A college Fine Arts Major's dream come true!!

books:

	• Language of the Body John Elderfield Harry N. Abrams, 1996 - 221 pages average customer review:based on 3 reviews view larger image
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Nice pics but weak analysis

The heros of this book are the images and not the writing. While I'm thankfull to the author for presenting these rare drawings, I dislike his highly opinionated, rambling pontifications so typical of ignorant, ivy league writers. It confuses and distracts us from a more solid, critical analysis of Prud'hon's work. Its mostly a smokescreen for having something more intelligent and practical to say. And Ederfield's Bio revealing his Modern bent, deems him a poor candidate to be writing about classical art, but alas I suppose we have few other choices.
Since he's virtually clueless about the formal process, he instead hacks out an ambiguous search for a primarily emotional meaning - almost an entire page of text is wasted on meaningless speculations about supposed, effeminate male poses, perhaps motivated by some gay agenda. This again distracts us from studying highly complex issues. This could have otherwise been replaced by ie. close up's of the drawings, so prized by a painter like myself. It wouldn't be so bad if authors like Elderfield simply limited their thoughts to the emotional responce they personally recieve, stating clearly that it is indeed their own interpretation, but not only do they present these ideas as if they are factual, but they have the naive arrogance to refer to the process of drawing in the same subjective manner. I can only believe it is a pethetic attempt to elevate themselves from the category of documentary writer to the higher level of artist, as if to say, "I am a genius writer and only through my eyes and words are you, the lesser reader, able to experience a deeper understanding of the work". God forbid if we were simply given the few facts and allowed to make our own analysis.
The author is entirely incorrect on pg. 89 stating ie., "He (Prud'hon)only sees the surface...etc." This whole passage is a superficial, modern assumption, due in part, to a very photo-sited art community. The basis of cast drawing has, for example, little do with lighting and the whole Bargue/site-size baloney, rather it deals with complex, dimensional forms conveyed through Greek sculpture. Prud'hon, on the contrary, was a master of the lost art of "form drawing" so essential to classical art prior to the mid 19th C. His 3-D ability with respect to underlying structure and anatomy is extremely sophisticated and decieving to the untrained eye. Thank you for letting me ruffle some wanna-be-elitist feathers, and speak with substance rather than just saying this is a pretty book.

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A superior draughtsman

I've owned at least one copy of this book for many years (1997). It's by far one of my most cherished art books and unmatched by any other book of drawings I've seen. If you appreciate fine drawings and value truly superior draughtsmanship you'll want to add this to your collection.

In my opinion, you owe it you yourself to purchase (yes, it's extremely expensive today, but keep watching) or find a copy in the library. Prud'hon was a late-18th century French academic that sadly wasn't fully appreciated in his day. He did enjoy success in his later career but some of his contemporaries, including David and Gericault, enjoyed more visible success in the same period.

The highlights of this book are the 57 color plates of Prud'hon's academic figure drawings, or "acadamies" as they are known. These drawings are exemplary models today, and unlike the scribbled messes many 20th century "artists" produce (and deemed acceptable by today's art schools), these drawings are dignified and stunningly beautiful.

Unfortunately, Prud'hon's drawing techniques have been lost and there is no definitive work describing how they were produced. Many of these drawings have unfinished sections and you can see not only the basic structure, but the construction process as well. We also can guess at what he did with the materials that were available at the time, but it would be nice to see the process documented.

Finally I believe this book should be reprinted, but until that time (if ever), try to at least see a copy if you can. For more information on Prud'hon I would also highly recommend the book Pierre-Paul Prud'hon by Sylvain Laveissiere; it's another beautiful - and still available - book illustrating Prud'hon's works, including paintings and drawings.

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A college Fine Arts Major's dream come true!!

This book covers the structural anatomy with pin-point accuracy. Though this isn't really an anatomy book by title, by examining Prud'hon's structural techniques, one can easily see all of college's artistic anatomy classes in one of his graphics.