John Flaxman: art, design and the intermedial body

John Flaxman was one of only a handful of British artists of the early nineteenth century to achieve a wide international reputation. His prolific career as a sculptor and designer is distinguished by its material virtuosity, moving with apparent ease across different media and scales. He was among the first students to enrol at the Royal Academy Schools, and in 1810 was appointed the Academy's first Professor of Sculpture. This project seeks to explore the material and visual richness of Flaxman's work in two and three dimensions, in (or for) stone, metal, ceramics and on paper. The project has been devised to give the student room to shape the research according to their academic interests and professional goals, prompted by a series of broad research questions: How does Flaxman's conception of the body correlate from one medium to another? How did Flaxman's practice shape, and how was it shaped by, the culture and institutional practices of the Royal Academy? In what ways do Flaxman's bodies respond to, affirm, or challenge hegemonic constructions of race, class and gender?