Artist 8/20: Antonio Corradini

You know a man is talented when he can make stone look transparent and as light as air. People marvel at the fact that artists like Donatello were the first to make the garments of their sculptors contour to the human form but few artists ever took such contouring to greater heights than Antonio Corradini. Easily rivaling the likes of Bernini, this was the man capable of making stone sculpture of a veiled woman. Unfortunately he wasn't as highly commissioned and has still yet to gain the posthumous credit I think he deserves as very little of his work is mentioned in books.

A Baroque artist, Corradini worked in Venice in the early 1700s. And completed such remarkable works like Chastity (also called Modesty) a tomb dedicated to the patron of the chapel's mother. Corradini unfortunately didn't master his technique until late in his career and among his last commissions by the same patron was Christ beneath the Shroud. Sadly Corradini died on 29 June 1752 before the work was completed. Another artist by the name of Giuseppe Sanmartino finished the work, successfully completing the essence the original artist intended to captivate. One of the reasons Corradino's work didn't garner much attention from the Vatican was because his work was supposedly too erotic and somber.

There's a sense of subtle elegance in his work and I do agree that is does display a certain eerieness.