STATUE OF MADGALENE

Hawera Star, Volume L, 5 March 1931, Page 9

STATUE OF MADGALENE

SCULPTOR’S SEARCH FOR MODEL.

TRAMPED SYDNEY STREETS.

There is an interesting romance woven round the beautiful statue of St. Mary Magdalene which will be unveiled in the Church of St. Mary Magdalene,* at Rose Bay, Sydney, during the coming Easter. The statue is the work of Salvatore li Rosi, a young 'Sicilian sculptor who has been m Australia for a little more than four years, doing decorative art modelling for new theatres in the city. . 1 When he was commissioned by Mr. John Lane Mullins to do the statue for the Rose Bay Church, Li Rosi could not find a model suitable for the work he had in mind, and at one stage it was feared that the artist, lacking the required inspiration, would he unable to complete his commission. ‘For three weeks I search Sydney, lie said the other day, in his broken English. “Nowhere do I find the right type, the woman in whose face I see the spirit I would portray as that of the Magdalene.” Then came the fortunate day, for him, when he walked through the great store of Farmer and Co., in Sydney. All the time he searched the faces of the passing women for the ideal model, and just when it seemed _ that his search would again end - in failure, lie saw behind the counter a girl with the very face he had been looking for. Forgetting everything, even his manners, he rushed up to the girl and almost shouted to her: “Lady, will you pose for me? You are the inspiration for my statue.” The girl stared at him for a minute, wondering whether the excited foreigner who accosted her was mad, and then she said, “How dare you speak to me.” Li Rosi then suddenly recollected that he Jiad approached the girl in rather an unusual way, and he began to explain as best he could. Finally . the girl said: “You may ask my mother, and if she agrees I will pose for you.” Soi the sculptor wrote to the girls mother, who is an Anglican, and ob-’ tained her ■permission to engage the, girl as liis model. _ “She had just the I 'right 'expression in her face,” the artist explained after he had finished his' task. “It was the inspiration I had been looking for, and I could not begin work until I found it.” Sir. Lane Mullins is delighted with the finished work. “I have many religious statues by famous Italian artists,” he said. ‘‘But this man has a marvellous touch aIF liis own that makes him stand out from the others. His work is noble. He has caught a spirit in this statue.”