Nude Female Figure or Dancer, 1920

Kostas Dimitriadis could be characterized as the bearer par excellence of Rodin’s style into modern Greek sculpture. He adopted not only his plastic style but also the same subjects as his starting point, especially in his commission free compositions.

Among his non commissioned compositions, a most eminent place was occupied by nude female figures. The “Nude Woman” (or “Dancer”) falls within the range of his interests, while the model was the famous dancer Stasia Napierkowska. Dimitriadis, who was particularly interested in the rendering of the momentary, the fleeting, is here endeavoring to render the fleeting movement of the dance, which at the same time offers him the possibility to demonstrate his ability in the rendering of anatomical details. However, one must not overlook the iconographic model used here, the “Woman-Centaur” (c. 1887) by Rodin. Dimitriadis borrowed the intense twisting of the body and the desperate stretching of the arms ahead, thus largely negating their dramatic content, and transformed them into the harmonious and graceful movement of his own dancer.