The Veiled Rebekah By Giovanni Maria Benzoni

The Veiled Rebekah is an early nineteenth century sculpture featured permanently on the second floor of the High Museum of Art. Neoclassicism represented Classical ideals and subjects matter derived from Classical Greek and Roman style , such as the attention to human anatomy and movement. Since Benzoni mastered the neoclassical style, he rendered the texture so finely that Rebekah’s skin appears tender to the touch. The marble sculpture stands to sixty four inches high, twenty-three inches wide and nineteen and a half inches in depth. The sculpture was placed on a gray Roman column, [Figure 1] raising it about three feet above the ground. Though the viewer has to look up at The Veiled Rebekah’s face, it would appear that her attention
Neoclassicism was a form of modern Classicism, which was very popular in the early nineteenth century especially for it’s, “…quest for a timeless mode of expression (the ‘true style’, as it was then called involved strongly divergent approaches towards design that were strikingly focused on the Greco-Roman debate.” It was a time in which the realistic articulation of the body was favored. For example, The Veiled Rebakah’s face is remarkably sculpted; Benzoni was able to convey the sense of the veil in marble. Yet no matter how refined the piece, it can never withstand the sands of time. The sculpture has a few cracks and chips on the veil and near the base, where Benzoni signed his name and
By 1860, he mastered the craft and was well known to many as well as the Papal government. He also meticulously worked on a portrait for Pope Pious IX . It is believed that the Pope requested Benzoni to craft the sculpture of one of the most prominent women of the Book of Genesis. As stated in The Dictionary of Art, “…there were highly innovative exercises in eclecticism, inspired by late Imperial Rome,” neoclassical artists were able to breathe life into biblical characters, similarly to Roman antiquity. Benzoni decided on this part of Rebekah’s life from the bible because it was before she was bound to another, she was still young, naïve and represented the idea of virgin innocence. Her right hand holds the white cloth close to her body while her other hand is extended out toward the viewer as the veil slides over her fingers ceremoniously onto the ground near her feet. She appears to be modestly greeting someone. The veil covers her from head to toe, only parting enough to see an intricately patterned dress cascading down to her. The fabric is long and appears translucent as it envelops her form. The soft white is reminiscent of a traditional wedding custom from Western culture. With her veil, her virtue is hidden and protected for only her husband, to unveil her. In the Book of Genesis, Rebekah was summoned by Abraham’s