Visual Analysis

Genesis, carved by Jacob Epstein from 1929 to 1931, is a sculpture currently displayed at the corridor in the back of Whitworth Art Galley in Manchester. This 1.6-meter-tall sculpture is a part of a gravid woman carved from head to thighs, which are sunk into an irregular hacked marble slab, being slightly larger comparing to human scale. It is white as a whole, presenting the colour of seravezza marble of which it is made. Obviously, it is carved, and tool marks can be observed from the body. This artwork is mounted on a 20-centimeter-high wooden pedestal, which is also painted white. Because the sculpture is displayed near the wall, one is not able to walk around it, but still can see all round by pressing himself against the wall and seeing through the narrow area between the sculpture’s back and the wall.
Being representational, however, the sculpture is queer in some ways. The woman’s face is long and heart-shaped, her eyebrows thick, curved and prominent, her eyes elongated with outer canthi upward to the temples, her nose angular with wide wings, and her mouth blobber-lipped. One strange thing is that her eyeballs are not as normal as spheres, instead, inside her eyelids, her eyes are sunken with vague irises, which contribute to the half-realistic style of the sculpture. Another is that the light and shadow on her face results in the seemingly mustache on her lips. The face has somewhat masculine features instead of feminine, and is reminiscent of Africa Homo. The only thing on her head that indicates her gender is her braided hair, thick and heavy placed on both of her shoulders. Seeing from right or left sides, one can observe the flat contour from the forehead to her nose: her cheekbones do not protrude at all, and bridge of her nose long but extremely flat. Her mouth is very protrude, as if her is pouting, and this looks apparent even though her chin is tucked in.
Below her fatty chin is her upper body, which plumps from her chest; her shoulders seem comparatively neat, since her collarbones are easy to be seen. Her breasts are full and gathered, and stomach large, thus she is pregnant heavily. As every loving mother usually do, she puts her left hand on her stomach, and right hand on her ipsilateral thigh. Her hands are big and out of proportion to her arms. At the back, her buttocks are uncovered, large and carved meticulously to the life; nevertheless, if one looks from the front, he will find that the woman wears an underwear which covers her private part. Her thighs are thick and swells from the hip. The marble slab at the bottom is hewn very roughly, and has many tiny holes on it. The gap between the arms and the body, and between her right hand and her thigh is carved halfheartedly, for there can be seen some excessive stone in the gap. Seeing from the left side, a scratch from her armpit to her shoulder is well-marked.
Looking from the left or right side of the sculpture, one can see the woman is leaning back from her shoulders and protruding her belly to balance herself because of the uneven distribution of her weight. With her chin drawn in, an oblique outline of her body is seen from both sides. Change the perspective to the front, one can observe the isosceles triangular composition. What is noteworthy is that, there is more than one triangular composition in the sculpture: the head and neck above the shoulders, and the part above her left hand on the belly are another two triangular compositions. On the one hand, the sculpture has a roughly symmetrical outline as a whole; on the other hand, the subtle facial expression, the asymmetrical breasts and different placement of the hands help make the sculpture not that rigorous. Her face is long, which is about one fifth the height of the whole sculpture, but this doesn’t affect the whole build, making it top-heavy. On the contrary, the overall build is quite stabilized, for her face is long but narrow, and parts of her body become thicker from top to bottom.
Looking from distance, this heavily gravid woman, leaning back but standing firmly, self- protective but flabby, manlike-headed but feminine-and-fertile-bodied, standing back to the wall in the modern and capacious corridor. Decades passed, but she didn’t change.