French School; End of the XIX century.

French School; End of XIX century.
"Female nude".
Carved marble.
Presents restorations.
Measurements: 70 x 17 x 17 cm.
Round sculpture representing a life-size female nude, conceived according to the academic canons in force in France at the end of the 19th century. The figure appears standing, slightly resting a hand on a back support barely roughed, a common resource for both structural and compositional reasons. The body describes a soft contrapposto, which introduces a delicate play of curves and displacements, giving naturalness and balance to the whole.
The modeling is careful and continuous, with a particularly refined treatment of the anatomy, emphasizing the softness of the volumes and the harmonious transition between the different parts of the body. The face, with its serene expression and elevated gaze, reinforces the idealized character of the figure, distancing it from any specific individual reference and placing it in the realm of the timeless feminine ideal. The work is in the tradition of French academic sculpture of the last third of the 19th century, deeply marked by the study of classical Antiquity and the Renaissance, as well as by the teaching given at the École des Beaux-Arts. The female nude was one of the fundamental genres in sculptural training and practice, understood as a supreme exercise in technical mastery and anatomical knowledge.
In this period, the academic nude coexisted with new realist and symbolist sensibilities, but maintained a central presence in the official sculptural production, associated with values of ideal beauty, formal balance and technical perfection.