by Vasile Stefanoiu

Artwork Description

Arachne – metamorphosis-side-front view

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1. Artwork Title: “Arachne – metamorphosis” • Marble & copper, the year of creation: © 2021. • © All rights reserved • Artwork dimensions :Height 70 cm, Width 37 cm Depth 19 cm, Weight 31 Kg • Artist nation of origin: Romania This sculpture is part of a series of sculptures that take sequences from the narrative context of legends of ancient Greek civilization and sculpt the result of my imagination in a new way of seeing in the modern era, different, sometimes suggesting movement in the process of metamorphosis. The message conveyed through my sculpture is about the skilful, industrious and sensitive but at the same time strong woman, qualities that have remained eternal. The message can also be read in another key: as a parable about the power of art and the secular antagonism between creativity and authority. Or about commercial competition, where the status of winner is the privilege only of the great and powerful, a dominant mechanism that has not changed from ancient civilization to the new contemporary gods of the era of globalization (large corporations). In my sculpture, I created the moment of the metamorphosis of the young girl Arachne, by reducing her body, becoming a spider with a big belly from which she draws the thread (Poet Ovid). In ancient Greek legend, the world's first spider was born out of a woman's pride. The goddess Minerva (Athens, in the civilization of ancient Greece) was recognized as the most skilled weaver but a young girl, Arachne, surpassed her, although this girl "Neither by rank or nation is famous, but by skill" (Poet Ovid) . In the competition between the two, the fabric of Athens was predictably large: a scene of Olympus and a tribute to the glory of the gods. The canvas of the young girl Arachne is more beautiful, she surpassed the goddess in the craft, but in her canvas she described the gods as carnal beings whose whims, passions and petty jealousies create suffering in the lives of mortals. In revenge, the goddess Minerva punished the young girl Aracne, tore her fabric and hit her forehead three or four times with a shuttle. Arachne tried to hang herself but Minerva saves her by telling her "She lives, but still hanged" and sprinkles her with Hecatean poison (a herb of the goddess of the Hecate spells) and metamorphoses her into a spider to weave into eternity. This legend has been represented in both painting and sculpture throughout the history of art, but all the images show a woman with more spider web arms. The novelty that I bring, a new way of seeing in the contemporary era, is the movement of the metamorphosis of the body of the young Arachne by shrinking and the transformation into the spider that weaves.

Artwork Details

Medium: Sculpture Various Materials

Genre: Figurative