July 11, 2008

Veiled Rebecca



This is one of the best sculptures you can put your eyes on. The sculptor has magnificently made a veil appear over the beautiful lady's face. The sculptor Giovanni Maria Benzoni was trained in Rome, eventually establishing his own shop where he trained numerous students. This biblical sculpture depicts Rebecca, bride of Isaac, as she draws her veil about her before being presented to her future husband. This piece represents innocence and purity as Benzoni skillfully creates the appearance of a transparent veil, an exceptional technical achievement.

You can find this statue at the Salar Jung Museum in Hyderabad. This museum is the World's largest one man collection of any nature and the largest of arts and artifacts by a huge margin. There are three wings full of his collection in a museum spread over 20 acres. A must see for anyone visiting the City of Nawabs !

17 comments:

lukkydivz said...

i've been there umpteen times but sadly dont remember if i saw this one :P

A said...

hmm....

Keshi said...

WOW beautiful indeed!

Come take part in my current post :)

Keshi.

Chakoli said...

:)

Cinderella said...

I just love museums !! I can go staring at the artefacts for hours and hours...read every piece of info written on them, awe at the workmanship and the nitty-gritties...

I have seen a similar scuplture in Victoria Museum, Kolkata, there was a veil and all but yeah it was not over the piece...this piece is a masterpiece...dunno how they carve !!

I visited Salar Jung like 5-6 yrs back, and had fallen in love with it....its just so huge. Another museum of note is the Prince of Wales museum in Mumbai...awesome place...

Cinderella said...

Oh I meant, it wasnt over the face...

Vrijilesh Rai said...

@ Divs

U missed out on one of the best things in the museum!

@ Anjuli

:)

@ Keshi

Thanx.. will be there at urs shortly..

@ Chaks

:)

@ Cindy

Oh gr8.. yep, even I like museums.. love them infact.. and yes, SJM is indeed huge!

Aarti said...

Beautiful.. I've been to the museum zillions of years ago..during my recent visit, dint go to the museum!! another trip is due~~ :)

ceedy said...

Thank you for the info...

this blog is really like a coffee table book...full of interesting things and snippets...am going to blogroll you...

Mysterious Mia said...

ah wud surely visit here next time

Vrijilesh Rai said...

@ Aarti

Cool.. so isnt it the right time for that 'another' trip?

@ Ceedy

Thanx a ton.. and sure do keep visiting :)

@ Mia

Be my guest :)

rantravereflect/ jane said...

whoa! beautiful! completely..
n ya can hardly see teh veil, tat too, it being sculptd, the man must have bee a genius!!

Meher :) said...

Ah yeah... remember seeing this & appreciating the very same thing about this statue... the veil falling over the face - and the way it was sculpted... :)

Nice you wrote about it... makes me want to go & see it again....

Vrijilesh Rai said...

@ Jane

Yep.. its awesome!


@ Sindhu

Welcome Madame.. its been a loooong time since we saw u here..

So when r 'WE' going to the museum?

Sameera Ansari said...

I was mesmerized by it on visiting the Salar Jung five years back.Another statue worth mentioning in the museum is the one which is sculpted as a lady and a gent from either side.Forgot its name...

Unknown said...

wow what nice artist!!! he is really great I think i visited SALAR JUNG MUSEUM last year .And it was really a wonderfull experiance.I visited many more times to mumbai's prince of whales museum and also 1 time victoria museum . But this was the real and ever seen beauty of all those which I saw .I am really proud of our country

radha krishna said...

Your blog is good. Jawaharlal Nehru stood astonished before Veiled Rebecca as the sculptor made the face of Rebecca look from a veil of marble. One of the greatest of sculptures. thanks for preserving it in your blog. However I was looking for a better photograph.
I am J Radha Krishna, Journalist. I write for allvoices.com and nowpublic.com (American and Canadian sites) apart from working for NSS, a local agency of Hyderabad.
jonnalagadda3@gmail.com