In his depictions of the female nude, John Currin mines a number of distinct pictorial styles from art history; his figures have exhibited the frilly ruffles and peachy skin tones of French Rococo paintings, as well as the distended anatomies and distorted proportions of Northern Renaissance and early Mannerist works. The faces, makeup, and hairstyles of Currin’s women, however, are always borrowed from contemporary magazines and advertisements. Ultimately, the artist’s fusion of high and low source materials produces distinctly beautiful, often disturbing, works that are equal parts homage and parody. This painting is a direct quotation of Annibale Carracci’s Dead Christ (c. 1584; Staatsgalerie Stuttgart).
