Or are those dudes up there lugging some severed heads to God?
Looks like severed heads of giants to me.
Do those detailed carvings date to the first century? The stonework is fascinating.
This photo has a very interesting symbol in the centre. I’m not sure if it’s an ouroboros, but it looks like that.
This photo, the carving is very lacy and appears quite thin. Do you know what kind of stone this was done in?
There must have been many frescoes originally, from what I can tell. Wonderful photos, this is another place I could spend days studying and photographing.
Yeah The archway is pretty nuts, I'm pretty sure the reference the decapitation of Just, It was just an odd contrast. I've seen lots of odd medieval carvings that are a bit grim.
Yeah a lot of the heavily detailed carvings here date from 1st to 5th century and are done in white marble ( like that lacy one) and a local dense limestone.
Im sure its an Ouroboros around a Sun under that arch but I didnt want to get too side tracked 😂
Thanks for stopping by
I wonder if there were other carvings or features that flesh out that decapitation story. The size of the heads in relation to the figures is quite interesting. Makes me think of the stories of giants on earth, lol.
I'm reasonably familiar with medieval art. I find it interesting how there are many carvings in marble (the lacy one) and also limestone. I've carved both stones and neither lend themselves to such lacy carving, no matter how gifted, skilled, and practiced one is. The undercutting in this is unreal. To hold up over time like that is also unreal. I've seen other ancient sculptures and architectural work done like this. There's always a sense of how is it humanly possible to do that in stone like that, whenever I see this type of carving.
😂 I see we have similar patterns that way. Thanks for confirming. both are common symbols and very interesting to see that here. I like to study symbols.
Always a pleasure to stop by, you post such interesting content, now that I've found you on here, thank @dandays for that.
I'll thank him alright, when he stops advertising my adult diaper brands everywhere.
I noticed here the OLD school carvers use wet stone and Burrs to get the detailing. seems to make a huge difference. Watched a guy down the road carve a wedding DRESS for display at a local church. All carved wet with no modern tooling. Limestone soaked overnight, carving done during the day. No Tungsten tools, no Dremel's, just steel chisels and rasps.
Its a hugely forgotten skill
How exciting was it? I mean did you use your drawls or make it to the toilet?
LOL, I think he's settling on his own upcoming diaper brand. I think he needs PINK all the way though.
Interesting that the limestone was soaked overnight. I've carved larger pieces of limestone with steel chisels, 5lb mallet, rasps, riflers, files, then down to wet/dry sandpapers to polish. It's the undercutting done in limestone and marble that holds up for centuries in outdoor conditions that I find to be so unusual.
Softer stone can be carved with tools like you've described. It's actually quite soft in comparison to something like quartz or agate. Carving by hand is very close to being a dead skill, sadly.