THROWBACK FRIDAY: MASTERPIECE #1350 (11/25/15)

/// Gérôme sculpted her over life-size.
More heroic to most viewers’ eyes.
This nude’s seared in his sight,
(to get everything right).
Here he concentrates, smoothing her thighs.

/// Whether painting or sculpting— a master.
Gérôme fashioned her figure from plaster.
It will then be applied
as some new sculptors’ guide.
Carve the marble himself? A disaster!

/// The works’ theme: a personification
of a city within the Greek nation.
He’d from Tanagra seen
their well-known figurines,
which were painted, and caused a sensation.

/// Resting on the girl’s outstretched left hand,
a small Tanagra figure will stand.
“The Ring Dancer,” displayed
like ones ancient Greeks made—
brightly colored as Jean-Léon planned.

/// Gérôme’s image of Tanagra seated,
was in polychrome marble completed.
Skin, lips, nipples, and hair
had soft tints applied there.
The reaction in Paris was heated.

/// The “hoop dancer” which Tanagra held
in her hand had bright hues which repelled
Salon viewers who might
think Greek statues were white.
In time critics proclaimed he’d excelled!

/// To Pygmalion this painting alludes.
Both involved transformed feminine nudes.
But did life inspire art,
or did stone grow a heart?
Gérôme’s works display both attitudes.