| The Veiled Rebecca | |
|---|---|
| Italian: Rebecca Velata | |
 The Veiled Rebecca displayed at the Salar Jung Museum, Hyderabad, India | |
| Artist | Giovanni Maria Benzoni |
| Year | 1863 |
| Type | Sculpture |
| Medium | Marble |
| Dimensions | 160 cm × 58 cm × 50 cm (64 in × 23 in × 19.5 in) |
The Veiled Rebecca or The Veiled Rebekah is a marble sculpture created by the Italian neoclassical sculptor Giovanni Maria Benzoni.
History and description
Benzoni first executed the work in 1863 for Robert Winthe of London.[1] It depicts the scene from the Hebrew Bible when a modest Rebecca covers herself with a veil upon meeting her future husband, Isaac (Genesis 24:65).[2]
Veiled women were a popular sculptural motif among Benzoni and his peers in 19th-century Italy for a number of reasons. The first was that these works highlighted the artistry of the sculptor since achieving the illusion that stone is fabric clinging to a body requires a high level of skill. Secondly, a veiled woman had become an allegory for Italian unification.[3]
Benzoni's workshop made a number of copies of The Veiled Rebecca. A 19th-century English art journal noted that:[4]
Benzoni, the fashionable Roman sculptor, whose studio has been visited by a number of crowned heads, exhibits in his suite of showrooms, several replicas in different sizes of his Diana, his veiled Rebecca before her meeting with Isaac, the 'Four Seasons,' &c.
Copies
Copies of The Veiled Rebecca can be found at these museums:
- High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Georgia. Listed in the catalog as The Veiled Rebekah and dated 1864.[2]
- Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Dated c. 1866.[5]
- Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, Michigan. This smaller version (113 cm tall) is listed in the catalog as The Veiled Lady and dated 1872.[6]
- Salar Jung Museum, Hyderabad, India. Dated 1876 (three years after Benzoni's death).[7]
- Cedarhurst Center for the Arts, Mount Vernon, Illinois.[8]
Gallery
-
Detail of the statue at the Salar Jung Museum -
The Veiled Rebekah at the High Museum of Art
See also
- Vestal Virgin Tuccia, 1743 sculpture
- Modesty, 1752 sculpture
- Veiled Christ, 1753 sculpture
- The Veiled Virgin, mid-19th century sculpture
- The Veiled Nun, c. 1863 sculpture
Notes
- ↑ Petrucci 2005, p. 166.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "The Veiled Rebekah". High Museum of Art. Retrieved 2019-10-01.
- ↑ Richman-Abdou, Kelly (January 27, 2019). "Exquisite 19th-Century Sculpture Cloaked in a 'Translucent' Marble Veil". My Modern Met. Retrieved 2019-10-01.
- ↑ MH 1872, p. 132.
- ↑ "Sculpture". Bershire Museum. Archived from the original on December 7, 2011. Retrieved 2019-10-01.
- ↑ "The Veiled Lady". Detroit Institute of Arts. Retrieved 2019-10-01.
- ↑ "Veiled Rebekah". Museums of India. Retrieved 2019-10-01.
- ↑ "Creativity redefined: Founders of Cedarhurst Center for the Arts bestowed an appreciation of fine art". Life & Style in Southern Illinois. Retrieved 2019-10-01.
References
- MH (1872). "Art in Rome, 1872". The Art-Journal. 34. London: George Virtue: 131–132. Retrieved 2019-10-01.
- Petrucci, Francesco, ed. (2005). Papi In Posa: 500 Years of Papal Portraiture. Gangemi Editore. ISBN 8849208766.