Annunciation Relief Facts

The Annunciation sculpture is the focal point and emblematic work of art for the University and town.

The salutation "Ave Maria" comes from the event when the Archangel Gabriel visits Mary to announce that, with her consent, she will be the mother of Jesus.  This event is referred to as the Annunciation.

The main sculpture on the front of the Oratory will be 35-feet tall by 31-feet wide.

Nineteen total pieces of marble will compose the relief, 15 of which will be sculpted and four base pieces under the banister where donor names will be engraved.

The main body of the sculpture, that of Mary and the Archangel Gabriel, will be carved from the pieces of a single block of Carrara marble. The original block weighed more than 80 metric tons.

The six main pieces of the sculpture are each 210 centimeters by 230 centimeters with the thickest piece, the head of Mary, being 95 centimeters thick. This block weighs, after being roughed out, 12 tons.

The estimated weight of the sculpture when it is finished will be between 50 and 60 tons.

Mary will be made up of three blocks, each 210 centimeters high, for a total of 630 centimeters.  This will make Mary more than 20-feet tall.  It will be one of the largest depictions of Mary in relief in the world.

The maquette is a one-to-five scale working model of the proposed finished sculpture. It will allow Váró to make measurements and calculations as he works on the large sculpture.

Carrara Marble

Carrara marble has been used since the time of Ancient Rome; the
Pantheon and Trajan's Column in Rome are constructed of it.

Many sculptures of the Renaissance, such as Michelangelo's David, were carved from Carrara marble.

For Michelangelo at least, Carrara marble was valued above all other stone.

The Marble Arch in London and the Duomo di Siena are also made from this stone.

Martón Váró Biography

Martón Váró is an internationally recognized artist who combines the elements of classical Greek sensitivities with a distinctive modern approach.  He is considered one of the premier stone sculptors of the modern era, perhaps best known for the two monumental 48-foot limestone angels gracing the Bass Performance Hall in Fort Worth, Texas.

Váró works in the traditional method of carving directly into the stone or marble, which allows him complete control from conception to completion.  Váró's highly defined, figurative work demonstrates his eye for finely calculated formal relationships combined with a modern aesthetic.

Váró's sculptures are included in numerous museums and private collections worldwide, including the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, the National Gallery in Budapest, the Central Finland Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Southern California and the University of California, Irvine.

Váró was born in 1943 in Szekelyudvarely, Transylvania (now Romania).  He attended the Ion Andreescu Institute of Fine Art in Cluj, Romania where he received classical art training.  Although the school did not offer formal instruction in stone carving, he learned from craftsmen - carvers of tombstones and restorers of historic monuments.

Váró's style of sculpture stems from the Greek style of art prominent in the mid-fifth century B.C. and especially from the sculptures associated with the name of Phidias, the architect of the Parthenon.  A major component of his sculptural output consists of draped female torsos and female figures, which are inspired by Greek sculptures of similar subjects.
 
He has received an award from the Ladányi Foundation in New York, as well as the Fulbright Scholarship from the University of California, Irvine and the Munkácsy Prize.