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Nude with cloth, 2020
Terracotta, engobed
71 × 28 × 19 cm
Unikat
Signed and dated with monogram
Provenance:
Studio of the artist
A young woman stands before the viewer with her head slightly lowered and her upper body and feet exposed. A voluminous, heavy cloth is wrapped around her lower body, which she pulls up with both hands so that her legs are visible up to her thighs. A wide band is wound around her head and the hair at the back of her head is pulled up into a bun. The young woman's body is modelled in an organic, soft, rounded and closed form and coloured with engobes.
Despite being created after the model, Robert Metzkes' figures are classically idealised artistic figures. Nevertheless, their expression is full of lively sensuality and touches the viewer, even if they do not open up to him emotionally.
Metzke's work stands in the tradition of classical sculpture, which has its origins in antiquity, in particular ancient Greek sculpture. A motif related to the "Nude with Cloth" can be found in the so-called "Aphrodite Landolina" (marble, Syracuse, Museo regionale archeologico Paolo Orsi), a Roman copy based on a Greek original from the first half of the 2nd century BC. A variant of the figure in Metzkes' group "Harlequin as Paris" (2019/2020, terracotta, engobed), which takes as its subject an episode from ancient Greek mythology, the so-called judgement of Paris: a beauty contest between the goddesses Hera, Athena and Aphrodite, whose judge is the young king's son Paris, shows that the nude with cloth can be understood in the tradition of Aphrodite depictions (Anette Brunner).
Despite being created after the model, Robert Metzkes' figures are classically idealised artistic figures. Nevertheless, their expression is full of lively sensuality and touches the viewer, even if they do not open up to him emotionally.
Metzke's work stands in the tradition of classical sculpture, which has its origins in antiquity, in particular ancient Greek sculpture. A motif related to the "Nude with Cloth" can be found in the so-called "Aphrodite Landolina" (marble, Syracuse, Museo regionale archeologico Paolo Orsi), a Roman copy based on a Greek original from the first half of the 2nd century BC. A variant of the figure in Metzkes' group "Harlequin as Paris" (2019/2020, terracotta, engobed), which takes as its subject an episode from ancient Greek mythology, the so-called judgement of Paris: a beauty contest between the goddesses Hera, Athena and Aphrodite, whose judge is the young king's son Paris, shows that the nude with cloth can be understood in the tradition of Aphrodite depictions (Anette Brunner).