Fernando Botero's sculptural style, like that of his painting, is as distinctive as it is unique. The grotesquely exaggerated curves of his figures make his sculptures appear monumental, an impression which is further enhanced by the hieratic posture of the figures and the smooth, unwrinkled and shiny surfaces.
In his works, Botero fuses a variety of influences from both Western art and the South American art of his country of origin. His themes, when not taken from Colombian everyday life, often refer to classical motifs of Western art or to famous works of old masters, which he himself studied, mainly in Italy and Spain.
In formal terms, Botero employs the language of forms of old cultures, of both pre-Columbian and prehistoric art. The unrealistic exaggeration of forms is not to be understood as a distortion, but as an emphasis, as an accentuation.
Botero's "Dressed Woman" is a typical example of this approach, the charm of which also lies in the play with the discrepancy between the bourgeois, harmless habitus of the figure and its monumental, stoic presence.
