Bro, did you just call her fat?
But really, non contaminated marble is very strong in a load bearing sense, and the ends of the statue are plenty thick enough to support that weight. The arm that rests on the ground as well was much more likely there to be a support to keep the arm from getting damaged, and not a part made to keep the statue from snapping elsewhere.
Her abs are rock hard.
I mean, isn’t it basically a bench?
Sorta yeah. Just with three supporting legs.
Both ends which make it look like the poles at the end are supporting the center but they’re only part, most of the support is an optical illusion that makes the blanket or hammock fabric look visually thinner if you look diagonally across you’ll see the fabric is actually much thicker than it looks from either side. The third leg is her arm which acts a a minor support by actually touching the base.
https://historyvisit.one/sweet-dreams-1892-sculptor-antonio-frilli/
Picture 2 shows the ends diagonally, you’ll see they’re actually fairly thick pyramids-ish triangular shapes.
Pictures 3, 5 and 6 show her arm touching the base.
Incredible art. Any time I see marble look like cloth, it blows my mind.
As to the physics, the amount of material holding up the hammock is likely much more significant than it appears. Not to say it isn’t delicate, I’m sure much side to side movement would break it quite easily, but the vertical strength is probably significantly more than it seems, it’s sort of like a bridge with a truck on it…
My brain always intuitively parses this shit as literal witchcraft. Like:
My brain: oh my God, that woman was just lounging around and someone turned her to stone and put her in display
Me: no, what you’re seeing is just incredible skill in sculpting marble. We’ve been through this before
My brain: No but look at that fabric! It’s real fabric — or it was, before it was turned to stone!
It’s so impressive that it literally doesn’t compute to me, and I have to remind myself that this is indeed stone.
How do they move this between exhibitions? Put it in a box, cover it in plastic and fill it with plaster or PU foam?
Sort of. Put it in a crate, then put wooden batons across to support each section of the sculpture and stop it moving. Each wooden baton is covered in polyethylene foam. Depending on the material of the sculpture, it may be wrapped in plastic, tissue or fabric.
Once it’s barred into the crate and cannot wobble about at all, it’s sealed up, then moved about on a palette truck or hand-forklift.
Example of a sculpture half-packed:
This was very cool to learn about! Thank you for the picture as well!!
Carefully, I’m pretty sure.
I would imagine they would put something between the hammock and the floor to support the sculpture during transit. Kind of like expanding foam packs used to ship computers.
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Okay ill be the child here - he he boobies
If I may join in, is that a sculpture of someone fingering someone else’s butt in the background too?
oil check
𝔟𝔯𝔢𝔞𝔰𝔱?
Hard to tell from the crop, but if the arm is touching the ground that’s a third support pillar.
That’s what I assumed. I’m sure you could make this without that arm being a pillar, but it’s a slightly odd position that obviously they used it for support. Still incredibly impressive, and honestly it only adds to it in my opinion that they had the foresight to extend the arm down to act as a column. I’m sure it wouldn’t have lasted long without it.
Occam’s razor says it gotta be antigravity
On the physics, marble on the legs and torso seem quite dense where they connect to the pillars, and also the base seems complete and flat, the three likely causing enough pressure for the center of the piece to not be crushed under its own weight.
load-bearing dangly arm
User thinkyfish in another comment also mentioned the cloth at both ends of the hammock are solid stone too, adding even more resistance to the sculpture. Fantastic work not just in beauty, but engineering too.
First thing is that even though it looks like separate objects, they are actually all connected and solid, like her face on the pillow, the cloth and the posts. Note that the cloth actually has a large interior volume you cannot see–it’s all solid. Also, her hand actually touches the bottom and is providing support, so its really like two small arches.
Probably by hiding a hole underneath the drape that they used to hollow it out.
Or reinforcements
Her hand touches the base.
You have to remind your brain that all the “hanging” elements are also solid rock. It’s an illusion.
Assuming the figure is mostly hollow and the floor is a couple inches solid or the sides “blankets” are very supporting.
Metal rebar reinforced supports inside it.
No.
A. It was made 1890ish
B. Rebar rusts even if totally encased which would split the marble from within. (Marble is porous anyway so total encasement isn’t super easy anyway.)
C. It isn’t needed, Bernini was doing more with less before the advent of rebar.
Circa 1682:
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