Sculptures Possibly 1839 - 1985

Hippolyte Bayard made this photograph, Sculptures, in the 19th Century, with, well, light! It's kind of amazing how light can sculpt form, just as surely as a chisel. Look at the way Bayard coaxes these sculptural forms into being through shadow and light. The busts on either side have this rough, almost crumbly texture, while the embracing figures in the center are rendered in a softer, more luminous glow. What a contrast! The surface of the image feels almost palpable, like you could reach out and touch the cool marble. Check out the drapery in the background, it has a strange quality, like a dream. Bayard has captured something of the soul of these ancient forms. It reminds me of the way Giorgio Morandi would arrange bottles in his paintings, imbuing the mundane with a sense of the eternal. In the end, all art is really just a conversation between artists, a dialogue across time and space.