Lot Essay
The first version of the present exotic allegorical work Nature se dévoilant devant la Science was exhibited by Barrias at the Salon of 1893 and was later acquired by the Ecole de Médicine at Bordeaux. The original model, entitled Mysterious and veiled Nature uncovers Herself before Science, differed slightly from the present version, in that the figure was depicted naked but for a cloak draped from her head down her back. In this, a variation on the same theme and the one that became Barrias's most celebrated work, Nature is seen in an earlier stage of her divestment. The model was commissioned in 1895 for the Escalier d'Honneur at the Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers and was exhibited at the Salon in 1899 and at the Paris Universal Exhibition the following year.
Here, Barrias has drawn upon didactic and allegorical themes prevalent in Renaissance and Baroque sculpture and has used them to depict a young woman revealing herself, ostensibly for the benefit of scientific investigation. At the same time, however, the sexual undercurrent is clear in the coy, coquettish pose of the figure as she provocatively tempts the spectator with her partial nudity.
Responding to the work's popularity, Susse Frères produced a number of editions of Nature, in five sizes and various combinations of medium.
Here, Barrias has drawn upon didactic and allegorical themes prevalent in Renaissance and Baroque sculpture and has used them to depict a young woman revealing herself, ostensibly for the benefit of scientific investigation. At the same time, however, the sexual undercurrent is clear in the coy, coquettish pose of the figure as she provocatively tempts the spectator with her partial nudity.
Responding to the work's popularity, Susse Frères produced a number of editions of Nature, in five sizes and various combinations of medium.