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

Katalógus / Catalogue - VI. Akt a műteremben / The Female Nude in the Atelier - Kovács Ágnes: Adalékok a női aktállítás problematikájához (München, 1808-1918) / On Problems of Female Nude Models (Munich, 1808-1918)

On Problems of Female Nude Models (Munich, 1 808-1 918) ÁGNES KOVÁCS [SUMMARY] The nude study as the fundamental tool for the representation of the human body and as the basic pillar of drawing instruction was an undisturbed area of art education at the Royal Academy of Art in Munich for a long time. Its role was clearly laid down in sections VI, VII and VIII of the foundation charter of 1808; these sections made it compulsory for students of both painting and sculpture. Although the sex of the model was not clarified in the text, it is obvious that male models were meant at that time. There is no clear reference to the presence of female nude models before the 1860s. Letters written from the Munich Academy, which was of central importance to Hungarian artists, discuss drawing female nudes after models. As Pál Szinyei Merse wrote, students worked on this with "relish", in high spirits, when the nude was attractive. As some preliminary training was required for admission, private schools preparing candidates of different nationalities for the entrance examination mushroomed around the academy. The district was Schwabing, the artistic and spiritual centre that resisted the diktat known as the Lex Heinze. With its liberal and cosmopolitan spirit, Munich, the "Athens on the Isar", where "the most daring exotic plants could make a living" (Thomas Mann), contrasted sharply with the metropolitan harshness and conservative artistic life of the "Athens on the Spree", Berlin. Heinze's law, passed originally to curb the detrimental effects of the dirnen milieu (the satisfaction of base sexual instincts), known from the film The Blue Angel, that was widespread in the big cities, especially Berlin, was extended to art as well. As a consequence, the paradoxical concept of the "immoral work of art" was born, in the name of which the authorities had the right to ban, for example, prints made after Correggio's Leda. The academies stopped employing female nude models temporarily. Women, too, were actively involved in the protests against these measures. Olga Desmond's "tableaux vivantes", which copied the compositions of the "prince of painters" Franz von Stuck and others, were performed in slips. These works yielded place to Isadora Duncan's dancing, which proclaimed the people's need to return to the nakedness of the savages. One advocate of free love and nudity without any feeling of shame was Franziska von Rewenlow, who, with Freudian sensitivity, wrote a novel about a stigmatised girl whose personality was crushed by a bigoted and narrow-minded upbringing. "In nakedness we can look upon ourselves not only as sinners but also as a positive moment which has significance in life and art. There is an innate curiosity towards the opposite sex in every being, but it is prohibited now, hence we sniff at our own bodies as at an embarrassing secret," she remarked in 1899. In addition to feminist movements and some trends advocating extreme sexual freedom after the regulated reforms, emancipation had other outlets as well. Yet, as Werner Hofmann writes in his excellent The Earthly Paradise, "The unappreciated loneliness of the woman - towards which man is blind, no matter whether he approaches it aggressively or humbly - is the last painfully resigned stroke drawn by the century to terminate the battle of the sexes." Nudity, morals and emancipation have a lot to do with ideas about the female nude even today. VI-12 BENCZÚR GYULA Ül.VE ALVÓ NŐI AKT SLATED FEMALE NUDE SLEEPING l 867 (1869?) Olaj, vászon; 92 X 114 cm Jelezve b. I.; Benczúr Gyula 1867 Magántulajdon IRODALOM - BIBLIOGRAPHY: Benczúr Gyula 1921. kat. 214; Meiler 1935. 72; Benczúr Gyula 1944. kat. 29; Benczúr Gyula 1958. kat. 12; Telepy 1960. 10. R; Telepy 1963. 19. R; Telepy 1977. 9. R; Szinyei 1990. 55; Szinyei Merse Pál 1990. 13. Az Ülve alvó női akt Benczúr egyik korai aktkompozíciója. A mű tanulmányszerű felfogása ellenére szokatlanul nagy és befejezett alkotás. Igazi érdekességét az adja, hogy Szinyei Merse Pál Benczúrral egy időben szintén megfestette ugyanezt az aktmodellt. A két kép különbségét nemcsak az eltérő nézőpontból adódó csekély kompozicionális eltérés adja, hanem a két alkotó kissé eltérő felfogása is. Szinyei modellje egy kanapé puha és széles karfájára támasztja fejét, ezáltal mozdulata és tartása természetesebb, mint Benczúré, akinek feje egy keskeny széktámlára billen. Szemmel látható, hogy Benczúr a háttér kidolgozására kevesebb gondot fordított, s ez megint csak a kompozíció tanulmányszerű jellegét húzza alá. Női modelljének plasztikus, naturalisztikus, szinte fotószerűen „természetes" kidolgozására helyezte a hangsúlyt - s ebben már valóban megmutatkoznak a későbbiekben sokat dicsért festő kvalitásai -, míg Szinyei inkább a kompozíció festői egységét tartotta szem előtt, s a háttér és modell szervesebb összekomponálása révén a motívum narratív olvasatának a lehetőségét is nyitva hagyta.