Ovid's "The Art of Love" ("L'art d'aimer d'Ovide) 1935

Aristide Maillol rendered this image as an illustration for an edition of Ovid’s Ars Amatoria. The image evokes classical ideas about the human form. Maillol was a French sculptor, printmaker, and painter, whose nudes recall the tradition of classical sculpture, and a symbol of harmony and balance, which can be seen in this nude woman. Maillol saw his figures as a rebuke to the work of Rodin, whose impressionistic surfaces and dramatic poses Maillol saw as overly theatrical. Here, the body is presented in a straightforward style and natural pose that could be seen as progressive by rejecting the formal norms of academic art. Art historians might consult sources such as the correspondence between artist and patron, reviews in the press, and exhibition catalogs to see how the work of art has been received by the public. By considering the history of an artwork’s reception we can better understand the ever-changing role that art plays in the life of society.