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Nymph And Satyr Carousing

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The “Nymph and Satyr Carousing” is a terracotta sculpture, sculpted by Claude Michel who is called Clodion. Clodion lived from his birth in Nancy, France 1738 to his death in Paris, France 1814. The sculpture, sculpted in Paris, France in ca.1780-90, created during the Rococo period of art in Europe . The Nymph is depicted as this curvy, youthful woman and the Satyr as a strong, young man. Both the Nymph and the Satyr wear expressions of happiness on their faces as they enjoy a drink. The “Nymph and Satyr Carousing” uses various textures, angled lighting and a deliberate composition to promote the beauty of the natural body. The various textures of the sculpture promote the beauty of the natural body because it emphasizes its beauty and flaws. …show more content…

In front where the two bodies touch, the Satyr’s open mouth and joyous expression are directly illuminated, and the Nymph’s arms, the left half side of her round face, her breasts, her glutes and both their legs are illuminated. The light highlights the curves of the Nymph’s small breast, her glutes where a dimple lays on the cheek, her legs which look textured and has various dark spots that look similar to cellulite. The darker shadows help illuminate both the light and the lighter shadows creating depth and emphasizing the naturalism of the body. Using the lighting of the sculpture, the emphasis on the details of the body; from the perfectly smooth skin, to the imperfections of the legs and the glutes, promotes the beauty of the natural body because unlike Greek and Roman sculptures of the body, this sculpture captures the naturalistic parts of the body, not perfectly flawless and all muscular and pert, but curved, smoothed and dimpled. The Nymph isn’t thin nor is she very muscular, she is curvy, she is imperfect but the Nymph has a joyous expression on her face that emphasizes her happiness with not only the event at hand; drinking with the Satyr, but her happiness with …show more content…

The Nymph is arranged to be sitting slightly contrapposto on the Satyr’s leg and the Satyr is also seated in a contrapposto position as well. The contrapposto position provides a naturalistic positioning of the bodies. They are both seated on a rock where the Satyr is seated on a cloth and there is a tambourine and grapes at the feet of the Nymph, (less detailed than the two bodies). Both the Satyr and the Nymph have one leg raised, and the other leg positioned diagonally towards the rock, emphasizing the similarity between the two figures and also the difference as well. The focus of the piece is directed towards the Nymph’s body and their joyous expressions, due to how the body is positioned, the light illuminates the Nymph’s body and both of their faces. This careful but deliberate composition of the positions of the body, the direction of the light and the attention to detail focused on the body, promotes the beauty of the natural body because each of the elements work towards making the piece appear more natural and celebratory of not only the merriment of drinking, but also the merriment of the beauty of the human body. The natural pose of the Nymph and Satyr, the light showing both the perfection and imperfections and imperfection of the body, and

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