46 GEORGE MINNE
Belgian (active in Ghent,
Brussels, and Sint-Martins-
Laten), 1866-1941
Adolescent I, circa 1891
Marble
42.9 cm (16^7 /s in.)
Inscribed with artist's monogram in
a raised circle on top of the base: M
97.SA.6
Minne's earliest works were relatively academic, but by the late 1880s he had begun
to experiment with a series of wiry, introspective nude figures in a more emblematic,
Symbolist style. The tone of these works, often melancholy or mystical in feeling, was
influenced by Minne's friendship with poets who were part of the French Symbolist
movement.
The Museum's marble represents a lean, nude, pubescent youth with feet spread
widely apart and the legs locked stiff at the knees. The youth exposes his body, thrusting
his genitalia forward in an apparently unashamed, almost defiant manner. However,
his head is flung back and his arms raised to cover it, as if in shame or anguish. Thus,
by his use of an extraordinary inverted Y pose, the artist has produced a hieroglyphic
symbol of the ambiguity of adolescent sexuality. To create such a thin figure with such
widely spread legs was also a tour de force of marble carving. PF
EUROPEAN SCULPTURE 125
