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Culture Critic Profile picture
@Culture_Crit
May 23, 2023 • 16 tweets • 5 min read • Read on X
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There are great sculptors, and then there are those whose abilities to transform stone border on the divine.

These are 15 of the most astonishingly lifelike marble sculptures ever created 🧵 Image
1. Ugolino and His Sons - Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux (1867) ImageImage
2. Moses - Michelangelo (1515) ImageImage
3. The Abduction of Proserpina - Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1622) Image
4. Modesty - Antonio Corradini (1752) Image
5. The Veiled Virgin - Giovanni Strazza (1850s) Image
6. David - Michelangelo (1504) ImageImage
7. The Veiled Christ - Giuseppe Sanmartino (1753) Image
8. The Release from Deception - Francesco Queirolo (1759) Image
9. Pietà - Michelangelo (1499) Image
10. Apollo and Daphne - Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1625) Image
11. The Veiled Hestia - Rafaelle Monti (1847) Image
12. The West Wind - Thomas Ridgeway Gould (1874) Image
13. Psyche Revived by Cupid's Kiss - Antonio Canova (1793) Image
14. Nymph - Giovanni Battista Lombardi (1864) ImageImage
15. Laocoön and His Sons - Unknown Image

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More from @Culture_Crit

Culture Critic Profile picture
Dec 25
Christmas Day is NOT pagan, as many people claim.

But December 25 is also not Christ's real birthday — so when is it?

A clue is in the 12 days of Christmas... (thread) 🧵 Image
The Gospels don't specify the date of Christ's birthday — so where does December 25 come from?

Some claim that Christians took it from the pagans... Image
In the old Julian calendar, the winter solstice fell on Dec 25, so it's said that Christian traditions simply plagiarized older ones.

It's also said that Christmas trees came from Yuletide... Image
Read 17 tweets
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Dec 24
Who actually is Santa Claus?

A mythical figure of Pagan or Norse origin — or a real person?

Well, we just discovered his ancient tomb… (thread) 🧵 Image
"Santa Claus" was originally a Christian figure.

Saint Nicholas was a 4th-century Greek bishop from Myra (modern-day Turkey) credited with many miracles and acts of generosity... Image
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It landed in their stockings drying by the fire. Image
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Culture Critic Profile picture
Dec 20
I asked X: "Which book changed your perspective on life more than any other?"

After THOUSANDS of replies, these were the top 50.

The ultimate 2025 reading list… (bookmark this) 🧵 Image
Note: Titles within each section are ordered roughly by how frequently they were suggested.

By FAR the most popular suggestion of all was the Holy Bible — so here are the top theological works...
Theology:

1. Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis
2. Orthodoxy, G.K. Chesterton
3. The City of God, Augustine of Hippo
4. Summa Theologica, Thomas Aquinas
5. Confessions, Augustine of HippoImage
Image
Read 14 tweets
Culture Critic Profile picture
Dec 17
The fall of Rome is widely misunderstood.

It wasn't invasion, disease or famine that truly brought it to its knees.

Rome collapsed because the birth rate did… (thread) 🧵 Image
As with many nations today, Rome had a long period of prosperity followed by a decline in birth rates.

The same is true of urban populations throughout history... Image
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Childlessness was especially common among the upper classes — why? Image
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Culture Critic Profile picture
Dec 15
This is "Christ the King" in Poland, Europe's tallest statue of Jesus (notice the people for scale).

It's 108 feet tall — but that's not even close to the largest of the world's colossi.

9 more you may not have seen before... 🧵 Image
Poland's is not even the tallest statue of Christ. Indonesia unveiled one on Sibeabea Hill this year — 200 feet tall.

It's made of reinforced concrete set around a giant steel frame. Image
And Europe's tallest statue is significantly taller still: The Motherland Calls in Volgograd, Russia.

It was erected to mark the victory at Stalingrad, a crucial turning point in WW2 — 280 feet high. Image
Image
Read 13 tweets
Culture Critic Profile picture
Dec 12
Did you know the Mona Lisa has a twin?

You don't realize how bad a state it's in until you see the two side-by-side.

And it shows why restorations in art are a major problem… (thread) 🧵 Image
The Mona Lisa desperately needs to be restored. Its varnish has left it badly discolored and it continues to deteriorate.

But the varnish can't be replaced without risking taking Leonardo's incredibly fine layers away with it. Image
Luckily, we know how it would look when new — there's another version in Madrid, painted by a student of Da Vinci.

And since Lisa has lost them in the original, we can see how her eyebrows would've looked... Image
Read 18 tweets

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