The nude man in art exhibitions (1) : 'Masculin Masculin' with 'Mercury inventing the caduceus'

We thought it would be interesting to show a few sculptures from exhibitions focussing on the male nude in art. Todays' sculpture was displayed during the 'Masculin Masculin' exhibition held recently in Paris (Sep 2013 - Feb 2014) at the Orsay Museum. Approximately 20 male nude sculptures were selected by the curator/director Guy Cogeval and his team (together with 180 other art pièces mainly paintings and photographs). The period ranged from 1800 until today.

Among them, for today, I selected 'Mercury Inventing the Caduceus' done by Jean-Antoine-Marie Idrac in 1878.  This French sculptor is born in Toulouse in 1849 and died early, in 1884 of typhus. He studied under Alexandre Falguière and also Pierre-Jules Cavelier. He won the famous Prix de Rome in 1873. He also exhibited at the Salon from 1877, and got a first class medal two years later for our selected marble sculpture.

 

This large marble piece was sculpted in Rome, Italy, in 1878. Several years later, in 1886, a copy in bronze was casted, which was displayed at the Exposition Universelle (World Fair) of 1900 in Paris(and today in Toulouse, at the Musée des Augustins).

 

 



One of the other curators of the 'Masculin Masculin' exhibition, Xavier Rey, stated that male nude anatomy and study was extremely important for every artist training. With some humour trait, Guy Cogeval added that this sculpture shows probably the cutest buttocks of the museum!
Indeed, several of this exhibition's sculptures and paintings contain a clear homoerotic aspect. And part of the exhibition is specially focussed on the male as an object of desire.

 

 

Why ' inventing the Caduceus ' ? The mythology has many stories about this! One reports that Mercury wanted to find a symbol for his role as the god of healing and messenger of the gods. He received a gold stick from Apollon. Later on, seeing two snakes fighting, he throw his gold stick towards them, the snakes curled around the stick and stopped fighting.

The serpent-coiled staff, or caduceus, is sometimes illustrated with wings at the top end to match Mercury’s winged helmet.

 

Some sources, videos and links:

Video about 'Masculin Masculin' exhibition (in French with English subtitles)
Other video about this exhibition showing some master pièces.
Orsay Museum website
Article in French in the 'Tribune de l'Art' website
 

Thinking : the sculpture (2)

Other view of the sculpture.

It is such a sensual and powerful feeling to pass the hand on that muscular back, to feel the smoothness of patina together with the strength and weight of the bronze.

Thinking : the sculpture (1)

Here it is!
A few dozens of hours of hard work...
Made in bronze, numbered I/IV (Artist proof), dimensions 7 x 5 x 4 in.

Thinking : the start

One of my sculpture of a male nude man, who seems to rest and think, was inspired by my mentor Patrick Poivre de la Freta who draw me an outline that you can see below.

Patrick was an incredible artist, and I will write more about him and his work and fabulous life later this year.

I spent a fair amount of time thinking about the sculpture that I would create from that little drawing.
Should I start from the top ? From the face ?
I wanted to express some strength, still in a kind of sleeping or resting mode...

Stand by Me

This is the overall view of the sculpture on his red-wood base. The base still has to be waxed to even further render the beauty of that wood.

Stand by Me - details

I hesitated a while for the title of this new sculpture, which I consider my master piece so far.

Stand by Me or Tenderness ?

The movie 'Stand by Me' is quite strong in my memories and emotions, ... so this sculpture showing two guys, one resting his head and nose on the other one's shoulder, got his title easily.

Bronze, 12 x 7 x 7 inches without the base in red wood (7 x 7 x 7 in).

Intimacy 3

This is the 3rd part of my serie Intimacy, expressing male love.
Showing tenderness of two males lying on their bed, 'spooning' and resting. This was made possible thanks to 2 guests of Villa Rainbow, posing for me during their stay.

Bronze with green patina 8 by 8 by 3 in. Limited Edition /8.

Intimacy 2

Intimacy 2 is part of my willingness to first sculpt a serie of male couples, maybe because I would have loved to see or touch similar sculptures as a teenager...!

Intimacy 1

The overview of this bronze sculpture.

Intimacy 1 - details

This sculpture of a male couple lying peacefully on their bed is entitled 'Intimacy 1'
It is in bronze, with green patina. Dimensions 8 by 8 by 3 inches.
Here are some 'details' then the overall picture will follow.