NOVEMBER STATUE
MARIA BEATRICE d’ ESTE: DUCHESS OF MASSA (1750-1829)
First things first. Before I tell you about the Duchess of Massa, let me explain why I selected her. My route into her life is a little different from the way I choose other statues for this blog and thus, the outcome is atypical. Usually, I come across a women whose story touches me on an emotional level and I’m moved to honor her feminist spirit and altruistic spark with a spot on my landscape of monumental women. I want the whole world to remember their name. Not so with Maria.
In fact, I found very little information about the duchess, except that she married into royalty and reined over a beautiful and profitable marble quarry in Italy that excavated Carrara marble for wealthy leaders. She was a patron of the arts, as were most wealthy women of her era but that’s all I knew. So why did I feature her in this month’s blog entry? The reasons are twofold; serendipitous and cautionary.
A few years ago when I was renovating my kitchen and was in need of countertops, the contractor suggested I pick up a remnant of granite or marble at a local stone vendor. He said there were pieces that had been cut for other projects and I could probably find something for a good price. I fell in love with a long slab of Carrara marble with it’s pure white sheen, fine grey lines than ran through the rock as if Michelangelo himself had painted them. It elevated the look of the entire kitchen. The stone needs care but ten years later, it’s as glistening as it was the day it was installed.
Then last summer while on a cruise of the Mediterranean, we drove past The Apuan Alps while on a bus tour from Naples to The Leaning Tower of Pisa. At first we all thought the shock of bright white atop a picturesque mountain range was snow but soon it was revealed that the bright alabaster sheets were actually slabs of Carrara marble; acres of glorious living stone that seemed to pave a pathway to heaven. The view was impeccable; the marble shone with an unmatched beauty. “Gorgeous” doesn’t even quite do it justice. It’s easy to see why Michelangelo went to great lengths to excavate this very malleable material so he could mold it into his angelic creation, The Pieta. Once you’ve seen Carrara marble in its natural state, it’s makes perfect sense that it’s the stuff of places, temples and extraordinary building like The Taj Mahal.
This summer I found myself in possession of the book, “A View from lake Cuomo.” While I knew that it was a bestseller about a woman who moved to Italy after her uncle died and left her his share in a business in Italy, I had no idea the business was a marble quarry in Carrera, Italy. Coincidence? Maybe, but once I found out that the act of excavating Carrara marble is dangerous and many people die every years just brining it down the mountain, it touched a nerve and made me look at marble in a different light.
About the statue. Maria Beatrice’s statue sits in a town square in Carrara, Italy. Carrara is located in the foothills of the Alps. The statue is a beautiful work of art (carved in Carrara marble, the statue stands on a pedestal, wearing a while alabaster robe and holding a staff and scroll while a lion keeps her safe.) But The Duchess was a rich woman who probably commissioned an artist and sculptor to create a monument in her image so she could live in perpetuity. Blood money; riches made from the broken backs and skulls of her employees. Does the end justify the means?
I often encourage readers to erect more statues of women so we can dot the landscape with women who have been left out of history or will be ignored if we don’t honor them now. But what if using precious minerals isn’t the way to go? While I love my Carrara marble countertop, was there not some other material I could’ve selected that didn’t rob the earth of its precious resource or contribute to the death of its worker? I’ve already mentioned artists who use recycled products, biodegradable materials and 3-D printers. But are these materials environmentally friendlier than the rest? Will they stand the test of time?
Hmm- What do you think? Should we continue to use bronze, marble, granite, metal, glass or even wood and plastic when we design statues? Hard to say. But I still stick with my mission. We need more statues of women to even the playing field. How we accomplish this is neither easy nor cheap, but women still need to be seen and remembered for all the things they do to make the world better for all its inhabitants.