Thursday 6 March 2014

Madonna - the sacred and the profane


I was going to do a post about the difference between sacred and secular art, but then I got sidetracked by my search for a Cuturi air-hammer, Model D, pencil-sized one, which I am trying to purchase for some very lightweight marble carving.

Well, I ended up doing a post on the difference between sacred and secular art anyway, as illustrated by some of the images I came up with in my search for the air hammer.

The above is how they use these carving power-hammers in Italy, where they are all made. Note the Madonna copy. Note the traditional newspaper hat as well.


This is how they employ the hammers in the good old USA. Where's the newspaper hat? This photo is also taken from a sales point for Cuturi hammers.


Here is another American site which loves these Italian air-hammers so much, he has wrapped them in the Stars and Stripes before photographing them and posting the picture up.  I began to think that the obsession with 'butts' in every context was a peculiarly American thing, especially when I found the picture below, also brought up by searching for Cuturi air-hammers.


Then I looked a little closer. This sculpture was made by an old, very British friend of mine called Barry Baldwin, who used to run a stone yard just outside Bath, and one of whose sculptures adorns our local Waitrose supermarket, albeit at such a height that even I forget it is there most times I walk past.

Now I think about it, Barry's idea of a good holiday was to go down to the Tex-Mex border for a couple of weeks of honky-tonking, so I suppose I shouldn't be so surprised.

9 comments:

  1. I don't know, but I think it says something about someone when they leave the heads off sexual sculptures of naked women - you can leave your hat on...

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  2. Now I know why I always got to carve tedious architectural features; no air hammer!

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    1. That's why you took so long in carving them.

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  3. Can't believe you didn't mention the gun. Real detail carving.

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    1. I thought that would be a bit obvious. Tip: If ever a semi-naked, headless woman with a cowboy hat points a gun at you, change the subject.

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  4. I wonder if that Italian gun would help my major arse? Worth a try I suppose.

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    1. They make a captive-bolt version (see Xavier Bardem) which would help in dealing with your pig's arses.

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  5. you mentioned bums first, so please tell me what is it that people see in Kim Kardashians bum? it is huge. apparently people are injecting silicon in their own to make theirs stick out like hers.

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    1. I've never seen anything in Kim Kardashian's bum but there again I've never looked. It's quite a nice shape though, and it's about time that women stopped asking men if their bums look too big. Personally, I don't think a paunch can look too big on a man.

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