Tuesday 14 September 2010

Botanic Gardens, La Ballarina

La Ballarina is a sculpture that sits in a flower bed in the Royal Botanic Gardens. It was one of eight statues purchased for the new Palace Garden in 1883. La Ballarina was sculpted by Charles Summers, a successful Australian sculptor living in Carrara, Italy and was a copy of a work by Antonio Canova, which has since been lost. These Italian statues fell victim to changing attitudes that saw many of the more flagrant nudes removed in the 1910s and later destroyed as a 'menace to public morals'. Others were removed from public view in the 1970s when the mass replication of classical statuary in suburban gardens made the works seem 'low-brow'. The surviving statues were kept in the Stoneyard, known as the 'Graveyard', behind the Succulent Garden. La Ballarina was the first of the Italian marbles to be reconstructed with a new head, hand and foot sculpted by Polish-born mason Jacek Luszczyk from photos provided by the the Canova Foundation in Italy and unveilled in 2009.

31 comments:

  1. Lovely picture!
    A marvellous statue and a nice piece of culture!

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    Thanks for sharing*******

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  2. What a beautiful sculpture and picture of it:)

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  3. Glad to know that the sculpture survived. It is lovely.

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  4. That's an interesting slice of art history, Jim. Globalization before the word was invented... an Aussie sculpting in Italy and reconstructed by a Pole.

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  5. This was a statue of its time, Jim. Compare the style with that of Chifley yesterday. We have statues dotted everywhere in this city. They are incredibly valued by me, and others I suspect.

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  6. Julie, I only really started noticing we had so much great artwork around the city when I started photographing it. I think I appreciate the sculptures so much more when I know their history.

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  7. Great to read and see she found such a nice place to think and dance. Please have a good Tuesday.

    daily athens

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  8. You've reminded me that I've got some shots of this and a few others tucked away that I must use sooner or later.

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  9. I love her pose :) She seems so content - she obviously got an idea :)

    http://foto.rudenius.se/post/2010/09/14/My-World-e28093-In-the-sunshine.aspx

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  10. She's lovely, and Carrara marble? Wonderful.

    Kay
    Alberta, Canada

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  11. Yes, Kay. They sourced the marble from the Carrara area from the quarry that Michelangelo sourced blocks of marble for his statue of 'David'.

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  12. Beautiful statue. The place chosen for it is perfect.

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  13. great captures and story behind that sculpture...thanks for sharing...

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  14. Meravigliosa ed elegantissima :)

    Thank you for sharing this beautiful photo

    Have a nice week,
    Greetings, Bram

    My Word Tuesday post

    Seen on My World Tuesday

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  15. That is so interesting I would never have thought this would happen to statues. She looks beauiful standing in the flower bed,

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  16. She seems to wonder about her life as a sculpture ;-)

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  17. One of the many great sculptures and statues you have been showing us. Thank you

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  18. I thought these things happened only to people when they had crazy society, religions or people around them. Interesting.

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  19. That is a gorgeous statue! Makes for a beautiful photo!

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  20. Nice to see she is in good shape. Other statues in the garden has broken body parts. You've done a great photography job with this and yesterday's statues.

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  21. The world has become very PC. I was "researching" into the Kookabura Song, and how in some parts of the world, the word Gay has been changed to Rich.

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  22. Ann, there was a school that made the news here recently because the principal changed the words to: Kookaburra "fun" your life must be.

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Thanks for visiting my blog. Please leave me a message. Jim.

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