06.03.2019
The exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts collected masterpieces of Leonardo, Titian, Cranach, Michelangelo, Raphael, Durer and many others
Agnolo Bronzino. “Saint Sebastian”. Around 1533. Photo: Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisz
The naked body image experienced its highest rise in the XV – XVI centuries with the revival of artists’ interest on opposite sides of the Alps to the art of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. Gathered at the exhibition works by Bronzino, Leonardo da Vinci, Jan Gossaert, Albrecht Dürer, Lucas Cranach the Elder, Michelangelo, Pietro Perugino, Antonio del Pollaiolo, Raphael, Titian show the passion and zeal artists depicted nudity in paintings on religious themes, from Adam and Eve to the life of Christ, and in the then very popular paintings on mythological scenes, bringing in them a lot more dynamics and personal ideas about beauty than their predecessors did. Here are Hercules and Dejanira (1517) Gossart and Venus Anadiomena (circa 1520) by Titian, Saint Sebastian (1533) Bronzino and Faun with his family (1526) by Cranach, the preparatory drawing of the Three Graces sanguine (1518) ) Raphael and anatomical studies of Leonardo and Michelangelo. The curators built the exposition itself in contrasts: idealized by the ancient canons of the body and aging flesh, monumental canvases for public spaces and chamber, small format of paintings and miniatures, small bronze plastics and drawings.
Royal Academy of Arts
Naked body in the Renaissance
March 3 – June 2
www.royalacademy.org.uk