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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 4: The Artist's Studio
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Drawing from the living model as well as anatomical figures was
an important artistic practice throughout the nineteenth century.
Through processes of dissection and mutation, real bodies were fragmented
and then reassembled in a self-conscious drive for perfection. In
the realm of sculpture the direct transforming touch of the artist
was seen in the plaster, clay and wax nude sketches which formed
part of the British sculptural renaissance that took place from
the 1870s.
Pygmalion
The disturbing power of the sculpted nude, and the relationship
of the artist to his subject, found greatest expression in the story
of Pygmalion. Ovid related how the Ancient Greek sculptor Pygmalion,
disgusted by the lasciviousness of ordinary women, decided to fashion
his own perfect female out of ivory. Inevitably, he fell in love
with his creation, and through the intervention of Venus, the statue
came to life and became his bride.
The Pygmalion myth had a central role in Victorian thinking about
the artist-model relationship, embodying fantasies about sexual
temptation and men's desire for, and control of, women. The concept
of man-made perfection also relates to a growing interest in theories
of eugenics which promoted the belief that selected human breeding
could lead to racial supremacy and the eradication of disease.
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