Modigliani's Nu Couché and Female Nudes at Galleria Nazionale dell'Umbria

The Galleria Nazionale dell'Umbria in Perugia presents a new exhibition centered on Amedeo Modigliani's Nu Couché, exploring the depiction of the female nude from antiquity to the 20th century. The show includes sculptures, paintings, and drawings, many from Italian collections, highlighting Modigliani's classical and African influences. Modigliani's early exposure to ancient Roman remains in Naples, Torre del Greco, Capri, and Rome shaped his archaic style, echoed in works like the Crouching Aphrodite from Ostia Antica and the Cariatide a forma di Sirena. African art from the Congo and masks from the Trocadéro collections in Paris also inform his simplified forms. The exhibition traces the reclining nude pose from Titian and Giorgione through Giuliano Bugiardini and Valentin Lefèvre, culminating in Modigliani's Nu Couché, painted in 1916 in Zborowski's apartment at Rue Joseph Bara 3. The work features a woman with clasped hands, possibly Jeanne Hébouterne, blending tribal masks with Giorgionesque bodies. The exhibition valorizes little-known Italian pieces and offers insight into Modigliani's synthesis of classical, modern, and contemporary interests.