THE INSPIRATION OF CLEOMENES

1995 Donald R Ricker

(digital study)

  cf Finished painting and  3D Cleomenes set (VRML)

Using Virtus 3-D designing software,  a spot suitable to complete the thirteen foot tall Venus was imagined.  Troubled by the letter he has received on completion of his magnificent statue, Cleomenes broods at daybreak, seemingly unaware of his faithful and tireless models. A guard restrains two willing replacements at the back door. A close look at this painting will reveal that the models are all famous statues in their own right.  The features of Cleomenes are modeled after the Nicodemus figure in the Pieta, said to be a self-portrait of the sculptor Michaelangelo.  The following verse was written by Michaelangelo and inspired the painter at the easel:

As when, O lady mine, With Chisell'd touch

The Stone unhewn and cold Becomes a living mold,

The more the marble wastes, The more the statue grows:

So, if the working of my soul be such That good is but evolved By Time's dread blows,

The vile shell, day by day, Falls like superfluous flesh away.

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