Jacob Gole, designer

The boy in this print studies a sculpted or cast bust of an ideal female figure. She is both his model and teacher, instructing him in the canonical values of proportion and beauty developed by the ancient Greeks and initiating him into a profession whose training rituals are already thousands of years old. The boy’s gentle smile and attentive gaze add humor to the scene, suggesting that his diligent work by candlelight is motivated not only by a determination to master the fundamental skills of figure drawing, but also by an adolescent physical attraction to the handsome features of his muse. Other students in this period learned to respect and imitate classical ideals through illustrations of ancient statues in books such as Gerard Audran’s The Proportions of the Human Body Measured on the Most Beautiful Figures from Antiquity (1683), on display in the case in this gallery.