Mujer Sentada (Seated Woman)

Although Fernando Botero's sensual nudes transcend the two-dimensional limitations of the canvas, the monumentality of his figures is nowhere more fully appreciated than in his sculptural works. As Mujer Sentada (Seated Woman) demonstrates, it is in the powerful manipulation of plastic form that Botero's soft, sensual sitters gain their greatest weight. Indeed, though the voluptuous female form remains one of the artist's most emblematic subjects, it is in sculptural works such as these that the body most fully lends itself as a vehicle for the exploration of form. Thus, evidencing the perennial influence of the Italian Renaissance masters the artist so admired, Mujer Sentada (Seated Woman) goes beyond Michelangelo's corpulence, creating a playful visual reality that surpasses representational convention.