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Exposed: The Victorian Nude 1 November 2001 - 13 January 2002
Introduction
| Visiting Information
| Room Guide | Time
line | Classical Statues
A Cast of Characters | Guide
to Materials & Techniques | Events
| Victorian Nude Shop
Room 2: The Classical
Nude
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Edward John Poynter
Paul and Apollos 1872, Tate |
During the 1860s a group of young
progressive artists developed a more international approach
to the figure in reaction to what they considered to be the
parochialism of the English Nude. Influenced by the work of
French neo-classical painters such as Ingres and Gérôme,
as well as the art of antiquity, these artists presented their
figures as essays in high art, emphasising classical themes,
while decisively elevating style and form above narrative.
Associations with antique sculpture helped divorce the figure
from any implication of sexuality. While some painters adopted
the idea of archaeological reconstruction as a justification
for the nude, others sought to emulate the general spirit of
a lost Greek ideal. |
Classicism enabled artists to explore more aesthetic treatments
of the male nude, allowing for the projection of both male and female
desire. At the same time, artists sought to purify the female figure
by using male sculptural sources.
The classical nude was also significant in relaying ideas about
hygiene, medicine and social evolution. The Greek ideal of the gymnasium
helped sustain a male culture of athleticism, while the fuller proportions
of Venus were held up as a model for natural womanhood, acknowledging
women's traditional biological role but also encouraging more radical
notions of female emancipation.
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