Urania in closeup, after Dupré, 1869
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A closeup of the woman used by Dupré as his model for the marble sculpture I photographed in Pisa in November 2019. An early realist, he selected models whom he felt looked like the figure he intended to portray. We don't know her name.
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I'd love to know her name, having met a few women whose features resemble hers very much; they're always slightly dark skinned with a rosy flush, and the three I've met have green eyes. Dupré would recruit models off the street, sometimes to his peril - it was common for women to carry stiletto knives, and brandish them freely.
