"Propped" by English artist Jenny Saville conveys "the woman" much larger than life. This image is strongly pigmented; giving a realistic flesh texture, adding to the overall mass of the body. The emphasis of the thighs and legs gives the view of looking upward towards the nude who sits atop a stool which her mass envelops. Saville is trying to portray her version of true female beauty, exposing "warts and all." Placing the text over the nude is drawing relation between women's representation in text. The over realistic view of Saville's work is a positive depiction of a human of that form, though it doesn't portray them with the same sensuality of the Aphrodite sculpture.
The Aphrodite nude figure conveys sinuous grace and sensuous charm. She is the goddess of love, beauty, sex appeal and fertility. Her flowing hair that drapes her hands gives a flowing grace like quality to the sculpture. Though the figure of Aphrodite is in proportion, she is still voluptuous and full figured. This is shown on her thighs and their curvature embellishing her round figure. I see the Aphrodite nude in a more positive light as she is voluptuous but not so bottom heavy, as Saville's. Not saying that I see it more positively because it is skinnier just that it has that sensuality aspect which I believe Saville issues due to the over proportion of the nude's hands which are digging into her thighs giving the piece and overall grotesque feel. Saville's over proportioned works are still amazing, I think that the grotesque fell slightly over powers the positive depiction of a human. The work of Rubens is oversized yet very beautiful and still famine. The difference in media used adds to the difference between the two works are that one has been chiseled away at whilst the other has been traditionally oil painted; this adds to the ability to compare the woks but, the ancient greek sculpture of Aphrodite is what I believe a more positive depiction of a female women due to the emotion she conveys.
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