The Nude

Fülszöveg

published by Penguiri Books Possibly no book of art criticism published in the last few years has excited such interest and generál acclaim as The Nude. In it Lord Clark traces the history of the depiction of the humán body from the earliest civilized times to the present day. Starting with the Greeks who used the nude to express certain fundamental humán needs, such as the need for harmony and order (Apolio), and the need to sublimate desire (Venus), he shows how these types of bodily expression were revived in 15th-century Italy and given new urgency by Michelangelo, whose strenuous genius aimost exhausted the possibilities of the male nude. The female body, however, through Titian, Rubens, Ingres, and Renoir, has continued to be a source of pictorial inspiration, and the author examines the uneasy relationship with the nude of such moderns as Matisse and Picasso. The Nude is especially notable for Lord Clark's re-evaluation of both Greek Art and of what he calls the 'Alternative... Tovább

Fülszöveg

published by Penguiri Books Possibly no book of art criticism published in the last few years has excited such interest and generál acclaim as The Nude. In it Lord Clark traces the history of the depiction of the humán body from the earliest civilized times to the present day. Starting with the Greeks who used the nude to express certain fundamental humán needs, such as the need for harmony and order (Apolio), and the need to sublimate desire (Venus), he shows how these types of bodily expression were revived in 15th-century Italy and given new urgency by Michelangelo, whose strenuous genius aimost exhausted the possibilities of the male nude. The female body, however, through Titian, Rubens, Ingres, and Renoir, has continued to be a source of pictorial inspiration, and the author examines the uneasy relationship with the nude of such moderns as Matisse and Picasso. The Nude is especially notable for Lord Clark's re-evaluation of both Greek Art and of what he calls the 'Alternative Convention' - the large-bellied, elongated nudes of Gothic Art. 'Remarkable . . . immensely readable even for the layman of no specialised knowledge' - Spectator 'Dazzling and provocative: so packed with information that it will serve as a work of reference for years to come' - New Statesman 'A notable contribution to aesthetics as well as to art history' - The Times The cover shows a detail from La Baigneuse by Ingres in the Louvre (photo Giraudon) Vissza