Giovanni Civardi "The Human Body" - About the Book

Let us designate the title of the book: “The Human Body (Anatomy, Morphology, Plastic)”. And now - forward to the visual content of the publication. The author loudly declares that all his drawings are made from models. And by chance, adds a few words that some poses might be uncomfortable for posing. Sounds like the truth. Indeed, judging by the drawings, people suffered! (How much in vain). Leading specialist Giovanni can allow you to show your own skills without the participation of sitters, because the drawings are made schematically. And it doesn’t matter if they were written from models or with the help of imagination, backed up by knowledge of their craft.

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The book presents a large number of illustrations. All of them are made in black ink and feather. The purpose of the author is to teach to depict the human body based on a schematic graphic illustration. Thus, all the drawings look schematically. In the publication of D. Chivardi, as opposed to, say, the publication of B. Hogarth, the presence of abundant illustrative material does not imply the characterization of the self-instruction manual as “quality”.

The peculiarity of the Italian

Before proceeding to a direct analysis of the drawings, I must say a few words about the artist’s manner. It is noteworthy in that the author pays special attention to the genitals of sitters. D. Chivardi draws them not only with enviable constancy (and really, where without them?), But also with nothing “undisguised” love. (From this we can make an assumption why the master’s hand did not use the imagination to create educational drawings: the main thing is “vision”!)

And here is the fun part!

For example, drawings under the names "open" and "closed" form. If everything is more or less clear with the “closed” form - the author turned the model up, then the “open” one is interesting only by its name (regarding the authorship of Chivardi). Here the author suggests seeing the following picture: a man standing shoulder-width apart with his arms raised up and slightly apart. And all would be well, but not without genitals. It would seem that everyone already understands that they should be located there, but in general, no one would have noticed their absence (or easy marking by lines), since we are talking about (and it should be emphasized) an artistic image. The author himself forgot, he was so absorbed in the process about the purpose of his work. But recall that it is contained in the phrase: "Try to teach to portray the human body." And the human body in the artistic image is the body, arms, legs, head.

I must say that the passion for genitalia has so much taken possession of the author that he managed to portray the genitals in cases where they would even be imperceptible. But the sharp-sighted eye of D. Chivardi sees the genitals even in the most inaccessible places for sight. For example, the series of images “Dimensions and Proportions: Methods of Observation and Sizing” shows the dimensions of the human body: length and width. The model is depicted from the back in full growth. Between the legs there is something that you can only guess. But, assuming an artistic drawing, we assume that this is an additional central point of the illustration (not counting the main one, located just above), which determines the direction of the length and width of the human body (in this case, the male).

As you can see, the genitals are not ignored, which adversely affects such a part of the body as the “arm”. For example, the picture “Expressiveness”. The first picture shows a man - in the same position as in the example above, with one difference - his arms and legs are bent. Of course, between the legs is an integral work in all its glory. It is worth noting that such art is drawn with much more enthusiasm than other parts of the body. The following illustration shows a man in motion - he is depicted in a half-turn. Everything is fine with the left hand - it can be seen, the author even drew his fingers well, not much hatching… But the second, right hand - was gone. According to the true intention of the author, judging by other illustrations, a part of the hand should be visible on the left side of the body, the arm disappeared without a trace. At least one finger. No hands! At the same time, D. Chivardi does not forget to draw genitals, as already noted, even where they should not be. What can this trend tell in the images of the Italian artist? Of course, speaking of the study guide, there is no place to talk about the temperament of the famous Italian (sexologists note). Turning to a detailed analysis of the drawings by Giovanni Civardi, it is quite difficult to call him a "master". Such a presentation and generally the manner in which the educational material is portrayed characterizes rather than a master, but a crude “fake”: excessive naturalism is no longer art. Art involves building a new reality - better than ideal, as an incentive for a person to become good and beautiful in practice, but what did D. Civardi want to say as an artist? Being a pornographer, he managed more!