La Grande Odalisque: Venus Of Urbino

One of the example that influenced by Venus of Urbino is the La Grande Odalisque painted by Ingres. In nineteenth Century, the French aristocracy had a strong interest of the Oriental palace. Ingres painted this La Grande Odalisque in order to meet the needs of those nobilities. The woman in the painting is not dressed up like a traditional western female. Instead, she gets a Turkish hairband wrapped on her hand, holding a peacock feather fan. And even the silk which she is laying on has the exotic splendor. In this painting, the nude body takes the majority of the space in the entire painting. Her her elbows, hair and toes almost have reached the border of the frame. A technique unique to Ingres was his anatomical distortions. Thus

The odalisque gently inclined in bed, confidently showing her body. In the composition, the maid body forms a large arc, which builds a corresponding with the curtain down right. Thus it makes the whole picture keeps balance. Color also shows the artist's bold and chic, blue curtain and rose flesh does not coordinate, but the phase is very bright with decorative effect. The maid’s smooth body like petals generates a layer of color and the texture is bright, rich, vivid and poetic. Additionally, from the perspective of the pose, the maid is elegant, solemn and quiet but the face shows a sense of indifference and enchanting. The woman’s back is facing the viewer. Unlike what is shown in the Venus of Urbino, the model is actually facing directly to the audience to seduce men. The odalisque is offering herself to the man but just giving him a slight view of her body. There is unconcern in her eyes rather than a kind of softness and flirtation as in the eyes of Venus of Urbino. Instead of extensively showing the full body, only the back of the odalisque faces the viewer and she barely reveals her breasts. This works perfectly embodies Ingres’s pursuit of ancient Greece sculpture’s "solemn greatness". It is also one of the outstanding representatives of nude art for nineteenth