.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
The first version of the exotic allegorical work Nature se divoilant devant la Science was exhibited by Barrias at the Salon of 1893 and was later acquired by the Ecole de Midicine at Bordeaux. Barrias's 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 Mitiers and was exhibited at the Salon in 1899 and at the Paris Exposition Universelle the following year.
Here, Barrias has drawn upon didactic and allegorical themes prevalent in Renaissance and Baroque sculpture and has used them to a 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 popularity of the work, Susse Frhres produced a number of editions of Nature, in five sizes and various combinations of media
Here, Barrias has drawn upon didactic and allegorical themes prevalent in Renaissance and Baroque sculpture and has used them to a 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 popularity of the work, Susse Frhres produced a number of editions of Nature, in five sizes and various combinations of media