19th century alabaster sculpture, Nest with birds and snake

early nineteenth century
Nest with birds and snake
Alabaster, high. 26 cm, width. 16cm

The plastic ability of alabaster, the preferred material for producing softly modeled transparencies, has guaranteed its notoriety in the artistic field over the centuries. A rock made up of sediments of evaporated mineral salts, alabaster is made up of a fabric of aggregated mineral concretions, excavated in the form of ovules which are subsequently modeled and then sculpted as desired.
In the present work the artist has organized a subtle vertical composition, in which he reports an animal scene with marked realism. A dove is feeding its chicks, while a snake approaches among the branches, threatening the nest.
Etymologically, alabaster meant, both in Greek and Latin, "vase" or more generally a container made of this material, given that the first sculpted examples were indeed containers. The oldest vases were made in the land of the pharaohs, and since then the extraordinary beauty of this material has consecrated its use in artistic making.

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