Mušič himself called female nudes he created in series between 1946 and 1952 with the diminutive nudino (Ital: small nude).
It is a series of drawings and prints in a small format. He depicts a female figure as a Roman matron, who is recognizable in the drawings by the typical hairdo as the artist's wife Ida Barbarigo, although the face is formless. Matrons were for the old Romans dignified women of the upper class, usually of a stronger build. In the Roman antiquity, a female stature with small breasts and wide hips was held to be the ideal of female beauty. Mušič depicted his image of the female in nude, only with jewellery around her neck. He painted similar necklaces also on the busts of his wife Ida.
The pose is reminiscent of Goya’s Maja, whose clothed variant Mušič copied in the Prado, Madrid, in 1935.
Gift of Ljuban, Milada and Vanda Mušič to the National Gallery of
Slovenia
Music, O. I., 2010, Cat. No.: 407