PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF A DISTINGUISHED COUPLE

ABOUT THE WORK

Vicente Manansala’s nude works, whether in any medium he employed, demonstrate the master’s profound understanding of human anatomy. In his heydays, a model would come to his house on Wednesdays to pose in the nude. His sessions would last from morning to afternoon, with no less than two nude works produced daily. Manansala created numerous nudes in charcoal. Manansala’s cubist sensibility is evident even in his nudes, as exemplified by this work. But cubism’s tendency to bisect forms did not spill over to Manansala’s depiction of the female form. Instead, he shows his dexterity and familiarity with the human body, rendering with utmost likeness the beauties and flaws of the flesh. Light and shadow engage harmoniously as Manansala ingeniously plays with their dynamics. Isabel Nazareno writes in the book Discovering Manansala: “[Manansala] reminisced that during his student days at the UP...they used to copy a skeleton together with the layers of flesh and body parts, while their professor pointed out and explained the different bones and muscles in the body.” (A.M.)