Bronze
VIRTUS ET POTESTAS
In this new gallery dedicated exclusively to bronze sculpture, sculptor Jean Pronovost presents the sculpture Virtus et Potestas; originally created in large format, it appears here in a reduced size adapted for bronze sculpture. Jean Pronovost’s most important sculptural works, such as The Sphinx and Virtus et Potestas, are now available in a limited edition of 8 and are all signed and numbered. Other sculptures, such as Tales from the plastic island and Bride of the cosmophore, will soon be added. Each sculpture is 18 inches high and weighs around 35 pounds.
Bronze is an alloy composed of more than 80% copper and tin, most often less than 20%. A bronze sculpture by Jean Pronovost will last practically forever. The properties of this noble material are such that bronzes have been recovered intact from shipwrecks and the buried ruins of ancient civilizations. Real bronzes are even resistant to raging fires, rusting only on the surface and needing only a little sanding and patina to look as good as new. A bronze sculpture thus becomes a work of art that can be handed down from generation to generation for millennia…
VIRTUS ET POTESTAS:
Encountering this warrior riding a giant toad will no doubt leave you wondering if you have walked into a dark fairytale or are stuck in a surreal nightmare. Something so scary and so strange couldn’t be of this world, and yet every aspect of it is inspired by the world we live in. A stranger thing for the scary times we live in!
The first element you cannot help but notice in front of this sculpture by Jean Pronovost is the medieval armored warrior. His battle axe is aggressively extended outward, and it’s in your face ready to cut you to shreds if you should cross his path. His armor is a melting pot of styles meant to represent the long, bloody legacy of human warfare and conquest. Armor is the protective shell we wear when we seek to engage violently with things outside ourselves – land, people, culture,it is a suit that symbolizes the character of our spirit of conquest. He wears a 12th century helmet, German in style, that feels menacing and coldly impersonal – all is black where his eyes should be! While this armor is medieval, it reminds us that war is our living story. Our history is resplendent with wars – physical and psychological. Humans display a greater penchant and skill for unleashing warfare than for being compassionate and empathetic. Armor not only protects but de-personalizes and de-humanizes us; it conceals who we are. When you try to look this beastly monger in the eye, you see nothing beyond an empty, black void. Then you notice a Latin phrase engraved across the visor of the helmet: Virtus et Potestas – Virtue and Power. This motto gives you a hint of what this warrior and his giant toad symbolize. Virtue is here a weapon to strike with rather than a beacon of guiding light. Beware – it is sharp!
Virtue and Power is the ideology that accompanies all of our conquests and imperialist ventures: we believe that we have wisdom, rationality and the highest of virtues, and that we MUST share them by civilizing any barbarians we encounter. This bloody journey always begins with good, noble intentions, but ultimately, we spread a death worse than the plague – we are afflicted with hubris and bloodlust (and there are no meds for that!). We fail to see that most cultures we conquer and destroy have their own virtues, morals, education and traditions, because we are so utterly suffused by the notion of our own excellence and the desire for power to rule over others and the natural world. This is why the warrior’s suit of armor is corroded – power corrupts and destroys any trace of virtue. War involves the destruction of your world and theirs. That blackened space where his eyes should be tells us his virtue is gone; it isn’t even a ghost which haunts that fortress of steel, but rather it has been drowned in a bath of blood and tyranny.
Sculptor Jean Pronovost decided to use bronze as the medium for these unique editions ofVirtus et Potestas, because for millennia this material has been considered the most durable and hardest metal available to human civilizations. In ancient Greece, Corinthian bronze was even considered more precious than gold or silver.
FEATURED IMAGES
Now let’s turn to the monstrous, ugly toad with the nefarious eyes on which this soldier rides into the world. In Chinese folklore, toads symbolize prosperity and the flow of money. The Inca depict the toad as having a mouth filled with gold, which they felt compelled to shut. The toad also connects with symbols for fertility, the moon, and rain. Here, the toad represents a grander idea of prosperity – one that is absolutely systematic and as hyper inflated in size! Humans are never satisfied – they seek to have more, better and faster. There’s nothing wrong with prosperity: it’s natural to want to live better and be more comfortable – but when that breeds out of control and links up with power, turning into greed, it turns very ominous and obliterating. The toad is frighteningly overinflated with the “virtue” of desiring greater prosperity: more money, more land, more resources … more, more, endlessly more. Endless prosperity IS the new Virtue! We have taken that notion and contorted it like a golden pretzel into the mad drive for amassing insatiable wealth, possessions, and control. Our economy, our prosperity – this toad – is so out of balance with nature, that it becomes unnatural … supranatural! This reveals the link between this toad and the ugly one depicted in the painting The Cult of Nothingness which sits atop a big pile of money. And here too, when we look beneath the arse of the toad, we see it excretes gold bars and Canadian coins! It’s so overflowed with riches that it wastes rather than shares. The use of Canadian currency and gold bars should also remind us of the Sphynx sculpture – another work of art emblematic of a dark allegory about our modern ways and aspirations.
