Seated Male Nude 19th-20th century

Curator: Here we have Denman Waldo Ross's "Seated Male Nude," a drawing at the Harvard Art Museums. Editor: My first thought is of a blueprint, something calculated, even architectural. It feels more about the process than the person. Curator: Absolutely. Ross was obsessed with systems, the idea that great art sprang from underlying mathematical harmonies. He's literally mapped this nude figure onto a grid derived from Renaissance principles. Editor: The inscription says it all, "The System of One and Two Squares Constantly Used by the Renaissance Masters." It's like he's reverse-engineering beauty. Does that lessen the humanity, though? Curator: Perhaps, but there's a certain elegance to seeing the structure beneath the surface, the quest for order and perfection. It speaks to a time when art aspired to universal ideals. I find it rather beautiful. Editor: I appreciate the attempt to codify beauty, but I'm still drawn to the raw, unquantifiable emotion in art. Still, it's fascinating to see the bones of a masterpiece laid bare.