estus:nataliescourageclub:Art History Meme ❧ 2/7 SculpturesThe Genius of Evil (1848), St. Paul’s Cat
estus:nataliescourageclub:Art History Meme ❧ 2/7 SculpturesThe Genius of Evil (1848), St. Paul’s Cathedral, Liège.The Genius of Evil, known informally in English as Lucifer or The Lucifer of Liège, is a religious sculpture executed in white marble by the Belgian artist Guillaume Geefs. It depicts a classically beautiful man in his physical prime, chained, seated, and nearly nude but for drapery gathered over his thighs, his full length ensconced within a mandorla of bat wings. The magnificently human figure of the iconic rebel who failed might have been expected to elicit a complex or ambivalent response. The suffering face has been read as expressing remorse and despair; a tear slips from the left eye.Posted before but I just love the story behind this. The text here cuts off right before the good stuff.Geefs’ work replaces an earlier sculpture created for the space by his younger brother Joseph Geefs, which was removed from the cathedral because of its distracting allure and “unhealthy beauty.“[2]—The statue was originally a commission for Geefs’ younger brother Joseph, who completed it in 1842 and installed it the following year. It generated controversy at once and was criticized for not representing a Christian ideal.[8] The cathedral administration declared that “this devil is too sublime.”[9]The original is hilariously a bit more demure than this. For the very reason it was removed, his brother crafted something considerably more “sublime.”Le génie du mal -- source link