Amedeo Modigliani

Throughout Amedeo Modigliani's pictorial production, the protagonist of his paintings is the human figure. However, since 1916, it has been totally dominated by the female nude. Something that caused him serious problems and that which he lived and created in the Parisian district of Montparnasse where there was a certain sexual freedom; however, when he made his first and only individual exhibition, the show was closed by the police because his nudes were labelled as immoral and with a heavy load of Erotic, too realistic.

Amedeo Modigliani was surrounded by alcohol and drugs, poverty and disease. That is why it is no wonder that he died at the age of 36, in 1920 by suicide, in absolute misery, leaving his wife eight months pregnant.?

Amedeo Modigliani's curse also surrounded his only daughter, who died in strange circumstances years later, believing that in his death intervened the personage that she had chosen to guard the legacy of her father and who had discovered that her father authenticated works that, in reality, he never painted.

After Amedeo Modiglian's death, art lovers started to purchase his art, especially his nudes. For some works, he chose professional models, while for the rest of his works, he employed people from his environment, as well as friends.

"Nude with a necklace" from 1917 is an excellent example of the artist's style. It shows the woman completely naked, only dressed in a coral necklace around the neck. The model's body shows simple lines that mould the volumes of her body, idealising beauty based on those suggestive curves.

The face is Modigliani's usual oval face, with a very attenuated nose and tiny mouth. This gives the face the appearance of a mask, influenced by African sculpture. In this way, he intensified the desire for the unknown by not making an accurate portrait and trying to protect the person without showing her fully.

Regarding the work's composition, it unfolds the body diagonally in the foreground, leaving part of the figure out of the fabric, and places it on a black background in contrast to the white of the sheets and the red quilt.?

This scenario is repeated in several of his other female nudes, works that always have a transparent sincerity and provocation. The theme of the sensual Venus of earlier centuries, such as Tiziano's "Venus of the Urbino" or Velazquez's "Mirror Venus," ?Modigliani does not replace them as they were once depicted in a mythological setting but simply introduces us to these women.

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