I was stuck on writing fiction this weekend, so I went to the library to look at some books. I found the architectural and city photographs I was looking for. They sparked the desired ideas and motivation. But I also found something else, and it resolved for me a much trickier plot point that I hadn’t been able to get a handle on.
(via this blog; unable to track down actual photo credit)
Isn’t that a lovely photograph?
But look closely: that’s marble. It’s a closeup of a statue of Pluto abducting Proserpine, carved by Bernini in the early 17th century.
The lighting in the photo makes it look like flesh at first, but the original is entirely white.
(via this blog; unable to track down actual photo credit)
Look at the hands. Look at the way the Proserpine’s soft flesh dents where the god has grabbed it. Think of the skill in the sculptor’s hands as he formed and shaped and polished, of the skill in his brain that let him see the result before ever touching chisel to stone.
That’s what I needed.