‘Cutting the Curve’: Crafting the Classical Body is all about simplicity, getting to the heart of things. The creator of these striking images, Vanessa Stone, has worked at reducing images of Greek and Roman statues – many of them will look familiar, even if you’re not a Classics student – to their essence, the sense of proportion and demeanour which has made classical art a subject of wonder for thousands of years. She talks of the importance of seeing the stencils as the artwork, rather than as a stage in the process of creating an image. Drawing the image onto paper with a scalpel, she forms stencils to abstract them to their essence, and her images become, ultimately, layered paper collages, which she then cuts through again to rework the picture. Stone is already known in Cambridge for her work involving local scenes, which has been exhibited at Byard Art on King’s Parade since 2006. She’s evidently very excited about the project, calling it a ‘dream come true’, not least because of how much the images in the cast gallery have captivated and inspired her as an artist.

This is not a stand-alone exhibition in one corner of the cast gallery – it’s intimately integrated into its surroundings. This made it, for me, seem less like an exhibition and more like an addition to the viewing process and, depending on the individual, can be seen as a positive or negative. Some, such as the Aphrodite of Capua, were pieces which benefitted from being viewed in adjunct to the images which inspired them, whereas others, like I am Horse, felt somewhat less relevant. With regard to this last image, the top of the horse’s head feels very classically inspired, and manages to capture the look of marble, but as you move down the nose and onto the mouth, it begins to morph into something less familiar as it becomes shrivelled and almost corpse-like. This is not to take away from the image itself – but a large proportion of the pictures feel peripheral to the idea of the exhibition.

The exhibition is an interesting – if lighter – companion piece to the Fitzwilliam’s Following Hercules last term, in that it explains classical art with a combination of classical and modern work, showing how the classical form continues to delight and provoke artists today. It is also nice to see that both exhibitions featured prominently the works of local artists, giving them unique opportunities to exhibit their work in such unique settings. It’s a shame that with our busy terms, as students we rarely get the opportunity to properly enjoy the museums and galleries on offer in Cambridge. We could all do, however, with taking the time out to visit carefully considered exhibitions such as these, which invite us either to discover the museum for the first time, or to find new ways of viewing and engaging with objects we are already familiar with.

‘Cutting the Curve’: Crafting the Classical Body is open from 10am-5pm, Monday to Friday, and 10am-1pm on Saturday, until 25th February in the Museum of Classical Archaeology. Free Admission.