A sculptor wields The chisel, and the stricken marble grows To beauty.

– William Cullen Bryant Quotes

I’ve been swamped for the last four months and am only now getting some breathing room, here at the footsteps of Spring.

Now, that I have a moment, I can share a shot of these two magnificent sculptures that I shot on my last trip to Paris in the fall.

There are rooms after rooms of amazing, beautiful art in the Louvre, and for visitors from outside of the city, it’s always something of a balancing act to both see as much as you can while also taking pause to absorb the beauty. The curves and forms of the statues are so graceful, so effortless, it’s easy to forget that they are carved from marble – from stone. And it was with that in mind, that with this image, I pushed the warm gold colors away from the starker white of the marble and I emphasized the beaded texture to conjure the look of perspiration to further imbue them with the light of the living.

The statue in the foreground is called, ‘Hermes Richelieu’ and the one in the background is, ‘Ares Borghese’.

Wikpedia has this to say about ‘Hermes Richelieu‘:

So-called “Hermes Richelieu”. The identification as Hermes is secured by the fragment of caduceus held in the left hand and the small holes bored into the hair to support small wings (now lost). Marble, Roman copy of the 2nd century CE after a bronze original of the 4th century BC.

And ‘Ares Borghese‘:

Naked, helmeted warrior holding a spear and wearing a bracelet at the left ankle, probably a representation of Ares. Free-standing statue, Roman Imperial period. From the agora in Athens.