{"id":630,"date":"2015-09-14T02:26:57","date_gmt":"2015-09-14T01:26:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/delladrees.com\/wordpress\/?p=630"},"modified":"2015-09-15T17:32:05","modified_gmt":"2015-09-15T16:32:05","slug":"liberace-on-anatomy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/delladrees.com\/wordpress\/?p=630","title":{"rendered":"Liberace on Anatomy"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Battle<\/a>
Battle of the Nude Men by Antonio del Pollaiuolo, 1465\u20131475. Engraving 42.4 x 60.9 cm<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Italian Renaissance artists became anatomists by necessity. They were attempting to refine a more lifelike human figure,\u00a0even though opportunities to help their knowledge\u00a0by direct anatomical dissection were restricted. In Vasari’s\u00a0Lives of the Artists, <\/em>he states\u00a0that the sculptor, painter, and printmaker Antonio Pollaiuolo (1431\u20131498)\u00a0was the “first master to skin many human bodies in order to investigate the muscles and understand the nude in a more modern way.”<\/em>\u00a0We can see his knowledge displayed beautifully in Pollaiuolo’s engraving\u00a0Battle of Naked Men. <\/em>The nude warriors are in extreme action showing their\u00a0nearly flayed musculature.<\/p>\n

\"GazelleAfter learning how to draw to a competent standard, I feel that some \u00a0knowledge of anatomy becomes important\u00a0for any artist\u00a0interested in representing\u00a0the body in a\u00a0realistic way. So, just as the Italian Renaissance artists craved this understanding through study\u00a0of anatomy, so do I.\u00a0\u00a0Today, however, we do not need to sharpen our knives and flay flesh to understand what lies beneath. We can enrol in a Robert Liberace workshop instead. It is far less messy and it is even legal.<\/p>\n

I took a five day workshop at\u00a0The Art\u00a0League, Alexandria, VA<\/a>\u00a0entitled:\u00a0Dissecting The Figure: An Anatomical Approach To Drawing and Painting.<\/em>\u00a0The class involved the development of the\u00a0portrait and figure through comprehensive anatomical exploration. The morning session featured ecorche drawing, which highlights the specific relationships of muscle to\u00a0bone, and to the external appearance of the body. See Robert’s beautiful study of the\u00a0Latissimus Dorsi<\/em>\u00a0muscle of the amazing model, Gazelle, presented here, and his\u00a0study of James, our other fabulous model, below. The afternoon session featured\u00a0longer poses allowing us to use the knowledge gained in the morning \u00a0to help analyse\u00a0the anatomy of the figure in our drawings or paintings.<\/p>\n

Robert also introduced us to a software programme called Visible Body: Muscle Premium<\/a>. It offers finger tip control over 600 muscles and 200 bones of the body, including\u00a0the\u00a0ligaments. \u00a0It is a wonderful, if slightly addictive, programme.\u00a0Pollaiuolo would have been amazed! This programme was projected onto the screen behind the model so you could follow what was being explained. Some people had also downloaded it on to their iPad or phones. It is a wonderful teaching aid, although I was annoyed to find out that it is not written for\u00a0use on a\u00a0computer, just phones and iPads.<\/p>\n

\"Robert<\/a><\/p>\n

Roberts knowledge of the position, actions and names of the bones\u00a0and\u00a0muscles, their ligaments and their origins and insertions points on the body is astonishing. Not only that, he\u00a0is an enthusiastic, passionate teacher who shares this knowledge\u00a0with open\u00a0generosity and\u00a0spirit. You can sense this passion in\u00a0his work. For more information of his workshops, or to see more of his work, look at his website.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Ecorche<\/a>
Ecorche drawing of the chest and stomach muscles of James. No human was hurt in the making of this drawing. Robert Liberace. September 2015, drawn at The Art League, VA.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Italian Renaissance artists became anatomists by necessity. They were attempting to refine a more lifelike human figure,\u00a0even though opportunities to help their knowledge\u00a0by direct anatomical dissection were restricted. In Vasari’s\u00a0Lives of the Artists, he states\u00a0that the sculptor, painter, and printmaker<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,10,3,15,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","category-exhibitions-and-events","category-figures","category-inspiration","category-methods-and-materials"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/delladrees.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/delladrees.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/delladrees.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/delladrees.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/delladrees.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=630"}],"version-history":[{"count":64,"href":"http:\/\/delladrees.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":703,"href":"http:\/\/delladrees.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630\/revisions\/703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/delladrees.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/delladrees.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/delladrees.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}