Sculptuur van de Ares Ludovisi in de Villa Boncompagni Ludovisi te Rome before 1907

This photograph from Edizione Brogi captures a sculpture of Ares Ludovisi. Imagine being the sculptor, chipping away at marble to reveal form, wrestling with the stone to unearth the god within. You start with this raw material, a silent block. With each strike of the chisel, you feel the potential energy transforming into something new. Look at the folds of the drapery, how they cascade around the figure. They remind me of the way paint can pool and gather on a canvas, creating depth and shadow. And that face! What does it mean to capture such serene contemplation in the god of war? The artist must have felt the same way as me and understood that there is not one definite reading of the material, it is ongoing. Painting is an embodied practice, isn’t it? Sculpting, too, is a way of thinking through the body, a conversation between the artist and the material.