Imre Györgyi szerk.: A modell, Női akt a 19. századi magyar művészetben (A Magyar Nemzeti Galéria kiadványai 2004/2)

Tanulmányok / Studies - Kinses Károly: Egy kis akt-tipológia / A Sort of Nude Typology

The age of daguerreotypes, 1 839-C.1 863 There are few nudes among Biedermeier paintings. It was the increasingly popular daguerreotype that adopted the genre of the nude, representing eroticism and the naked body quickly and demonstrably. This was when stereo nude daguerreotypes, too, multiplied. When the spectator looked at one of these through a special stereo-viewer, a sort of intimate space was created between the picture and the spectator into which no stranger could enter, a space where no disturbance could divert the spectator's attention. The construction and functioning of these stereo-viewing boxes were very similar to those of peep-boxes, so the voyeuristic experience was complete. To watch a naked woman under such circumstances, in colour and in three dimensions, was one of the peak achievements of early photography. The daguerreotype was a direct positive, so it could not be copied in the traditional sense. Every picture was in practice a new photograph. It was this that determined its value, the way it was handled, who owned it, and its social influence. Nudes substituting for live models in art, C.1 850-C.1930 These photographs were used in a limited circle, but only until shortly after the turn of the 20th century. Originally meant exclusively for artists and for professors and students at art academies, these nudes were to substitute for live models during studies of drawing and modelling. It was a basic requirement to make lifelike, naturalistic renderings of carefully set poses in the most plastic studio lighting. These nude photographs were allowed neither by their creators, nor by their users to imply eroticism. As they were destined to aid painting or sculpture directly, they must be seen as the first examples of the commercial nude photograph. Their characteristics include strict composition and the postures and gestures required by fine art, as well as some academism in form, execution and use. Hence, they might even be described as artistic nude photographs were it not for the absence in them of any desire for self-expression on the part of their makers: no trace of inspiration, artistic intention or personality traits can be discovered in them. The University of Fine Arts in Budapest has a collection of hundreds of excellent examples of this genre from around the turn of the 20th century. In 1879, Bertalan Székely and Gusztáv Keleti went to Paris to purchase teaching aids for the Academy of Fine Arts, as the university was then called. Extant notes reveal that some of the above photographs were acquired during that visit. Their serial numbers allow for their dating on the basis of the model books and catalogues of the special photo shops of the time. The most important collection of these nudes, L'Etude Académique is also known from a 1912 edition. The plumpish models were in line with the female ideal of the age. The picturesque ordering of the arrangements and of the lighting suggests meticulousness on the part of the photographer. The removal of the pubic hair during retouching was an attempt to steer clear of eroticism. The accessories - the painted backgrounds, the pedestals and the studio furniture - were similar to those found in private photographers' studios of the day. These photographs gradually infiltrated into other areas of nude photography, as the makers of commercial and amateur nude photographs tried to produce lifeless copies patterned on them. Early saucy photographs, 1 850-C.1900 Piquant nude photographs were not hankering after artistic laurels, only after satisfying the needs of the customers without being pornographic. Especially interesting are the series showing the phases of a model's undressing. The finest example is "Flea-hunting". Since puritanical attitudes at the end of the 19th century did not favour the spread of such photographs, highly inventive ruses were developed to mask their erotic character. Various diversionary titles, subtitles and accompanying texts were added, or else mythological, philosophical or scientific disguises. The creators of the photographs took pains not to cross the thin boundaryline drawn by the age between eroticism and pornography. The latter incurred punishment, although its definition kept changing. In this category, too, stereo images were not infrequent. They were either coloured on the surface or copied onto thin transparent albumin paper the reverse of which was coloured and covered with a blank white sheet. In normal light, they appeared a brownish monochrome, but when put into a viewer and turned towards the light, they were coloured. Something of this order was advertised in the newspaper Győri Hírlap in 1913. In Esztergom, a saucy performance with moving pictures was advertised in 1900. Ethnographic photographs of colonial peoples, 1860-C.1941 As interest turned towards exotic peoples, researchers and photographers set out for distant lands. Their scientific researches, collections and sets of thousands of photographs aroused the curiosity of the wider public. In this, of course, advances in the technology of photography also played a part: new raw materials, high-speed lenses and smaller cameras made photography outside the studio a possibility. The photographs taken according to the dogmatic rules of ethnography and anthropology are characterized by rigid frontal postures, symmetry and the semi-close-up. The naked native women, men and children appear like exotic objects. Later on, "pseudo-ethnographic" photographs of coloured models were also marketed, to cash in on the growing interest. While the original ethnographic pictures belong to scientific photogra-