My friend Rob came across a beautiful painting of the Virgin Mary holding the infant Jesus. The painting is over one hundred years old and I hope it's in the public domain. Rob really wanted a beautiful statue of Mary and Jesus to grace the front of his new medical office.
One thing we discovered is that there are some really talented Chinese sculptors overseas. There are a few towns in China who for centuries have mastered the art and craft of marble sculpture. It is an honored profession handed down from generation to generation. About thirty years ago, these craftsmen discovered that there is a huge market in the west for Italian-style sculpture. They moved from carving Asian-themed motifs to creating sculptures of Greek and Roman gods and goddesses and Christian themes. I don't think they have a clue as to the meanings of what they're carving.
Rob looked online at all of the sample statues they had of Mary and Jesus. In many of them, Jesus looked sort of disturbing- he had a large Roman nose (which is fine for a large Roman, but not an infant) and Mary often looked very stylized and heavy. Rob showed me a beautiful painting of Mary with Jesus. In it, Mary is natural and beautiful, she is wearing flowing robes that look like they're being buffeted by the wind, and most importantly, Jesus looks like an adorable, chubby infant.
Rob wondered if I knew what would be involved in capturing this scene in marble. My first thought was to recreate the scene and photograph it from several angles with detail shots and full length poses. We'd need models, a stand, lighting and costumes. The entire thing seemed like a huge undertaking. Rob said he'd call the broker and ask what they needed to recreate this pose.
The broker's answer was simple. "Sure, we can do it, email us the picture."
The picture was a fairly low-rez image from a magazine cover. I was pretty skeptical. I felt a lot better when Rob decided to go with a clay prototype before they started carving from a chunk of marble.
The first few pictures of the work in progress were sent in April. They were off to a good start, but Mary looked a bit heavy and stiff and unnatural. Baby Jesus looked like a disturbing adult/infant with a largish nose and strong brow. The sculptors also had difficulty with the idea of a chubby baby- it made me wonder if chubbiness is a western thing.
The other issue was Mary's hands. They looked like someone filled latex gloves with water and stuck them on her. They had no tendons or knuckles. I went so far as to photograph one of my daughter's friends who has the lovely long fingers we were looking for. I included a shot from that day. She was holding a stuffed rabbit, since we don't have a baby that is the size we need. I was a bit concerned though that the sculptors would take this too literally and change Jesus into a stuffed bunny. I was careful to edit out most of the rabbit.
It took weeks of photoshopping the photos and trying to break through the language barrier to explain to the Chinese artist what we were looking for. What amazed me was how well they did with a very non-descriptive picture, how enthusiastic they were (it showed in their work) and how happy they were to try to please us even after several rounds of revisions.
Someone from the workshop actually flew to Italy and handpicked the chunk of marble to be used in the statue. It arrived to them in June. They worked on it all month and I believe it should be crated and shipped here at some point this summer. She weighs over 1,000 pounds and will require a contractor to install her. One thing about Rob, when he decides to do something, he goes all out.
You should see the ice rink he builds in his backyard every winter.
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