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Jacques-Louis David, 'Male Nude - Patroclus', c.1780

File:Jacques-Louis David Patrocle.jpg - Wikimedia Commons

My eye first notices the surprising delicacy in which David has drawn this figure. Although the viewer sees this strong, muscular form filling the pictorial space of the canvas, the softness of the lines of the body and the colour of the skin is in complete juxtaposition. Furthermore, the shadows settling on the body do not create hard lines but rather extenuate the smoothness of the skin. The only hard lines are on the red drapery which the figure leans on. The body is not geometric or made up of any straight lines, everything flows into the milky white skin and down the figure's arched shoulders to his feet. 

Moving away from the body which obviously catches any viewer's eye, I notice the arrows in the bottom right hand corner. The representation is ambiguous but perhaps these link somehow to the brutish nature of this figure, contrasting with the softness of the lines that make up his body. He may be preparing to kill, with the red drapery like a pool of blood underneath him. He is often called Patroclus, Achilles best friend and soldier in the Trojan war, but I associate him with a sword rather than arrows. Or, could they be a reference to Cupid - the arrows are discarded in a messy pile which could imply that this man is unlucky in love or fallen out of someone's favour. But the man's head is facing away from the viewer so it is difficult to gauge his emotions. From the way he is lying, he seems unsure of himself, shy, maybe even embarrassed. The lack of interaction with the viewer could highlight how he just wants to be left alone to himself. It is ambiguous and that is part of the attraction of the painting.

The depiction of his hair is also interesting and it implies something that the viewer cannot see that is not contained within the four walls of the frame. His hair seems to be blowing forward, suggesting that there is some sort of wind source. This is also backed up by the apparent light source hitting the figure's foreshortened shoulder jutting out of the frame. Perhaps there is a window close to the shoulder of the viewer standing in front of the painting. David allows the light to give some body and some three-dimensional qualities to his painting, emphasising his skill as an artist. He hasn't just painted a reclining figure, he has incorporated movement, softness of brushstroke and ambiguity. 

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