A Sculptor's Model

A Sculptor's Model
Artist	Lawrence Alma-Tadema
Year	1877
Type	Oil on canvas, history painting
Dimensions	195 cm× 86 cm(77 in× 34 in)
Location	Private collection

A Sculptor's Model is an 1877 oil painting by the Dutch artist Lawrence Alma-Tadema. ^{[1] [2]} Blending nude art and history painting it depicts a scene from Ancient Rome, a major focus of the artist's work. A naked art model poses for a statue, tying her hair in preparation. The female figure resembles the Esquiline Venus which had been excavated in 1874 on the Esquiline Hill. The painting depicts the sculpting of the Venus, which is obscured by a palm branch held by the model. ^[3]

The painting was displayed at the Royal Academy Exhibition of 1878 at Burlington House in London. Its full-length, life-size depicting of a nude female, without any mythological element, caused a degree of controversy despite the artist's use of a classical prototype. ^[4]

References

1. Liversidge & Edwards p.152
2. Barrow p.89
3. Hardie p.217
4. Liversidge & Edwards p.152

Bibliography

• Barrow, Rosemary J. Lawrence Alma-Tadema. Phaidon Press, 2001.
• Hardie, Philip R. Ovid's Poetics of Illusion. Cambridge University Press, 2002.
• Liversidge, Michael & Edwards, Catherine. Imagining Rome British Artists and Rome in the Nineteenth Century. Merrell Holberton, 1996.
• Smith, Alison. The Victorian Nude: Sexuality, Morality, and Art. Manchester University Press, 1996.