Weird Statues from Around the Globe

The Matador Network did an awesome article on 21 Weird Statues From Around the World and while I was reading, I noticed that I had seen a lot of these statues. In fact, I had pictures of myself wearing goofy grins next to a lot of these statues. I decided to write my own mini-version of the 8 weirdest statues from my travels...

Let's start in Russia....

1. Peter the Great: this oddly disproportionate statue is in St. Petersburg, Russia. One of his feet is the size of his head.

2. Russian Dolls: There are an army of these women in a square in Saint Petersburg Russia. I have no idea what they are supposed to symbolize or why they are there. They are creepy and huge.

On to Prague....

3. Women and Man Blocks: These statues were outside of Prague's modern art museum. Apparently privates are interchangeable with cement blocks.

4. Parable with Skull: This scary statue was also in the Matador article. It's in the Prague castle, by Jaroslav Rona. It features a large skull lying on the back of a naked man. Perverse but artsy.

5. No face babies: Now let me premise this with saying, I saw some weird things in Prague. I mean I was there for an LGBTQ independent film festival... But these faceless babies haunt my dreams. The top is a photo I took (sorry about my friends). And below is one I found on the net, to show how truly disturbing these babies are.

(photo by Darby Sawchuk)

And Pompeii...

6. Plaster Cast in Pompeii: Not exactly sculptures, but casts of people exactly how they died in the lava from Mt. Vesuvius. They are now on display on the MFA in Boston, but were still on site in Pompeii when I visited.  Sculptures of people in the positions they were burned in... maybe you will find that as disturbing as I do.

...and Florence...

7. Rape of the Sabine: this classy statue in Piazza Signorina depicts the Sabine's being raped and pillaged in the crusades. The woman is getting raped by the solider and the husband is on the ground watching. According to sculptor Giambologna, everyone was naked back then too.

...and finally Amsterdam!

8. No body, Multatuli: Where is his body and why is it a mushy blob?  

From this depiction I'm assuming he was armless and legless but....

...this fetching photo of him makes me think otherwise.