They have been discovered by chance in 1974 in a area called Mont’e Prama in Sinis of Cabras in the central western Sardinia. What am i talking about? Giants,but not in flesh and blood,but statues,the famous statues of “Giants of Mont’ e Prama”.They are statues enigmatic and mysterious carved by people of nuragic civilization.It deals with statues carved in the round on the base of a single calcarenite block that can be found in quarries not too distant from site of the discovery.Their height is from two to two half meters and they represent ancient fighters: warriors,archers and boxers. So far have been discovered thirty-eight scultures among which sixteen boxers,thirteen models of nuraghe,five archers and four warriors,but there is still much to discover.These statues have been found shattered in several fragments in a place linked to a large necropolis composed of around 150 burials until now.
According to some hypothesis proposed by renowned archeologist these statues can be dated between ninth and thirteenth century,which would make them statues in the round most ancient and numerous of the whole Europe and western Mediterranean Sea,second only to Egyptian statues. Speaking of Egypt, has been found a Egyptian Scarab from Ramesside Period right among fragments of statues of Mont’e Prama,how did it get over there from Egypt? Who were sculptors that have created Giants of Mont’e Prama? Could they be maybe mythical Shardana which are mentioned even in hieroglyphs of ancient Egypt? It might even be,but maybe we will never know.
Once these statues were placed erected and perfectly aligned since they were to be used as protection of necropolis with their height and majesty; brave men,fearless warriors which meant to protect the eternal sleep of their deceased loved ones. Who is about to observe these outstanding ancient artworks can not fail to note an air of mystery and power that they emanate; they had to represent powerful aristocracies of nuragic warriors; powerful and noble families who wished to perpetuate their greatness even beyond the death delivering to stones and to art of the sculptors this ambitious task. These sculptural warriors symbolize figures with spirit both military and religious with a probably allusion to a superhuman sphere;they had to represent an invincible warriors that, in fact, have crossed the millennia defying time courageously ,and coming to the present day still untamed and vigourus despite ailments! Thanks of art of restoration and ability of the restorers,they will be still able to speak about their “lost world” even to people to next centuries that will come after us.
Being an artist i can’t resist to mysterious and hypnotic charm of these ancient statues and so i tried to paint “the boxer” that you see in photo above,trying to reduce it and insert it in a envirnoment of still life. It takes almost a year to complete this artwork that is an Oil on Linen and its size is 50×70 cm and the title is “The spoil of warrior”
While i was painting the statue of boxer i wondered ,at the beginning almost as a game, if i could be a reincarnation of one of those ancient sardinian warriors,since i’ve always believed to reincarnation! An ancient warrior which reincarnates nowadays and become a painter to paint one of those statues familiar to him,but only in his subconscious. It looks like an impossible story to believe or,at best,the plot of a fantasy movie that perhaps could also be successful! Each of you can believe in it or not ,but every time i look those statues,it seems to me to know them somewhat ,ever since! I leave you a picture of my painting to conclude this post,and i also leave you the ultimate judgement to whole story an my artwork as well.
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