employed. The study of plaster casts of antique sculptures allowed students to form a storehouse of
“memories” of bodily form that they might then apply selectively to drawings done from observation of
the live model, so that they were seeing through the eyes of past masters or what Reynolds would
describe as “material” (Macsotay, 2010, 183–191). Live models held poses taken from a repertory of
antique sculptures, and managed to maintain them for the required length of time only with the help of
blocks, pulleys and ropes. The provision of life classes was a feature that often distinguished fine art
academies from other forms of art education. The French Académie royale won at its inception exclusive
rights (that lasted until 1705) to run a lifedrawing class. Most academic life drawings were done in red
and black chalk with white highlights, on white or tinted paper. The emphasis was on the contour or
outline of a figure, but some crosshatching and parallel strokes were used to suggest muscle masses.
Lessons in anatomy involved close study of wax, plaster or bronze flayed figures: écorchés or bodies
stripped of their skin to reveal the muscles beneath. These ensured that students produced plausible
representations of the human form. Competitions such as the half figure drawing competition introduced at
the Académie royale in 1784 reinforced the standard to which they should aspire.
Figure 1.3 Martin Ferdinand Quadal (1736–1811): The Life Class of the Vienna Academy in the St Anne
Building, oil on canvas, 144 × 207 cm, 1787. Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna.
Source: Gemäldegalerie der Akademie der biidenden Künste Wien.By proceeding from the study of antique sculptures to that of live models inspired by these sculptures,
eighteenthcentury artists did not necessarily think of themselves as deserting the “natural” in art. They
believed that ancient Greek and Roman sculptors had developed their representations of the human form