Santo 1938

This is Santo, made by Eldora Lorenzini in 1938, with watercolor, graphite, and colored pencil on paper. The primary image shows a wooden sculpture of a Saint holding a baby. Lorenzini has drawn the same figure twice more, in smaller versions, in different areas of the paper. The palette is muted, with the figure in tones of brown and the baby in red. It's fascinating to think about what Lorenzini was considering when she was making this drawing. Perhaps she wanted to capture the essence of the sculpture from multiple perspectives, exploring its form in a way that a single view couldn't convey. The hand-drawn lines have an interesting quality; tentative and explorative, full of love and care. The drawing feels like an act of devotion, or perhaps, a conversation with another artist across time. Each mark is a meditation on form, texture, and the emotional resonance of the original sculpture. It reminds me that art is an ongoing dialogue, with artists responding to one another’s work, building upon it, and reinterpreting it in their unique ways.