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The feminist art movement
Understanding the role women have played in art
Essays on women in art
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As the art world moved away from Renaissance ideals, the way women were shown in the art world began to shift. In 1863, the french painter Edouard Manet used Venus of Urbino as inspiration for his radical painting Olympia, in which he challenged the limited way women were depicted in art. For one thing, he paints a prostitute, rather than an aristocrat. He paints a prostitute who is unashamed of her work, and unwilling to conform to classically idealized form. Even more radical however, is the way he painted her. Olympia meets the viewer’s gaze head on, and stares almost defiantely. She is positioned slightly above the viewer, and gazes down powerfully. She is wearing just enough to not be considered a nude figure. Instead she is a naked one, …show more content…
She is not posing for a man, or serving as a sexual object. Instead, she is defiantly unashamed of her sexuality. Her hand, rather than delicately and purposefully placed across her lap as it is in the Venus of Urbino, is taut and strong, signifying that she is in control. It is a barrier, rather than an invitation. A black maid is presenting Olympia with flowers from one of her clients, and a cat at the end of the bed arches its back rebelliously (Gardner’s Art Through the Ages). Olympia essentially defies most of John Berger’s philosophies, including the idea of a woman’s statues being valid only in relation to a man. In his theories around surveillance of women, Berger claims that “Men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at. This determines not only most relations between men and women but also the relation of women to themselves. The surveyor of woman in herself is male: the surveyed female. Thus she turns herself into an object -- and most particularly an object of vision: a sight”
The difference is that one is considered a goddess and the other is known to be a prostitute. The goddess is depicted with a chunky body and the prostitute's body has a sensual nature. She is lying on an oriental stole on a couch. She is wearing pearl earrings, a choker around her neck, and a bracelet on her arm, a flower in her hair and the kind of shoes she has on confirms the idea that she is a lady of the night life, along with the black cat that symbolizes that she is a prostitute. Another difference is that there's a maid standing right next to her fully dressed. as if to make you more aware of her nudity. She is holding flowers and has a blank look on her face. The public or the critics could not accept or understand why he would replace a goddess with a prostitute. Also it was not the nudity that appalled people; this was common and had been for centuries but only in a different perspective. The viewers were scandalized by the brazen look on her face. It had more of a bold challenging look. The painting made a bold stand and was too much to accept. The people were so upset by it that the administration had to take extra safety measures to keep the
Prior to the 20th century, female artists were the minority members of the art world (Montfort). They lacked formal training and therefore were not taken seriously. If they did paint, it was generally assumed they had a relative who was a relatively well known male painter. Women usually worked with still lifes and miniatures which were the “lowest” in the hierarchy of genres, bible scenes, history, and mythological paintings being at the top (Montfort). To be able to paint the more respected genres, one had to have experience studying anatomy and drawing the male nude, both activities considered t...
Olympia (Figure 1), one of the many paintings by Édouard Manet, the nineteenth century painter, attracts hundreds of thousands of tourists and art lovers every year from around the world. It inspires artists and delights everyday people, but it has not always been this way. At the 1865 Paris Salon it raised many eyebrows, caused scandal and brought a horrible wave of criticism to the artist. To understand this huge outcry, first we have to examine the tradition of the female nude in painting throughout history.
The Birth of Venus is a beautiful Renaissance canvas masterpiece created by Sandro Botticello. The picture illustrates the birth of Venus in a very mystical way. Venus has emerged from sea on a shell which is being driven to shore by flying wind-gods. She is surrounded by beautiful roses which are painted in a truly remarkable color. As she is about to step to land, one of the Hours hands her a purple cloak. The back drop includes the sea and a forest. The overall effect of this painting are almost overwhelming, color and beauty meet the eye in every angle.
With the nude positioned in the center-front of the symmetrical room, it gives her a sense of balance and dominance over the whole canvass. The luscious textures and colors placed high emphasis on the figure and her seductive pose, while simultaneously restricting the composition of the background to remain subordinate. Furthermore, the historical writings of the Roman goddess, Venus, allowed Brewer to create an appropriate female in the nude, in an appropriate setting and atmosphere.
Rembrandt’s Danaë 1636 is considered the most impressive nude to be found in 17th-century history painting by many art historians. It is painted on a large scale but much more intimate in character than the Blinding of Samson where Rembrandt abandoned his dramatic style. The character Danaë who is depicted in the painting is the mother of Perseus from Greek mythology. It is presumed in the painting that she is welcoming Zeus into her bedroom where he impregnates her in the form of a shower of gold. This painting’s figure is palpable lifelike and exudes a great sensuality unlike any other nude painting in the ea...
The Venus of Willendorf is one of the earliest sculptures of the body made by humans during the Paleolithic era. She was made from limestone native to her location and covered with red orche. Despite standing only 4.4 inches, the purpose of the Venus of Willendorf is widely debated. Some will say the exaggerated breasts, navel, and vulva connects her to fertility as a representation of a mother goddess. Others, such as those in my class, believe her to be a figure of body image. The stumpy female figure features hanging breasts, an obese middle and belly, and distinct buttocks in all, represents a realistic form of a severely overweight woman. Due to the hash ice-age environment of where she’s from leads one to believe fatness and fertility would have been highly desirable. Whether the sculpture was based on a fantasy or a real life model the infatuations with the idea of self-acceptance through body
As time kept passing, more and more magnificent sculptures were made by numerous artists. One of the most memorable sculpture was Aphrodite of Knidos, goddess of love and beauty. Back in the Late Classical Period, the civilians were only used to seeing ideal male nude bodies, but Praxiteles decided to make a different approach and sculpted the first female nude. Because he obviously had never seen a goddess before, he used his imagination and sculpted bathing Aphrodite as humanlike possible. He did not make it look idealistic, but instead made it beautiful with flaws.
Women have appeared throughout the ages in multiple examples of art and history. They portray the ambitions and traits most strive for and show great beauty while doing so. Many artists have captured the beauty portrayed by these women, such as Eugène Delacroix with Greece on the Ruins of Missolonghi (Fig. 1) as well as Antoine-Jean Gros with Embarkation of Madame d’Angoulême (Fig 2). Both of these remarkable artists showed beauty of women in chaotic scenes, yet secretly they also leaked in traits of the mythological goddesses Athena and Aphrodite through Greek influence. Greek influence spread worldwide, especially in the nineteenth century. This influence greatly changed both of these artists’ life, especially in the scenes they were depicting in the images shown.
Looking at the "Olympia" you see a woman who looks into your eyes with no feeling, just a blank stare as if she has no feelings. It was said that a woman began to weep as she stood in front of the painting of Olympia while many of the bourgeoisie men were upset. Although she seems to be uncaring and without feeling , Manet still gives her a sense of flirtation with his audience. Looking in detail at the body language of the painting her legs are crossed and her hand demurely covers her "chatte". Which was used to refer to a woman's genitalia? She is wearing slippers that seem to be dangling off of one foot, which can also be seen as a sexy or flirtatious. The bed is disheveled with lavish linens that look to be of silk. Manet also placed an orchid behind her ear which is also a symbol for sexuality. Manet does not drape her in decadent jewels instead he uses a simple black ribbon tied around Victorian's neck. The black ribbon around the late 1800's is said to have signified that women who wore them were prostitutes. Another famous painter "Degas" also painted ribbons around his ballerina's necks as
A nude woman reclining is a piece of art that has been apart of many art movements throughout history. Édouard Manet's Olympia, and Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres' Le Grande Odalisque, are two pieces that are apart of this history.
The history of Western art is replete with the naked human body. The nude has been used to idealise, to romanticize and to philosophise about human existence since the Ancient Greeks. Plato’s id...
The Birth of Venus, by Sandro Botticelli, after 1482, was the choice for my writing assignment. It can be found on page 401, in our textbook, The Humanistic Tradition, by Gloria K. Fiero. The painting is a tempera on canvas and is 5ft x 9ft ½ in. Canvas was often used because it was less expensive and easier to transport. The Birth of Venus was one of the first non-biblical female nude paintings. Many of the earlier artwork of nude females were of Eve. As I was doing research, I found many different opinions and interpretations of the work. Often nude female artwork enhances a demeaning image of the female.
Olympia shows a nude woman lying on a bed and being brought flowers by a servant. Olympia was modelled on Victorine Meurent and Olympia’s servant on the art model Laure. Her confrontational gaze caused shock and astonishment when the painting was first exhibited, especially because a number of details in the picture identified her as a prostitute. Also, take a look at the cat in the right corner – in the show it’s anthropomorphised.
Even though this piece was made as early as the 16th century, the opinions on sexuality in art had shifted several times before they could get to this point to appreciate naked flesh. Starting with Greek art, dep...