Year of creation | 2020 |
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Dimensions | 31 W × 50 H × 23 D cm |
Weight | 1 kg |
Type of art | sculpture |
Style | realism |
Genre | mythological |
Materials | Mixed method |
The composition is dedicated to one of the most renown Perseus’ feats, a hero of the Greek mythology. Flying over Ethiopia, Perseus noticed a beautiful lady chained to a rock in the sea to be sacrificed. Perseus fell in love with Andromeda from first sight, and he decided to save her at any cost. The composition depicts the culmination of Perseus’ fight with the monster – though the viewer never sees it, as the dragon is present here only as a relief on the hero’s shield. This story is not about killing another monster in his long and captivating life. This is a feat of love, and for this reason the sculpture focuses solely on Perseus and Andromeda. The feeling of flight represents a certain challenge for an artist; in this sculpture it is realized via shifting the center of gravity of the composition sideways and maintaining minimal contact of bodies with solid ground. Both characters levitate fully in air by touching the rock only by Perseus’ foot.
Anatoly Popov is a professional sculptor. After graduating from a youth art school in his home city, he entered Pensa Artistic College in 2011 and then earned a Bachelor degree at Russian Academy of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture in 2017. Thus, he has dedicated 11 years of his life to higher professional education, and keeps enhancing the style and techniques for the futher life, adhering to the school of realism and principles of fine art aestetics. The artist's inspiration can be ignited by a wide variety of topics. Most of the works are dedicated to historical or mythological images and personalities, which is an eternal topic reinterpreted from generation to generation. Occasionally the topic of nature and wildlife enters the portfolio, with the wonderful relationships often much closer to people's feelings than it seems. The artist is deeply convinced that a piece of art must give aesthetic pleasure to the viewer, inspire and let him or her experience the beauty of the world independently from the selected topic. In any work a lot of attention is dedicated to the sculpture's plastic component: aesthetics and dynamics of the composition, the harmony of visual rhythms. The composition lies at the core of any creation, allowing to convey the feeling and mood of sculpture. At the same time the viewer can always find a lot of details catching the eye and inviting to examine, while in some of the works decorative elements can reveal the whole story.