RCAB 2

I n search of the representation of the human figure, just as in academy drawing and sculpture, wax or clay modelling is nothing but capturing a three-dimensional drawing of a model within the scope of arts education. After attaining an 'academy' of perfect proportions, we conside- red that the dominion of technique enables the artist to freely - or abstractly - 'express' or personalise the work with their own features that should give worth to the piece. The obligatory attention of all those aspiring arts to modelling the human figure from other sculptures (generally plaster) or the nude body as a model is still common in the world's most prestigious schools. Great sculptors have dedicated their life to studying modelling the 'natural'. Let us remember the master Josep Salvadó Jassans, who was Professor of Anatomical Sculpture at the Barcelona Fine Arts Faculty until his death. He used to say that the sculp- tor, without falling into dependence on 'isms', had to come into contact with all the styles and trends through their gaze of the human figure. The delicacy due to the artist's strokes to captu- re or even improve the form were essential to find the internal transparency of the model. Grace, harmony, timelessness and beauty, amongst others, are the targets to meet in this marvellous artistic language. It seems that we have come no further since the pre-classicals of Egypt and Mesopotamia, or since the classicals of Greece and Rome. We are still practising almost the same figurative sculpture, some- times more static and dynamic; sometimes adding forms and non-existent muscles, other times removing them. But at the end of the day they are but the representation of ourselves and our specific contexts. In those studios where they still sculpt with a natural model as we do, they are still seeking the same objectives: the search for beauty and a better understanding of the world. █ Academy Figurative Sculpture For me sculpture is based on a deep understanding of the Classical world and of Hellenic statuary art. As the greatest exponents thereof, the sculptors Praxiteles and Pheidias were the one who defined the canonical pro- portions. I am unsure whether it is through knowledge of the human body or sheer natural intuition, but all their measurements are based on the Golden Ratio, found in the nature that su- rrounds us: in plants, in a simple bird’s feather, in sea snails and, of course, in the human body. The figurative sculptor depicts female and male beauty by reflection: him in her as the greatest representation of creation, as within the artist or sculptor or other arts dis- ciples, it is home to the Golden Ratio, which brings them to the magnetic beauty we all carry inside, all of us able to recognise ourselves as carriers of it, and so come to the universal contemplation of the artistic soul. Carmen Gloria Benavides Sculpture and Engraving RCAB Board Member RCAB. Taller d'escultura/Taller de escultura/Sculpture Workshop. Foto/Photo Antonio Ayan 20