ABSTRACT
NEAR THE end of his long, two-part article, “The Paths of Classicism in Art,” Lev Bakst proclaims: “The air, the sun, and foliage are the elements of recent painting; the elements of the future will be man and stone” (1909, II, 61). Throughout the essay that appeared in the second and third issues of Apollon, Bakst stresses the importance of the nude human form for the art of the future and is heartened by the work of his contemporaries. “Around us…we see indications of laudatory investigation in this direction, in the isolation and emphasis on man’s beauty, unencumbered by the details and the landscape that had crushed it” (ibid., 60).
