who insulted a Vestal in any way, for example, tried to slip under her stretcher, was punishable by death. Walked ahead of the vestal lictor , under certain conditions, vestals had the right to travel to chariots . If they met on the way led on execution criminal, they had the right to pardon him.

The duties of the vestals included maintaining the sacred fire in the temple of Vesta, keeping the temple clean, making sacrifices to Vesta and the Penates, guarding the palladium and other shrines.

Newly entering the Vestal community was introduced primarily into atrium of the Temple of Vesta , where her hair was cut off and hung as a donation on a sacred tree, which in the era Pliny the Elder has been for over 500 years. Then the young vestal was dressed in all white, called her the name "Beloved", which was added to her nameand initiated her into new duties.

The service life was 30 years, divided equal parts for training, direct service and training of others (mentoring). After these years, the Vestal Virgin became free and could marry.

However, the latter happened extremely rarely, since there was a belief that marriage with a vestal would not lead to good, and besides, when she got married, the former vestal lost her social and property status, unique for a Roman woman, and became ordinary. matron , completely dependent on her husband, which, of course, was unprofitable for her.

The Vestal Virgins were very wealthy, mainly due to their possession of large estates, which provided a large income, in addition to which each personally received a significant amount from her family at the initiation and received generous gifts from the emperors. AT 24 year when Cornelia joined the Vestals, Tiberius gave her 2 million sesterces.

All the time of the service, the Vestal Virgins had to keep chaste way of life, its violation was severely punished. It was believed that Rome could not take on such a sin as the execution of the Vestals, so they were punished buried alive (in the field located within the city limits Colline Gate on the Quirinal ) with a small supply of food, which was not formallydeath penaltyand the seducer was flogged to death.

The Vestal Virgin, guilty of breaking her vows, was placed in a litter tightly closed and tied with straps so that even her voice could not be heard, and carried through the forum.

Everyone silently made way for her and accompanied her, without saying a word, in deep grief. For the city there was no more terrible sight, there was no day sadder than this. When the stretcher was brought to the appointed place, the slaves untied the straps.

High priest he read a mysterious prayer, raised his hands to the sky before the execution, ordered to bring the criminal, with a thick veil on his face, put him on the stairs leading to the dungeon, and then retired along with other priests. When the vestal descended, the ladder was taken away, the hole was covered from above with a mass of earth, and the place of execution becomes just as level as the rest.

The Vestal Institute existed until about 391 years when the emperor Theodosius banned public pagan worship. After that, the sacred fire was extinguished, the temple of Vesta was closed, and the institute of vestals was disbanded.

THE MOST FAMOUS WORKS OF MONTI.

Vestal.1848

The sculpture depicts a priestess of Vesta, a Vestal Virgin, covered with a veil. Vesta is the Roman goddess-keeper of the sacred fire, symbolizing the center of life - the state, city, home. It was believed that in any fire there is a particle of the spirit of Vesta.

M soft flowing folds are so skillfully carved by the sculptor that they come to life in the rays of the sun, letting in light. The effect is enhanced by the contrast with the unpolished wreath of wild flowers. The marble in the front part is amazingly clean, has practically no visible defects and inclusions, revealing all its nobility and beauty.

R.Monti. Veiled lady.

A veil ennobles, making a woman attractive and desirable, because she is inaccessible under a veil. And for centuries they admire this beauty and do not understand how it is done.

Raffaelle Monty, The Bride, original marble, 1847

Today we will get acquainted with the works of the Italian sculptor Rafael Monti 1818-1881. He was one of the sculptors who managed to create real masterpieces of vestals with a marble veil - the priestesses of the Greek goddess Vesta. ABOUT THE ARTIST A native of Milan, he took his first steps under the guidance of his father, also a sculptor, Gaetano Matteo Monti, at the Imperial Academy. He debuted early and won a gold medal for a group called "Alexander Tames Bucephalus." He and other young sculptors belonged to the Lombard school, which dominated Italian sculpture in the first half of the nineteenth century. He worked for some time in Vienna and Milan, made his first visit to England in 1846, but returned to Italy again in 1847 and joined the People's Party, became one of the chief officers of the National Guard. After the disastrous failure of the Risorgimento campaign of 1848, he again fled from Italy to England. His career in England was very successful and fruitful. Monty's work was exhibited at the Royal Academy and he soon earned recognition as a leading sculptor. His Prize and Medal-winning Eve after the Fall was especially fine, but two other sculptures in the exhibition, Slave Circassian and Vestal, the finest in technique, became his trademark: the fine workmanship of hard marble figures wrapped in sheer veils. The Vestal Virgin, purchased in 1847 by the Duke of Devonshire before the exhibition began, and The Dream of Sorrow and the Joy of a Dream, is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum. A LITTLE DISCUSSION ABOUT THE VESTALS. I thought it was interesting. Vestals - priestesses of the goddess Vesta in ancient Rome, who enjoyed great respect and honor. Their person was inviolable. Vestals were freed from paternal authority, had the right to own property and dispose of it at their discretion. Anyone who insulted a Vestal in any way, for example, tried to slip under her stretcher, was punishable by death. A lictor walked ahead of the vestals, under certain conditions the vestals had the right to ride in chariots. If they met on the way a criminal led to execution, they had the right to pardon him. The duties of the vestals included maintaining the sacred fire in the temple of Vesta, keeping the temple clean, making sacrifices to Vesta and the Penates, guarding the palladium and other shrines. Newly entering the Vestal community was first of all introduced into the atrium of the temple of Vesta, where her hair was cut off and hung as a donation on a sacred tree, which in the era of Pliny the Elder was already more than 500 years old. Then the young vestal was dressed in all white, called her the name "Beloved", which was added to her name and initiated her into new duties. The term of service was 30 years, divided in equal parts into training, direct service and training others (mentoring). After these years, the Vestal Virgin became free and could marry. However, the latter happened extremely rarely, since there was a belief that marriage with a vestal would not lead to good, and besides, when she got married, the former vestal lost her social and property status, unique for a Roman woman, and became an ordinary matron, completely dependent on her husband, Which, of course, didn't work for her. The Vestal Virgins were very wealthy, mainly due to their possession of large estates, which provided a large income, in addition to which each personally received a significant amount from her family at the initiation and received generous gifts from the emperors. In the year 24, when Cornelia entered the ranks of the Vestals, Tiberius gave her 2 million sesterces. All the time of the ministry, the vestals had to maintain a chaste lifestyle, its violation was severely punished. It was believed that Rome could not take on such a sin as the execution of a vestal, so they were punished by being buried alive (on a field located within the city at the Collin Gate on the Quirinal) with a small supply of food, which was not formally a death penalty, and the seducer was spotted to death. The Vestal Virgin, guilty of breaking her vows, was placed in a litter tightly closed and tied with straps so that even her voice could not be heard, and carried through the forum. Everyone silently made way for her and accompanied her, without saying a word, in deep grief. For the city there was no more terrible sight, there was no day sadder than this. When the stretcher was brought to the appointed place, the slaves untied the straps. The high priest recited a mysterious prayer, raised his hands to heaven before the execution, ordered the criminal to be brought up, with a thick veil on her face, placed on the stairs leading to the dungeon, and then retired along with other priests. When the vestal descended, the ladder was taken away, the hole was covered from above with a mass of earth, and the place of execution becomes just as level as the rest. The institution of the Vestal Virgins lasted until around 391, when Emperor Theodosius banned public pagan worship. After that, the sacred fire was extinguished, the temple of Vesta was closed, and the institute of vestals was disbanded. THE MOST FAMOUS WORKS OF MONTI.