Text

Sculptor Bram Roth believed that his art should transcend nature. This is evident from a statement he made in 1986: "My work, in which women and horses are the main themes, is naturalistic, but it is not an imitation of nature. [...] I play with the form and the proportions of my subject and thus create a poetic, spiritual translation of reality.

This description fully applies to his bronze sculpture 'Reclining Woman' in the Zuiderpark. Roth gave the woman unnaturally long limbs and lovely facial features, making her unrealistically beautiful. With her long neck, 'Reclining Woman' is reminiscent of a Mannerist Madonna. The painters of Mannerism (1530-1600), in reaction to the ideal reality of the Renaissance, artificially gave their figures long necks, arms, legs, fingers and feet. Roth undoubtedly knew about Mannerism. However, he never indicated that this art movement was a direct source of inspiration for him. In his search for an unearthly beauty and ultimate grace, he naturally arrived at the elongated body shapes. This was independent of examples from art history.

Everything about 'Reclining Woman' is typically Roth. She is at once graceful and voluminous, both delicate and robust. Her seemingly gossamer robe and hairstyle are worked out in minute detail. But her body is colossal and her posture static. Lying down on a bench at the edge of leafy groves, she looks like a resting shepherdess in a rustic scene. A shepherdess who curiously raises her head and looks at the passers-by.