Unashamed
THE NUDE. By Sir Kenneth Clark. (John Murray, 63s.) A GAP in art criticism is most satisfactorily filled by this NI whose 400 pages and 300 excellent illustrations cover all pet of European sculpture and painting from the known begin!. of Greek figure art to the 'distortions' of the present day.
The book is a remarkable blend of virtues all too rare in studies. It is urbane, immensely readable even for the layma no specialised knowledge, yet it is learned and delightfully cursive.
The plan of the volume is something of an inspiration in itself' The variously developing attitudes to the study and artistic exl reS. sion of the figure are opposed in a series of effective antitheses' Thus, the classical conception of the Greeks, concerned largely with the male nude, and based on canons of ideal proportion' is dealt with in the early chapter 'Apollo.' This, as the author claims, is perhaps the most valuable section of an invaluable book. It will provide for most readers a great illumination the Greek aesthetic. This is contrasted in the following chaPler5 with 'Venus I' and `Venus II'—the Florentine Venus Ccrieslis and the Venus Naturalis of the Venetians—in brilliant analyses of the well-chosen illustrations. Finally there is a chapter on 'The Nude as an end in itself in which the disparate approaches of various contemporary masters are discussed. Sir Kenneth Clark never swerves from strict consideration of his chosen field. Yet his enlightened commentary embraces the work of almost every considerable artist in the history of Western art, expounding with force the how and tvhy of the central motivating power which the human body has 0sr
tinuously generated. R. H. WESTW)
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