Week 4: Jennifer L.:Clark-The Nude

After reading The Nude: A Study in Ideal Form, I had to ask, why write 23 pages about nude male statues? It seems sometimes these authors take basic beauty and turn it into a huge long explanation for why it is like this or like that. Is there a point where you just think "this is really beautiful, it is smooth, it is a perfect body in a perfect pose" instead of creating a study out of something? As humans it seems we have to continually prove we know everything about a subject, or a piece of art for that matter. I guess it just kind of makes the whole point of looking at something pretty or shocking or beautiful dissolve. We forget about there presence alone and try to figure what they are all about. These statues were made in a time where our modern ideals did not exist, so there HAS to be some sort of mystery to these pieces!