The Renaissance Nude


Beautiful exhibition at the Royal Academy looking at the nude in Renaissance art.

The show was gently themed but mainly let the pictures speak for themselves. It began by looking at the subjects, both religious and secular, which include nude figures then examined techniques and models used in these works, finishing by looking at more personal pictures. This is a period I’ve studied a lot so there were a lot of old friends and it was quite fun predicting what might appear. There were a few surprises too such as the rather surprising drawing of the Ecstatic Christ.

I liked the fact the show included lots of different art forms not just paintings including sculpture, etchings, drawings and illuminated manuscripts. There were some fascinating hangs to draw comparisons particularly two sets of pictures by Giovanni Bellini and Hand Memling from almost exactly the same date. These were shown back to back in a display cabinet down the middle of one room.

My favourite work was a Signorelli of two nude youths. The standing figure with his back to us putting on his shirt forms an almost surreal shape which took a moment to work out and I love the careful way the seated figure is putting on his sandals despite still having no knickers on.

There were a lot of works by Hans Baldung Grien who I’d not come across before including the aforementioned Ecstatic Christ and some wonderful prints. He was a pupil of Durer and I’ll be looking out for him in the future.

Closes on 2 Jun e 2019

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