I was writing this morning. I am currently juggling writing and translating, and today is a morning writing/afternoon translating sort of day.
So I was writing this scene for the next 4 Against Darkness novella, and the characters are starting to explore the strange place where I placed them.
I wrote
“It was the sculpture of a young woman, her simple dress flowing, her hair in a tall do. The weather had erased her features, making her face a blank. A few fingers of her outstretched hands were missing.”
Myself – WIP
Not a great description, not a sample of superb writing, but after all, it’s a first draft.
At the same moment, my friend Dal – who is a fine artist and lives in Rome – was taking a walk around the ancient city after breakfast, enjoying the quiet and the sights, and took this photo…

… and he posted it on Facebook.
This is called Madama Lucrezia, and is apparently a minor but well beloved landmark in Rome. I never knew about it, of course.
Now this is quite a coincidence – the passage above and the photo happened within a few minutes one from the other.
And I’ll take it as a sign my story is going in the right way.
(I’ll obviously revise the description to make my statue more similar to miss Lucrezia in the final draft)
2 August 2019 at 17:32
This statue is very interesting but unfortunately it is not clear how to identify it. There are those who think that it represents the goddess Isis or a priestess of hers because of the knot on her dress. It is called Lucrezia because the statue was given to Lucrezia d’Alagno.
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2 August 2019 at 18:23
This is quite interesting.
Thank you for the information.
The statue in my story, on the other hand, is something quite different, and part of the mystery my characters will have to solve.
But I am always fascinated by the history of these “minor” bits of ancient art that one finds scattered around Italy. Thank you again.
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2 August 2019 at 18:24
You’re welcome! 😀
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