The Human Back

 

THE HUMAN BACK

The human back is a part of the body of interest to the visual artist.

The entire torso has 30 pairs of skeletal muscles, with the muscles in the front more accessible to visual examination than those in the back.

The male back is more muscular than that of the female and is of particular interest for this reason.

Michelangelo, for example, was unusually drawn to depicting the muscularity of the male. His studies of the male back are renowned for the artist’s draftsmanship.

Two studies of note are “Male Back with a Flag” (1504) and “Libyan Sibyl” (1511).

“Male Back” was a study in preparation for “Battle of Cascina,” commissioned by Piero Soderini for the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence. Although Michelangelo never finished the fresco, copies of his cartoon survive, notably that of his pupil, Aristotele da Sangallo.

Male Back with a Flag (1504)

 

Battle of Cascina (undated) by Aristotele da Sangallo after Michelangelo

“Libyan Sibyl” is a preparatory drawing for a Sistine Chapel fresco which was executed in 1511.

The back of the sibyl, which is strongly shaded, looks more male than female because of its muscularity. It is not as apparent in the colored fresco.

 

Study of Libyan Sibyl (1511) by Michelangelo

Libyan Sibyl, Sistine Chapel (1511) by Michelangelo

 

Michelangelo’s drawings are dramatically shaded because of his fascination with male musculature. However, it isn’t necessary to always work so vividly. In this finely executed study, the artist realistically models the figure seen from the rear, skillfully creating the illusion of volume using only three tones—black, white, and the gray color of the paper itself. His draftsmanship is excellent. 

Weighted Stasis (2006) by Dan Gheno

 

Vladimir Zagitov is a contemporary Russian artist. He is a figurative painter, sometimes intriguingly abstract, who chooses bright colors and exploits dramatic points of view. Almost expressionist in quality, he is compelling, often startling, and at his most maddening he is edgy and discordant. Zagitov is visionary, not always mystical or religious.

“Escape into Egypt” (2002) illustrates several of his strengths as a visual artist. Zagitov in this dramatic composition renders the muscular back of Saint Joseph in stylized strokes and bold colors.

Escape into Egypt (2002) by Vladimir Zagitov

 

The female back is a different story from that of the male. The female back is usually represented as sensuous—smooth, supple, graceful, often slender.

The foregoing attributes are rendered by Rodin in “Danaid” (1889) with extraordinary skill and finish. The marble piece is identical to one of the mythological figures in “The Gates of Hell,” a bronze commissioned by the Directorate of Fine Arts in 1880 and completed in 1917.

 

Danaid (1889) by August Rodin

Danaid (1889) by August Rodin, left side view

Danaid (1889) by August Rodin, right side view

Vicente Manansala, 1981 National Artist of the Philippines for Painting (posthumous), original member of the Thirteen Moderns formed in 1937, is recognized for originating and advancing the style of Transparent Cubism.

His colorful palette is not apparent in this piece, but his geometrization of the subject and penchant for transparency—even in black-and-white—are.

Although Manansala was renowned for his particular brand of Cubism, we should not confine him to a box. He was highly skilled in naturalistic depiction; the nude was a major subject of his oeuvre.

 

Untitled (Female Nude) (undated) by Vicente Manansala

Cesar Legaspi, 1990 National Artist of the Philippines for the Visual Arts-Painting, was a highly skilled draftsman and accomplished in oil.

The nude in transparent cubist style was a major motif of his work.

He was an original member of the Thirteen Moderns launched in 1937.

 

Nude (1979) by Cesar Legaspi

Aleen Aked (1907–2003) has been described as Post-Impressionist, and the quality of light and color in her work attests to the designation. The luminosity of this piece is hypnotic.

Its subject matter is secular, somewhat mundane, which is Modernist. Not an ounce of Neoclassicism here. She is a painter of the twentieth century.

 

Nude from Behind (undated) by Aleen Aked