La Femme Animee en Fleur by Alphonse MuchaVirginia Museum of Fine Arts
A bewitching and graceful nymph, sinuous and caught in evocative gestures: we’re looking at one of Alphonse Mucha’s women, iconic artist of art nouveau. This late eighteen-hundreds style trend conceives art as decoration, stripped of ideological backgrounds.
Observe the drapery of the dress: it’s the result of large color fields and very thin shading, which creates a sense of flatness. These details attenuate the body’s volume, giving birth to a light and floating-looking female figure.
Stylized strokes and thick black outlines recall medieval stained glass windows and Japanese prints, important sources of inspiration for art nouveau.
The circle in the background communicates an idea of completeness and perfection, while the rose blossoms are again an iconographic reference to Japanese art, but not only that...
This young lady, whose magnetic eyes catch our gaze, is the personification of a rose, one of a series of four lithographs of girls associated with a flower.
Text and audio by eArs ▬ making arts & culture a place for everybody
