Absolutely Imperfect: Cranach, Durer, and Nude Renaissance

Surprisingly realistic and attractive, these nudes represent the beauty ideals of two prominent artists of the Northern Renaissance: Albrecht Dürer and Lucas Cranach the Elder. While Dürer relied on a system of accurate mathematical measurements to depict the human body, Cranach developed a characteristic figurative type, whose weakened bodies did not correspond to the Renaissance ideals of harmony and mathematical proportion.

At the exhibition "Absolutely Imperfect: Cranach, Durer, and Nude Renaissance"Engravings and paintings from the collection of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art will be presented. The exhibition will provide a unique opportunity to better understand these two artists and their widely differing approach to female form.