Ignaz Elhafen at the AGO

On a recent evening visit to the AGO I returned to the amazing ivory and wood carvings from the Thomson Collection. I forever am impressed at the ability of these carvers from Medieval to Baroque period for not only their ability to do such intricate work, but also the level of anatomical knowledge they possessed.

Ignaz Elhafen one just one of the many on display that caught my attention for his intricacy. He's not a common name, nor is he considered one of the greats since it seems he concentrated on the same theme over and over again (precursor to mass production?), but damn he was good. He must have had the hands of of brain surgeon, and perhaps the brain of one too to have such all encompassing grasp of form in space. To an expert Ignaz may not be impressive, but to me he is and once again I have to express my thanks to the late Ken Thomson for his inclusion of Ignaz' work in his collection.

Skeleton Gestures

Haven't been able to do any life drawing lately, and when I came across this study it just made me want to get back at it even more.

I should add that although this hardly seems like 'life drawing' I find doing these kind of quick studies keeps me tuned in to the inner structure. When I pull the skin over the underlying bone structure, the skeleton effect on the surface form is a kind of punctuation that holds and moves the eye over, around and about the figure itself, holding it here and moving it there so that a sense of timing in the movement of the eye and the message to the mind is created.

Study of a Bird Skull