Saint Petersburg Sand Sculpture Festival

Every summer in St. Petersburg is a festival of sand figures. It takes place on the beach of Peter and Paul fortress. There's sand. This place is located in the heart of the city.

Each year a different theme of the festival. This year the theme of the festival was very interesting-masterpieces of world culture! I was shocked by the skill of sculptors who created sand copies of masterpieces.

At the festival we saw different masterpieces of world culture: architectural monuments, as well as famous paintings embodied in sand sculptures. I sorted the photos in chronological order, starting from Assyria and Ancient Egypt and ending with the masterpieces created in the last century.

Masterpieces of architecture

Assyria
Shedu - in the architecture of Assyria giant statue of a winged bull or lion with a bearded man's head in a crown decorated with horns, embodying the good spirit of the guardian. Shedu was installed on the sides of the arched openings in nearly all Assyrian palaces, sometimes served as the pillars of the arches.

Shedu was depicted with five legs. First entering the Palace he saw two front legs of the animal standing quietly, and when he looked at the statue in profile, he saw her in motion thanks to the fifth leg walking. So the illusion of movement of a static figure was created.

Ancient Egypt

Sitting pharaohs. The sign said it was Ramses ii. But I did not find similar images of these statues. Perhaps the sculptor added his vision to these sculptures.

Great Sphinx of Giza. Unfortunately this Sphinx also had no luck with the nose. It fell off. And the Sphinx was under restoration at the moment.

Ancient China
This sculpture represents a fantasy complex of the Great Wall of China, the Chinese warriors and the Chinese Emperor.

The sculpture is decorated with one of the most popular and recognizable Chinese symbols is the dragon.

Maya civilization

Maya pyramids. They consist of a pyramid, which symbolizes a mountain, with a huge number of steps. At the top of the pyramid was a temple.

I had a telephoto lens, so I was able to take small figures at the entrance to the temple.

I liked these infinitely long stairs, carefully created by the sculptor

Greece

Colossus of Rhodes.

At the festival there were also sculptures in the form of separate parts of the destroyed Colossus of Rhodes - one of the wonders of the world.

Hand and foot is of great size, which looked like part of the mechanism.

Easter Island

Moai is a stone monolithic structures. Established time of their creation-between the years 1250 and 1500. However, no one knows how they were created, although there are many theories.

Italy

Milan Cathedral began to be built in 1385. The Cathedral is built in the Flamboyant style of white marble. This style includes many details that are stretched upwards.

Russia

Kizhi Pogost is a historical site dating from the 17th century on Kizhi island. The complex consists of several temples built of wood

The size of a sand copy the size of a small house.

I was interested in how the sculptor created crosses on top of the domes. After all, they are very thin and elegant.

Masterpiece of art

Masterpieces of art were especially interesting, because it could be seen in 3D, and not as we see in flat pictures.

Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci

I really liked the profile! Where else can you see Mona Lisa in this perspective!

Portrait of Leonardo da Vinci

And another painting by Leonardo da Vinci in the form of a sculptural composition - The Last Supper

The Creation of Adam by Michelangelo

A beautiful picture taken with the sculpture

David by Michelangelo

Here the author shows the sculptor during the creation of the statue.

Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks to Sultan Mehmed IV of the Ottoman Empire by Ilya Repin

This is a picture of the great Russian painter, who is very famous.

I found a link so you could compare the sculpture and the painting.

via

Triptych ( Alphonse Mucha)

This is one of my favorite artists and a favorite art Deco style. I really liked this sculpture, created based on the works of Alphonse Mucha

Composition based on paintings by Salvador Dali

Oh, it's another one of my favorite artists! When I long ago read his book "diary of a genius". I also like to look at Dali's paintings. You can always find something interesting in them.

There was also one sculpture that did not belong to architecture or painting. This sculpture was created based on the famous novel about Don Quixote

The festival ended with a huge bust of Tsar Peter 1, who founded St. Petersburg.

I really liked that sandpit was made for children. I hope that some child was inspired by sand sculptures and tried to create his own sculpture.

I hope you liked my story about this festival of sand figures, and you remembered what masterpieces exist in the world. Thank you for your comments and support!

Cheers

Veta