There is no rope in this image. This is carved from a single block of marble.
Is there a person alive today who could do this?
This is "The Release from Deception" by Italian sculptor Francesco Queirolo, completed in 1759 after 7 years of work. It depicts a fisherman being released from netting by an angel, allegorical to the man being liberated from his sins.
So intricate was the work that 18th-century philosopher Giangiuseppe Origlia described it as “the last and most trying test to which sculpture in marble can aspire.”
Queirolo worked alone on his magnum opus, without an assistant or even a workshop. Even other sculptors refused to touch the delicate net in case it broke into pieces in their hands.
The masterpiece is housed at the Sansevero Chapel in Naples, with several other miracles of marble. Namely, "The Veiled Christ" (1753) by Giuseppe Sanmartino and "The Veiled Truth" (1750) by Antonio Corradini.
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Lent marks Christ's 40 days in the Judaean Desert, where he's confronted by Satan.
Their clash is an epic philosophical showdown, and a masterclass in beating temptation.
Here's how it unfolds — and how to crush temptation yourself... (thread) 🧵
Christ's battle with temptation isn't only that — it's a battle for the soul of all humanity.
Satan tempts Jesus to:
• Make bread from stones to end his hunger
• Jump from a pinnacle to prove his divinity
• Bow to Satan and rule the world in return
But Jesus proves himself at each turn by flatly denying Satan.
The story is only brief in the Gospels, but John Milton's "Paradise Regained" expands it, exposing the nature of temptation — and how to destroy it for good.
The Lord of the Rings does not take place on an imaginary planet — it's Earth.
Middle-earth is our forgotten past, before recorded history, when Eden (Valinor) was a real place.
The truth of Tolkien's world will blow your mind... 🧵
Middle-earth is our Earth long ago, as Tolkien said:
"I have (of course) placed the action in a purely imaginary (though not wholly impossible) period of antiquity, in which the shape of the continental masses was different."
He even compared latitudes directly:
Hobbiton and Rivendell are about the latitude of Oxford, Minas Tirith the latitude of Florence, and Pelargir the latitude of ancient Troy.