Jenny Saville’s Nudes Bring Renaissance Masters Down to Earth

Laura Rysman | The New York Times | 8th October 2021

The Renaissance was dominated by men. Florence has cleverly responded with a show that puts those works next to Jenny Saville’s acclaimed portraits of fleshy, imperfect female bodies. With their emphasis on emotion and vulnerability they differ radically from Renaissance ideals of womanhood. Still, at some level, all these artists are motivated by concepts of humanism. In different ways, they all put “the figure at the center of the history of art”.