Eternal Beauty - by Dante Shelly (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Eternal Beauty is a photographic exploration of Italy's monumental funerary sculptures, presenting some of the country's most extraordinary cemetery monuments in a collection of images published here for the first time.

In the summer of 2014, photographer Dante Shelly traveled to the historic cemeteries of Milan, Venice, Bologna, and Genoa to document their masterworks before time could erase them. Created by many of Italy's finest sculptors, these marble monuments represent the height of nineteenth-century artistry, where technical mastery and profound emotion come together in expressions of love, remembrance, grief, and hope. Today, many of these remarkable works bear the marks of weather, neglect, and the passage of time, lending them a haunting beauty that is as compelling as the sculptures themselves.

Through dramatic black-and-white photography, Eternal Beauty captures the grace, tenderness, and quiet power of these enduring works of art with extraordinary sensitivity and detail. Angels, mourners, portraits, and allegorical figures emerge from stone with startling humanity, revealing the craftsmanship, symbolism, and emotion that have made Italy's monumental cemeteries among the world's greatest open-air museums.

Both a celebration of artistic achievement and a visual record of an irreplaceable cultural legacy, Eternal Beauty preserves these remarkable monuments for future generations. It is a tribute to the sculptors who created them, the lives they commemorate, and the enduring beauty that survives--even as time leaves its unmistakable mark.

Review Quotes

"Those who immerse themselves in the following pages may feel themselves somewhere between fear, curiosity and melancholy, a trespasser in the spirits' home, or an indiscreet witness to an intimate scene. Doubtlessly, one will marvel at how these sculptors astonishingly turned cold stone or metal into such exquisitely rendered artistic creations--and how the photographer magically resculpts them in light and shadow, at the same time capturing with his camera their inexorable degradation. For each photograph stands as a magnificent enigma inviting you to meditate on love and pain, on life and death, on hope and time." - Anne-Lise Desmas, Department Head, Sculpture and Decorative Arts, The J. Paul Getty Museum

About the Author

Dante Shelly is a contemporary artist, photographer, and creative director whose work blends fine art, entertainment, and cinematic storytelling. He began his career as a Getty photographer, capturing Oscar nominees and winners including Casey Affleck, Ryan Gosling, Michelle Williams, and Kate Hudson. His photography and creative work have appeared in publications including Time, Teen Vogue, Entertainment Weekly, and Rolling Stone. Shelly is also a founding partner of Greenlight Creative, a Los Angeles entertainment design agency specializing in film, television, and brand campaigns. Recognized by Saatchi Art as "an artist to watch," Shelly was invited to participate in the "Tributo Amedeo Modigliani" exhibition in Italy. His work was later featured at the Oculus World Trade Center before returning to Los Angeles for a solo exhibition. His ongoing photographic exploration of cemeteries and funerary sculpture has taken him across the world, documenting historic sites throughout Italy, Prague, England, France, Los Angeles, and New York City. He lives in Los Angeles.