Nude Sculpture: 5,000 Years [Hardcover]

Vicki Goldberg (Author), David Finn (Photographer)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2000

The human form has inspired some of the finest sculpture in art history. It also evokes in the viewer complex reactions. Looking at magnificent nude sculptures by Michelangelo, Rodin, Henry Moore, and other great artists, we are in awe of the beauty and power of the art, as well as of the nude figure. But we may also experience other emotions, perhaps uncomfortably close to those we feel when we see an unclothed human body. This astonishing work provides a visual survey of nude sculpture throughout the ages, enhanced by an illuminating essay by noted critic Vicki Goldberg probing our various responses to this most realistic art form.

While photographs distance us from the art works they depict, they also offer close-up details that permit us to see nude sculptures in new and surprising ways. Photographer David Finn, who has expanded the way we look at art in Abrams' How-to-Look-at titles, enables us -- through his remarkable photographs -- to glimpse the sculptor's creative process as well as the qualities of presence, texture, and detail that give the finest sculpture its grace and majesty.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Once Finn realized that the camera exposed "qualities in a work of art" not readily seen otherwise, he devoted himself to photographing figurative sculptures for almost forty years, resulting in this consummate photographic essay on the human figure as idealized by artists for five millennium. Art and photography expert Goldberg fluently summarizes the history of nude sculpture and analyzes Finn's use of these works to create his own art, thus setting in motion a provocative loop of responses. Viewers focus first on the sculptures, marveling at how supple and alive stone and bronze become under the hands of the nameless geniuses of ancient Greece and Egypt, and of such masters as Michelangelo and Rodin. Then the compositional perfection and exquisite detail of Finn's magnificent photographs emerge, along with the realization that nude sculptures are so ubiquitous, they've become almost invisible. Finn brings them back into our field of vision, and what marvels are here to behold. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Harry N. Abrams; 1St Edition edition (October 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0810933462
• ISBN-13: 978-0810933460
• Product Dimensions: 11.9 x 9.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,523,239 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A pleasure., October 6, 2006

By 

C. B Collins Jr. (Atlanta, GA United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Nude Sculpture: 5,000 Years (Hardcover)

Nude Sculpture: 5,000 Years contains the photogaphs of David Finn and an essay on the sculpture and the photographs by Vicki Goldberg.

Photographer Finn found that art critics had found the work of the sculptor Antonio Canova to be academic and cold. I have to admit I also found this to be true, especially of the well know work "Paolina Borghese as Venus" located in the Borghese Palace in Rome. However, Finn shows us another side of Canova in his photographs of "Cupid and Psyche" from the Louvre. This work, when viewed directly from the front, is wonderfully composed with Psyche's upstretched arms circling the head of Cupid, while his arms enfold and support her. However Finn shows us a view from behind the figures where the narrative is not as explicit but the composition just as beautiful as the front view. In this back view, an urn has been overturned which can't be seen from the front view and the loving embraces of the front view become more ambiguous and maybe threatening when seen from behind.

Finn also photographs "The Three Graces" by Canova, located in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Finn narrows the focus to the torsoes and legs of the three maidens, revealing a rhythmic flowing pattern of pure elegance.

The photographs are organized chronologically, starting with a fertility figures that is over 6500 years old, that is highly stylized and almost contemporary in wit and modeling. The works of the Egyptians follow with an incredible naturalistic wooden nude young man from 2200 B.C. that is modeled, posed, and executed with high reality and attention to the natural form rather than to the Egyptian artistic canon. The slim young male body, realistic genitals, relaxes stance, and realistic gripped hand, are superb.

Finn then takes us to the work of the Greeks. Be ready to be amazed at the perfection in his detail of "Riace Warrior A". The backside of this warrior is about as sensual as any work of art I know.

The interpretations of the nude in the Hindu and Buddhist sculptures of India, Thailand, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, and Japan range from the highly sensual to the contemplative.

Micelangelo's sculptures have such bulk and presence, as if his first and foremost goal is to fully develop a solid shape, something which can't be easily ignored - which must be dealt with.

Two male nudes by Baccio Bandinelli of "Hercules and Cacus" could not be any more perfect. Benvenuto Cellini's "Perseus", photographed from the side, integrates the nude male into a complex pose and composition. Giambologna's "Rape of a Sabine" is shown just in detail, and the rape imagery is lost as we see the male figure in awe of the female's breast or gently holding her buttocks. This deconstruction of the whole image into details that imply totally different meaning is evident also in Bernini's "Pluto Abducting Persephone" and "Apollo and Daphne" where the male's touch holds the female firm but does not bruise.

Into the 19th century we come to Rodin's "Iris, Messenger of the Gods" a challenging work of art for all viewers in all times. I can hardly describe this work of art for the work seems both floating and contorted as the female figure balances on one foot while holding her other leg into the air, totally exposing her gentials as boldly as the male genitals are sometimes revealed.

A final favorite of mine is "Man" by Gaston Lachaise, a work that seems both comic and heroic as the nude male figure seems struttpuffed up like a rooster and purposefully massive as a god.

Very fine photography.

5.0 out of 5 stars A must have for figurative artist, January 2, 2009

By 

W_tulip (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nude Sculpture: 5,000 Years (Hardcover)

Beautiful book, good selection of works, very interesting angles of photos.
As a CG 3D modeler I find it very useful as reference.
I'd recommend this book to any figurative painter/sculptor/3D modeler.