A Closer Look at the Awakening Slave

While all four Slaves are incredibly unique from one another, and all posess very different features, the one which I find most powerful is the Awakening Slave. His surface does not show many details, and out of the four he seems the farthest away from completion. The sculpted form of this slave is probably the least visible out of the four, but the aspects of the body that are seen are incredibly compelling and dramatic.
Atlas Slave would be my opinion the second most powerful image, a close runner-up to the Awakening. Again, Atlas Slave is more engulfed in marble than Young or Bearded Slave. The most prominent difference I see and perceive between the Atlas and the Awakening Slave, is the movement of the slave's forms. Atlas Slave seems to be struggling against the weight above him, as though he is being crushed or flattened. He looks as though he is  trying to push back against the marble. On the other hand, Awakening Slave seems to be fighting his way out from the stone beneath him. The form is extremely fluid. It shows strength, but the position is also exhausted.

Focusing on Awakening Slave, the block of marble has multiple textures. The rough and un-sculpted marble is a clear contrast against the more smooth and formed surfaces, the "completed" areas, that define the figure of the slave. Though the colour of the stone material remains the same light colour all over, the rough and uneven surfaces create many small shadows. Overall these areas seem darker than the slave's figure, the contrast creates the illusion of two different materials and substances. The rough and dark substance is  what the man is fighting to be freed from. The smooth and even surface is the perfectly sculpted body of the slave. 

The lines of the man's body are always round and curving, creating the appearance of movement. His body is very twisted, and all his limbs are bent. This depiction of the slave's body and muscles moving is incredibly fluid. Not all limbs are completed, and his hands and feet are not visible, except where the carving ends it leaves the form of the hands and feet effectively to the viewers imagination. The lines of the forearm dissolve into an undefined shape of the raw marble.

The position of the chest protrudes most from the stone, giving the impression the man is fighting and heaving for breath. Though there is not a lot of detail to the man's torso, the muscles and ribcage are defined and highlighted through the shape to enhance the appearance of a body that is breathing heavily. His head is turned and only a portion of it, including his face, is visible and protrusing from the uncut marble. The fact that the facial features are just barely making it out of the rough portion, adds to the feeling of desparation of this character. His eyes are nose and mouth, which are major organs of sensory perception, are in such close proximity to the "smothering" material of the unvcarved marble. The effect is that the Slave is not safe from drowning or suffocating.