Study of a Male Nude (Study of a Male Nude in a Boat)

The principles of classical canon were also reflected in the leading academic disciplines, such as drawings of live (male) nudes and in composition itself. At the time, the naked male body was a topic around which modern ideas were defined about ideal proportions and the expressive options associated with various positions of the human body and gestures. The Prague Academy was no exception; the drawing of posed nudes was taught, and the male body took on various roles - ranging from the heroes and gods of antiquity, to a wounded martyr (the Sorrowful Christ) and even a more refined ephebus. These changes moved the topic of Neoclassicist nudes to a more sentimentalist level, which expected the human body to be depicted and interpreted as an emotional (self-)projection.