Veiled Rebecca

The Veiled Rebecca or The Veiled Rebekah is a marble sculpture created by the Italian neoclassical sculptor Giovanni Maria Benzoni.

The Veiled Rebecca
Italian: Rebecca Velata
The Veiled Rebecca displayed at the Salar Jung Museum, Hyderabad, India
ArtistGiovanni Maria Benzoni
Year1863
TypeSculpture
MediumMarble
Dimensions160 cm × 58 cm × 50 cm (64 in × 23 in × 19.5 in)

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:

  • Detail of the statue at the Salar Jung Museum
  • The Veiled Rebekah at the High Museum of Art

See also

Notes
  1. Petrucci 2005, p. 166.
  2. "The Veiled Rebekah". High Museum of Art. Retrieved 2019-10-01.
  3. Richman-Abdou, Kelly (January 27, 2019). "Exquisite 19th-Century Sculpture Cloaked in a 'Translucent' Marble Veil". My Modern Met. Retrieved 2019-10-01.
  4. MH 1872, p. 132.
  5. "Sculpture". Bershire Museum. Archived from the original on December 7, 2011. Retrieved 2019-10-01.
  6. "The Veiled Lady". Detroit Institute of Arts. Retrieved 2019-10-01.
  7. "Veiled Rebekah". Museums of India. Retrieved 2019-10-01.
  8. "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
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