Maria Morgante - Il respiro delle pagine

Title of the work: Judith by Klimt
Artist: Maria Morgante
Technique: hand-carved book with gold leaf applications.

This work originates from a technique of rare complexity and refinement: the book hand-carved, worked page by page until it becomes a three-dimensional sculpture. Each sheet is incised with millimetric precision, without the use of machinery, in a long and meditative process (for this piece 150 hours) that yields depth, light, and volume to the final image. To embellish the composition, the use of gold leaf, applied manually, recalls the Byzantine iconographic tradition and openly engages with the Symbolist aesthetics of Gustav Klimt, whom the work is inspired by.
Klimt's Judith is a powerful and contemporary rereading of the famous subject: the face emerges from the paper matter like a living relief, while gold intervenes as a narrative and spiritual element, capable of capturing light and guiding the observer's gaze. The book, from an object of reading, becomes body, memory, artistic relic.
Maria Morgante has been active for years in the contemporary art scene and is recognized by national and international magazines as one of the most interesting and original figures in the field of book art and paper sculpture. Her works have been published and reviewed in leading industry magazines, which have highlighted her technical innovation, stylistic coherence, and the ability to fuse exceptional craftsmanship with conceptual research.
This hand-carved, one-of-a-kind book represents a precious opportunity for collectors, galleries, and art lovers who wish to own a work capable of uniting literature, sculpture, and visual art. Judith by Klimt is not merely an artistic object, but a story carved into paper and gold, destined to endure over time.