In the last few weeks, I carried out an extensive research on sculptures and bas-reliefs for a fashion experiment I did using AI text-to-image application Midjourney.
There are obviously sculptures from all sorts of times and places in museums all over the world that you may use in such cases, so it is easy to get lost if you don't focus and reduce your inspirations to a reasonable number of artworks. To do so, the best thing is to look at the most intriguing ones and learn from their finest details or materials used to make them.
A great example is the Crucifixion attributed to Guglielmo Della Porta (1515-1577): preserved at Rome's Galleria Borghese this work features stunning details. As today it is Good Friday and in many Roman Catholic churches people are practicing the Veneration of the Cross or taking part in religious processions to ponder about the passion and death of Jesus, let's examine it.
From pictures or from a distance, the bas-relief looks as if it were made with a material such as ivory, but actually this is a wax bas-relief.
The relief is characterized by bichromy with a dark slate background highlighting the figures modeled in white wax. The work is rich in details with minutely detailed figures, exquisite draped motifs and deeply carved lines that emphasize gestures and movements, and can be divided in different levels.
The three crosses in the upper part immediately capture the observers' attention, immersing them in the dark and dramatic atmosphere of the scene. Christ is on the cross in the centre with his head tilted; on the left cross there is the good thief with his arms open and raised, in a gesture of prayer; on the right, the bad thief turns his back to Christ and hangs lifeless from the cross.
The rest of the scene is filled with a multitude of figures: in the second section of the bas-relief numerous men are engaged in the crucifixion and, using ladders, axes and saws, they are lifting and securing the crosses; there are also Roman soldiers on horseback at the foot of the crosses and turbaned characters.
In the third section, on the right there are soldiers determinining who will keep Christ's tunic because it was woven in one piece. Two soldiers are fighting over the clothes of Christ (the tunic with its folds creates a dynamic movement in that section of the bas-relief), while another two men are confronting each other with knives.
On the left, the Virgin Mary, overwhelmed with grief, has fainted; she is supported by the pious women with Mary Magdalene, while Saint John the Evangelist is praying.
The chaos and confusion created by the figures forms a sort of pyramidal configuration that reaches its climax with the crosses: the configuration of the bas-relief looks like a sort of metaphorical human pyramid, but in between the figures you can actually see a representation of the rocks that add a physical reference to the artwork, reminding us we are on the Golgotha, a skull-shaped hill in ancient Jerusalem.
The rich and elaborate ebony frame of the bas-relief is entirely decorated with intarsia elements and hard stones - marble, gilded copper, lapis lazuli, red jasper, amethyst and chalcedony. The cabinet is similar to cabinets and reliquaries that were popular in the 16th century.
The work was attributed to Guglielmo Della Porta, based on a comparison with some of the artist's drawings preserved in the Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf (in Vasari's "Lives" the author spoke about 14 models for reliefs executed by Della Porta for bronze casts, although the dimensions do not coincide with this one).
Those who attribute it to Della Porta also state that this must have been a preparatory work for one of his bronze reliefs as the work was made with white wax, usually employed as a preparatory material for a metal casting (this hypothesis is strengthened by the fact that the wax models of Della Porta's partially executed bronze Passion series that were in his workshop were dispersed after his death). Others think this may be the work of a Flemish school sculptor and goldsmith from the 16th century, who had moved to Rome to refine his skills.
While these researches may seem secondary for an Artificial Intelligence project, they are still important as they help us pondering more on the possibilities that different materials may offer and inspire us with unusual words that can be employed to achieve unexpected results in fashion-related prompts.
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