Thursday, January 17, 2013

Venus by Frank Frazetta



Here is an atypical painting by America artist Frank Frazetta (1928-2010), better know for his genre-defining fantasy works.

The girl's sumptuous anatomy is less stylised than in his fantasy pictures whilst still being well towards the outrageous end of curviness.  She is rather too well made up and pin-up pretty to be an art nude and the pose is, we are loathe to say, rather awkward.  The delicate elfin face and well defined jaw-line does not really go with the Junoesque figure, either.  The picture does, however, carry an erotic charge, centered on that pale slice of haunch under her left thigh.

An interesting, rather than entirely successful, painting but descended from a distinctly classicist tradition: the colour palette could have come straight from John William Godward.

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