This was the random artwork of the day generated by the Metropolitan Museum of Art that arrived in my mailbox this morning.
I know that aesthetics have changed. Even Houdon was breaking tradition with his shivering girl (an alternate title):
The boldness and severity of this image is almost as shocking now as when an earlier, marble version was first shown in the sculptor's studio during the Salon of 1783. As a contemporary observed when it was rejected for the 1785 Salon, "an entirely nude figure is not as indecent as one draped with false modesty."
I don't find a lot of things offensive but I was angry about this one. Houdon's deliberate prurience, his desire for this body despite its helplessness, his taking away her face to make her anonymous (almost ashamed). Not sure what the contemporary sees as "false modesty". This is indecent to me because she's so obviously a fetish, an object for the gaze.
Stick to portraits of Voltaire, Monsieur Houdon. There we can agree.
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