From my research, and looking at the female nude, it got me thinking of the three Somatotypes :- Ectomorph (thin),Endomorph (round) and mesomorph (muscular).
The old masters usually painted in an idealized manner using social acceptance to push there nudes, these women where usually thin (ectomorph) to appeal and attract the audiences attention. Whereas Jenny Saville and Lucian Freud painted realistic women and even focused particularity at some point point on larger women ( endomorph), such as Savilles painting on Branded and Freuds paintings on Benifit supervisor. These women were not considered attractive they were obese with folds of skin that hung over more skin concealing the natural shape of the human body. There body pale with markings, blotches, sores and full of imperfection and irregularity.
So why is there few muscular women (mesomorph) in the public eye? Could this be due to society’s acceptance of the muscular shape, mainly being dominated by males. Evidence of this could be linked to many artists going back to Roman times when sculptures of men were depicted with large muscles to enforce the notion of their warriors and the power and strength. Renaissance carried this through too with Michelangelo and his sculpture of David.
But there is very little evidence of muscular women so this is something that i intend to look into more and create work from.
