#classical nude

Utterly charming but with a hint of the bizarre, one model wearing an extraordinary translucent and faintly striped dress which reveals as much as it hides. 

No.1428 in Wilhelm von Gloeden’s catalogue of beautiful pictures.

What a beautiful scene from F. Holland Day, none seem as exquisitely adept at capturing the heavenly, otherworldly atmosphere as he, with his hazy, ghostly scenes of lovely young men adrift in timeless woodland glades and secret places among the rocks. We can also, perhaps, see this same model cradling a lyre, here.

Whilst the previously posted portrait of Nino Cesarini appears to have been gently shaded dark to protect his modesty with an additional shadow, this photograph bears no such censorship, his tunic slung aside to reveal head-to-toe beauty. The stern look and rather stilted pose suggest this young man was not perhaps entirely relaxed so exposed, certainly in many photographs he is covered with draped fabric, or discreetly edited in the processing stage.

This handsome bearded male nude poses with great poise and an impressively muscular physique, surely providing reference for a classically styled sketch or painting. I wonder what legendary hero or religious figure he became?

Like the George Henry Seely photograph posted last week, which was so immediately popular among my followers and their followers and so on ad infinitum, Frank Eugene’s ‘Archer’ of 1914 shares the soft focus, the addition of a prop to create a scene instead of the usual academic pose, and subtle use of nudity for aesthetic appeal rather than eroticism. 

Classical male beauty in the ruins of a former civilsation, a perfectly timeless image by Guglielmo Plüschow. His frown against the sun adds an expressive charm to the moment, no bland dull gaze leaving him indifferent to the photographer’s lens or the viewer’s eye, he looks right out at us and in his face we see this young man has character.

Vincenzo Galdi, photographed on Posillipo hill near Naples, by Guglielmo Plüschow. It’s quite curious seeing someone I so often mention here as a photographer, instead being the model - but he was a photogenic little thing in his youth, wasn’t he!

One of von Gloeden’s most recognisable models, the charming Pascquale Stracuzzi or ‘Pasqualino’ (right), in a very similar pose to this beautiful photograph, but here having gained an equally graceful and good-looking companion.

Thebejewelled boy from Naples, his distinctive necklace and bangles barely visible in this shot, but more revealed by the dropping of the dark fabric which carefully covered him, when he posed for the better-known image in this set, Pompeii c1895.

A magnificent young man from Taormina poses in photographer Wilhelm von Gloeden’s own garden; with its rambling, scrambling, leafy climbers and classically-inspired urns and pots spilling over with yet more plants, it provides a delightfully picturesque setting, an air of slipping into wildness and decay with the passage of time, while the strapping fellow posing there that day remains forever young and perfect.

The Honey Gatherer, 1898, by F. Holland Day

Once again my weakness for boys with garlands in their hair leads me to post yet another picture fitting that description, this a little more modest than other photographs from this era of Arcadian beauty. He looks like his pout is about to spread into a smile.

A model we may recognise here, our fine friend the master of the subtly erotic pose (last seen here). I love how he’s that little bit plumper than most of the models in this era, soft flesh rather than prominant bones, and though it seems rather impolite to draw attention to it, he’s beautifully well-endowed, too.

Photograph by Vincenzo Galdi, I have a few more of his lined up to share soon.