Lifted - Limited Edition Print

LIMITED EDITION PRINT

- Hand-signed, certified and numbered by artist Melissa Bain
- High-quality Archival Giclée printed on Canon Fine Art Paper.
- Shipped unframed / flat with protective backboard + sleeve cover.
- Includes FREE Expedited Shipping.

ARTWORK DESCRIPTION

The Lifted Limited Edition print is a giclée reproduction of the original 6"x6" acrylic figurative painting by Melissa Bain. The original painting was inspired from the quick sketch I had done of the Giambologna marble sculpture Rape of the Sabine Women (1579–1583) located in the Loggia del Lanzi, Piazza della Signoria in Florence, Italy. The sculpture has three characters entwined in movement and passion that culminates with the young woman's upper torso and arm raised.  For me, the masterful sculpture does not at all depict a scene or sense of abduction or rape -- but one of the divine masculine protecting the divine feminine. I named the painting "Lifted" as for me it represents the feelings one would have in a harmonious relationship where both individuals feel mutally supported, protected, loved and lifted higher by being together.

As I was with a group about to head off on a tour of the Galleria dell'Accademia di Firenze, I had only a very limited amount of time to capture a quick sketch of the sculpture, which is why only two of the three characters are depicted in my painting.

'Though no record of who commissioned the piece exists, it was most likely Duke Francesco de’ Medici, son of Duke Cosimo I. Giambologna, expert in the mannerist style, was interested in producing a piece that could provide an interesting view from all angles and that included an unprecedented count of three figures. Though the statue was intended as a display of the artist’s aptitude and did not explicitly depict the story of the Sabines, Duke Francesco invented the idea upon placing in in the Loggia.

Giambologna’s densely packed, intertwined  composition took on the story of the legendary Roman myth of when the first generation of Romans robbed the neighboring Sabine people of their women to take them as wives and populate the newly birthed Rome. This scene of abduction, with an older male figure at the bottom making an ineffectual attempt at preventing a stronger male figure from making off with a struggling young woman, clearly depicts a struggle of power between the three figures. Like the neighboring statues of Judith and Perseus, it represents an episode of defeat, in this case by the Romans of the Sabines.'

Charles Avery. Giambologna: The Complete Sculpture. London: Phaidon Press, 1993.

Olsen, Roberta J. M. Italian Renaissance Sculpture. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1992.

Painted artwork copyright © Melissa Bain. All rights reserved.