Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Le Nil (The Nile)!


You may wonder why the title of this post is "The Nile"... Well, quit wondering! It's simply the name of this beautiful statue by Italian sculptor Lorenzo Ottoni (1648-1736) - apparently, it is pretty common to represent the Nile as an old bearded man leaning on a Sphinx! I also found it in the Tuileries gardens and FYI, it's actually a replica, made after the original located at the Vatican, in Italy.

12 comments:

  1. Wow. It immediately reminded me of Bernini's fountain of four rivers in Piazza Navona, Rome.

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  2. That's one sexy river. I wonder what the little cherubs climbing around him represent.

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  3. This photo gives me funny memories of my last trip to Paris. My boyfriend was trying to photograph this statue, but a pesky pigeon had landed smack-dab on top of the statue's head. He spent a long time trying to shoe away the pigeon, but this statue is tall, and the pigeon was not deterred. Ultimately, the pigeon won and now we have a photo of this beautiful statue avec monsieur pigeon. My boyfriend will be jealous to see that you got a photo sans pigeon :)

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  4. Love the golden point of the Obelisk against the blue-gray sky.

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  5. This is an amazing sculpture! Very detailed.

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  6. P.S. I showed my boyfriend when I got home from work and he was jealous. He reminded me that we bought a book about the Tuileries Gardens, so I looked up this statue, and to answer E.T. Suzy's question, it says that the 16 children surrounding him represent the 16 bends of the flooding Nile that fertilized Egypt. Also, it says that this statue was placed here in 1719!!

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  7. Wow Monnica, that's great background info. I didn't know what the cherubs represented and now I know that AND that there are 16 bends in the Nile.

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  8. It's wonderful that sculptures like this are out in the open for the public to enjoy and touch. Glad it's a replica though, as some of the little cherubs seem to have lost their heads -literally!

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  9. I love the history lessons! Thanks, Monnica! The photo is not to shabby either, Eric. :)

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  10. Yes Monnica, thanks a lot. It's a real stunning sculpture when you face it I can tell you.

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  11. Thanks, Monnica! I'm glad I asked about the cherubs.

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