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The Sicilian Cart, Carrettu Sicilianu, is a colorful and decorated cart typically donkey or horse drawn (depending on the type of terrain). The carretto originates from Sicily, the island at the south…

The Sicilian Cart, Carrettu Sicilianu, is a colorful and decorated cart typically donkey or horse drawn (depending on the type of terrain). The carretto originates from Sicily, the island at the southernmost part of Italy. While the carts were originally introduced by the Greeks, they peaked in popularity in the 1920's when thousands of them could be seen around the island. They are usually made out of wood with carvings decorating them all over, just like this one. The nicest and most decorated ones, were used for competitions and parades to showcase beautifully handcrafted pieces and challenging other artisans. Another kind of Carretto, was the one used to transport materials or other work-related activities. Today, a little number of ancient Carts are still on the island and are used as example of a Sicilian tradition which now is no longer alive. In very little circumstances, a few carts are still remotely used for working purposes in the innermost parts of the island. Today, Sicilian carts are still made by artisans that had this art of crafting passed down from generation to generation. The colourful and intricate designs, often tell stories from the Sicilian history or legends. All the colours remind of the Sicilian flag, the trinacria, appearing on a yellow and red background.

This statue depicts Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva in the Water-Moon Form (Shuiyue Guanyin).  Of the many manifestations of the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, perhaps none was more prevalent in East Asia …

This statue depicts Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva in the Water-Moon Form (Shuiyue Guanyin).  Of the many manifestations of the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, perhaps none was more prevalent in East Asia than the uniquely Chinese form known as "Water-Moon Avalokiteshvara," which later also spread to Korea and Japan. This form of the bodhisattva presides over his own paradise, Potolaka, which is described in scripture as a rugged seaside cave from which Avalokiteshvara could admire the reflection of the moon in the water. Appropriately, he appears meditative and relaxed and is seated informally in the "royal-ease" posture. Ornately dressed, with silk robes, fluttering sashes, jewellery, and an elaborate hairstyle, he also wears a headpiece that features an image of Amitābha, the Buddha to whom Avalokiteshvara attends. Believers might look to a sculpture like this as a guide for their own journeys toward enlightenment. ________ This object was scanned by The Minneapolis Institute of Art

This fragment was found in Athens, near the Tower of the Winds. The figure is shown in great motion, with the mantle flowing in the back. It possibly belonged to the acroterion of a building.

A mortally wounded gladiator, facing death with grace and dignity, is contemplating the laurel crown he was awarded for his courage. This was Pierre Julien's second admission piece for the Académie Ro…

A mortally wounded gladiator, facing death with grace and dignity, is contemplating the laurel crown he was awarded for his courage. This was Pierre Julien's second admission piece for the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture and a crucial work for him. He had presented another piece for admission in 1776, a statue of Ganymede (Louvre) and had been refused, possibly due to his teacher, Guillaume II Coustou's, lack of support for his too talented pupil. Humiliated by this unjust failure, Julien had thought of becoming a naval sculptor but, encouraged by friends, persevered and presented Dying Gladiator to the Académie in 1778. He was admitted on 27 March 1779 and appointed an assistant teacher in 1781. Acclaim for the sculpture at the 1779 Salon made amends for the affront of 1776. In this scholarly work, the artist demonstrated his mastery of academic criteria whilst asserting personal qualities. The statue is a proclamation of his knowledge of antique sculpture. He was reinterpreting the Dying Gladiator in the Capitoline Museum in Rome, a marble copy of which he had sculpted during his stay at the Académie de France in Rome from 1769 to 1772. The pose of the legs seems to have been inspired by the famous antique sculpture The Knife Grinder in Florence, a marble copy of which was executed by the Italian Foggini in 1684 for Versailles (now in the Louvre). Julien's nude gladiator demonstrates his complete mastery of anatomy, and also drapery at the rear of the statue. But it was the sculptor's personal contribution which imbues the work with its sensitivity: the elegant proportions, unctuous modelling and delicate execution (the finesse of the hands, laurel leaves and strands of hair), the marble's perfect finish and the rendering of textures (the polish of the shield and sword suggest their metallic brilliance). The work is a dazzling testimony to the renaissance of classical sensibility, albeit in a codified genre. The return to antiquity and nature, begun in the 1740s by the sculptors Edme Bouchardon and Jean-Baptiste Pigalle, asserted itself in the 1770s. Julien was exalting the heroism of a man overcoming his pain and stoically dying in silence. The balanced composition, dignified pose, discreet chest wound and restrained expression are formal echoes of this heroic serenity. Like the Laocoon, one of the most admired antique statues at that time, the gladiator is in agony but not crying out in pain, and it is this dignity in suffering which makes the figure more sensitive and inward-looking. A critic at the 1779 Salon conveyed our empathy: "He is a wretched soul expiring, whose pain we share, in short, this figure is all soul."   This object is part of Scan The World. Scan the World is a non-profit initiative introduced by MyMiniFactory, through which we are creating a digital archive of fully 3D printable sculptures, artworks and landmarks from across the globe for the public to access for free. Scan the World is an open source, community effort, if you have interesting items around you and would like to contribute, email stw@myminifactory.com to find out how you can help.

This sculpture is made in marble of a Roman magistrate - an elected official in Ancient Rome when the King died and passed his power to the Roman Senate. The Roman magistrate then chose an Interrex to…

This sculpture is made in marble of a Roman magistrate - an elected official in Ancient Rome when the King died and passed his power to the Roman Senate. The Roman magistrate then chose an Interrex to facilitate the election of a new king. Magistrates of the republic were elected by the People of Rome, and were each vested with a degree of power, called major powers. Dictators had more major powers than any other magistrate, and after the Dictator was the censor, and then the consul, and then the praetor, and then the curule aedile, and then the quaestor. Any magistrate could obstruct an action that was being taken by a magistrate with an equal or lower degree of magisterial powers. By definition, plebeian tribunes and plebeian aediles were technically not magistrates since they were elected only by the plebeians, and as such, they were independent of all other powerful magistrates.     This object is part of Scan The World. Scan the World is a non-profit initiative introduced by MyMiniFactory, through which we are creating a digital archive of fully 3D printable sculptures, artworks and landmarks from across the globe for the public to access for free. Scan the World is an open source, community effort, if you have interesting items around you and would like to contribute, email stw@myminifactory.com to find out how you can help.

Psyche holds a butterfly, a symbol of her tortured soul. The sculpture was carved out of an ancient Greek column from Paros, which explains the shimmer of the marble.

This is a marble relief depicting the scene of Ceasar invading Britain  Caesar Invading Britain, carved by John Deare in Rome between 1791 and 1796 and signed 'I Deare Faciebat Romae 1796'. There are…

This is a marble relief depicting the scene of Ceasar invading Britain  Caesar Invading Britain, carved by John Deare in Rome between 1791 and 1796 and signed 'I Deare Faciebat Romae 1796'. There are no other marbles by Deare in British public collections John Deare's artistic standing, until recently undervalued, has in the last few years been reassessed. He should certainly be seen in the same light as Thomas Banks and John Flaxman, and his virtuoso technique, inspired by both classical and Renaissance models, surpasses both. Caesar Invading Britain displays his astonishing technique and narrative mastery and can justly be considered as one of his two major masterpieces, alongside a large marble relief showing the Judgement of Jupiter, now in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The relief was commissioned by John Penn, grandson of William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania. It was delivered to Penn's Stoke Park in Buckinghamshire in 1796 and remained there until the middle of the last century when it was moved to the neighbouring Stoke Manor, a private house. Following building work, the relief was moved with Listed Building Consent and can now be enjoyed by the general public.

This statuette depicts San Giovanni Nepomuceno Saint John of Nepomuk (or John Nepomucene) (c. 1345 – March 20, 1393) is the saint of Bohemia (Czech Republic), who was drowned in the Vltava river at t…

This statuette depicts San Giovanni Nepomuceno Saint John of Nepomuk (or John Nepomucene) (c. 1345 – March 20, 1393) is the saint of Bohemia (Czech Republic), who was drowned in the Vltava river at the behest of Wenceslaus, King of the Romans and King of Bohemia. Later accounts state that he was the confessor of the queen of Bohemia and refused to divulge the secrets of the confessional. On the basis of this account, John of Nepomuk is considered the first martyr of the Seal of the Confessional, a patron against calumnies and, because of the manner of his death, a protector from floods and drowning.

The Divine Hand is the major representation of God from the 4th to the 8th century in Christian art. Two heads of lambs may be observed on both sides – the lamb is the most frequent metaphor for the C…

The Divine Hand is the major representation of God from the 4th to the 8th century in Christian art. Two heads of lambs may be observed on both sides – the lamb is the most frequent metaphor for the Christ. The Divine Hand symbolizes the Voice of God and to a further extent His intervention in the life on earth.

Large chem-informatics dataset of 7'131'914'291 small molecules with up to 50 heavy atoms, aggregated from PubChem, GDB13, and Enamine REAL, and enriched with machine-searchable representations of eve…

Large chem-informatics dataset of 7'131'914'291 small molecules with up to 50 heavy atoms, aggregated from PubChem, GDB13, and Enamine REAL, and enriched with machine-searchable representations of every molecule, growing over time. Those currently span 28 billion binary structural fingerprints computed with RDKit and CDK - MACCS with 166 dimensions, PubChem with 881, ECFP4 with 2048, and FCFP4 with 2048 - as well as 3D conformer geometries generated with ETKDG and optimized with MMFF94. Distributed as Parquet shards with pre-constructed USearch indexes for real-time similarity search and clustering across billions of molecules, hosted anonymously on the AWS Open Data platform, and accompanied by a bigger-than-memory Python pipeline with optional GPU acceleration for reproducing every stage.