Models Are People Too

It is an interesting relationship between the artists and the person taking their robe off in front of those artists.  I always remind myself that Michelangelo put in plenty of time with figure studies.  One young person I explained it to couldn’t make sense of it.  “But they aren’t really naked.”  “Yes they are really naked.”  “But, so, they aren’t real people.”  “Yes they are real people.”  “But they do actually have clothes on.”  “No, they don’t actually have clothes on.”  “So, the people aren’t actually there.” “Yes, they are actually there.”  And so on.

I guess it’s weird, except it’s not.  Most artist models are professional artist models.  Sometimes they walk around during their break to see the drawings, but mostly they don’t.  Sometimes we know their names, and sometimes we don’t.   It can be hard to know how chatty to get with them during breaks.