Introductory Essay – The Differences in the Female Nude
Throughout the history of fine art, one of the many recurring images found within it is the image of the female nude. The appreciation and replication of the female body in its purest form has fascinated artists for centuries, and some variation of it seems to appear in nearly every era or movement of art. To that end, it is interesting to note the changes that occur in style, composition, attitude and meaning between the different eras of art when dealing with the singular, unifying subject of the female nude. This exhibition seeks to examine the female nude in art as a progression of moving from romanticism and eroticism to realism, then to abstraction – gradually holding up a mirror to the male gaze that seems to encourage this objectification of the female body. The goal of the exhibition is to show the woman in the painting as increasingly conscious of, and eventually mocking of, the gaze that inspired it.
Three major eras of art appear in this exhibition – first, is Titian’s Venus of Urbino, a sensual, erotic presentation of Venus in a normal setting befitting the work of the High Renaissance. Then, Edouard Manet’s Titian-inspired work Olympia straddles the line between Realism and Impressionism, keeping some of the eroticism but making the female figure in question fully aware of the person looking at them. The contemporary setting and the less romantic art style makes the work seem more starkly realistic and less enticing for the viewer. Finally, Picasso’s Five Nudes (Les Damoiselles d’Avignon) is firmly in the Cubist tradition that Picasso himself made famous – multiple women of varying shapes and horrifying abstractions stare at and mock the viewer, finally making explicit the objection to their objectification. All three of these major art movements took a brand new direction to how things are painted and presented, which inherently changes its meaning and approach. The High Renaissance painted with thin brushstrokes and shadow, offering sleek, curvy and voluptuous people and settings; Realism/Impressionism focused on slightly more abstraction and visible brush strokes, and Cubism went all out with an emphasis on geography and purposefully unrealistic depictions of objects. The differences in these styles are apparent when looking at prominent examples of how they treat the female nude.
In making this exhibition, I intend to make people think about why they hold the position they do on looking at the female body. Whether one believes that the naked female form is pornographic regardless of its context, or if artistic representation of nudes is empowering and fulfilling for both subject and signifier, the female nude elicits may different reactions in people. The voyeurism inherent in looking at a naked body, whether drawn or in real life, can make some people uncomfortable – this can be exacerbated when the viewer becomes cognizant of the possibility of the object looking back at them. These women, to varying degrees, are aware of their effect on men through the gaze, and reflecting that gaze back upon the men in question. To that end, it is hoped that this collection of female nudes offers the chance to reflect on our own biases, turn-ons, guilt, proclivities, and so forth. By seeing the progression of how art treats the female form, the changes in societal and artistic sensibilities should become apparent.
Venus of Urbino
Venus of Urbino, Titian, 1538, oil on canvas, 119.2cm x165.5cm, Uffizi Gallery.
This work of High Renaissance art sees the goddess Veenus laying on a sheeted bed in a dark room at dusk; she is mostly missing the spiritual significance that she normally has – she could be essentially anyone. Here, she is just a young, beautiful woman lying in repose, holding a bunch of roses in her hand. Her pose is relaxed, her hand softly cradling her groin while she holds herself up by her elbow. In the background, we see two figures – one a girl on her knees by an open window, another an adult woman looking down at her, neither of them looking at Venus in the foreground. The room itself is opulent, with a patterned carpet and many tapestries. The expression on Venus’s face is very relaxed and erotic, looking at us suggestively through half-lidded eyes.
This painting in particular evinces the High Renaissance style of art that depicted the female nude as an openly erotic figure. The body of Venus herself shows no flaws, with milky white skin and firm breasts. The high use of shadow accentuates every curve, and the low light of the room masks any imperfections in her figure. The relaxed, sensual look on her face indicates a welcoming of the viewer to look upon her – the distance of the other figures from her implies a measure of privacy that Venus and the viewer can share. Venus herself is not concerned in the least with her nudity, with her position being very comfortable and open. She presents herself very casually, with merely the hint of sexuality shining through in her repose – the dog sitting at the foot of her bed is a symbol of fidelity, after all, which leavens the depiction of Venus in an interesting way. This invites the viewer to react to Venus in a very interesting way, creating a contradiction in her presentation by being both sensual and aristocratic.
Venus of Urbino is a very stately, standardly erotic figure in the history of the female nude, tying in perfectly with the ordinary understanding of the High Renaissance style of artwork. In putting Venus in so stately an environment, “she is to be revered, admired, kept in the sacred realm of art, where the bodies are not presented for sexual pleasure” (Eck 692). By placing Venus in such an artistic frame, there is a rather unconventional juxtaposition between the sexual and the stately, offering a classier framework by which to view the female form. It is clear in this particular artwork that viewers of this art could feel secure in their eroticism, as the Renaissance trappings permit the gaze to be under the guise of art, while the comforting glance of Venus implies her consent to be looked at. This is the kind of female nude painting that encourages the viewer to look without guilt or self-reflection, while still keeping that eroticism that peeks through Venus’ inviting eyes: “Whether the woman is a courtesan, a goddess, or a bride, Titian has gifted her with the ability to be uniquely sexual and assertive of her own character” (Schiewetz 158).
Bibliography
Eck, Beth A. "Men are much Harder Gendered Viewing of Nude Images." Gender & Society 17,
no. 5 (2003): 691-710.
Schiewetz, Katie. "Love Me Tender: Figuring Out the Real Meaning Behind Titian's Venus of
Urbino." (2005).
Olympia
Olympia. Edouard Manet, 1863, oil on canvas, 130.5 cm x 190 cm, Musee d’Orsay, Paris.
In Edouard Manet’s Olympia, the artist took inspiration from the same kind of setting and pose found in Titian’s Venus of Urbino in order to create a more Realist/Impressionist view of the female gaze. Here, like Venus in Titian’s work, a woman lies in repose on a sheeted bed with one elbow propping herself up and another hand covering her genitalia. However, unlike the warmer, boldly sensual Titian work, Manet’s figure looks disinterested, if not accusatory in her facial expression. Instead of two people in the background, Manet’s woman is being served flowers by a black servant directly next to her, looking at her and paying full attention to the woman who is the subject.
Already, one can see vast differences in style between Titian’s and Manet’s work. While Titian used saturated colors and many detailed brush strokes, Manet uses broader strokes and less detail to make his figure a bit more abstract. The sense of depth is flatter here, as everything seems to happen largely on the same plane. The use of shadow is much less prominent as well, making the woman appear flatter, paler and less erotic, as her features are not as exaggerated. Unlike the large, prominent nipples of Venus, Olympia has barely any nipples to speak of, which contributes to her de-eroticizing. The harsh, bright lighting covering Olympia makes her presentation seem more clinical, less open and inviting to the viewer.
One of the most prominent statements made in Olympia is the gaze on the woman’s face – while she is still confident and strong, like Venus, her look is much more confrontational. Instead of the sly look to the viewer off to the side, Olympia stares at the viewer head-on, making sure that they know she sees them. She holds herself like the normal reposing woman, but she is stronger in her confrontational visage. Venus’ hand over her genitals is soft, demure and half-hearted, almost as if to call attention to her womanhood; Olympia, meanwhile, holds her hand strongly over her genitals as if to forbid entry or gaze. The woman of Olympia looks back just as much as she is being looked at, and she takes much more control over her own body than can be taken from her by man’s gaze of violation (Lipton, 1999).
Manet’s Olympia turns the female nude into much more of a scandalous proposition – instead of passively accepting the male gaze, the figure in Manet’s painting is confrontational and calls into question the morality of those who would look at her (Bernheimer 256). This is the intermediate step taken between the loving acceptance of Titian and the abstracted menace of Pablo Picasso; here, the woman makes herself available for objectification, but manages to protect a measure of dignity through her covering of herself and her accusatory gaze at whomever is looking back at her. In this way, the fictional woman in the painting takes back her identity and dignity, making the viewer reevaluate just what it is about themselves that draws them to the female form.
Bibliography
Bernheimer, Charles. "Manet's Olympia: The Figuration of Scandal." Poetics Today 10.2 (1989):
255-256.
Lipton, Eunice. Alias Olympia: A Woman's Search for Manet's Notorious Model & Her Own Desire. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1999.
Les Damoiselles d’Avignon
Les Damoiselles d’Avignon. Pablo Picasso, 1907. Oil on canvas, 244 x 234 cm, Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Cubism is often known for its breaking down of the traditional ideas of geometry, space, shape and form; this also applies to traditional images like the female nude. In Pablo Picasso’s Les Damoiselles d’Avignon, the challenging gaze of Manet’s Olympia is taken ever further into carnivalesque mocking of the viewer. Instead of one figure, there are now five – they do not sit in repose, but stand or squat in various positions, grouping themselves alongside each other. The Cubism of Picasso’s painting style creates a distinctly huge departure from the Venus of Titian’s work; these figures are blocky, without texture, and simply suggest the female form without actually attempting it. The limbs of the women are twisted and pulled in impossible directions, some limbs being asymmetrical and warped. One woman in the lower right hand corner has her back turned to the viewer but is still able to turn her head toward them. While three of the women have bizarre, Picasso-esque faces, two of them are even more monstrous, with Africanesque masks covering their faces to make them seem even more inhuman. The African element of the painting is absolutely significant, likening the Otherness of such a distant culture with the unknowable of the feminine: “Certainly the ‘African’ figures on the right of Picasso’s painting were meant to express something alien, menacing, and virtually unutterable about ‘the primitive’” (Rubin 634). All of these elements coincide to create a painting that turns the aesthetic pleasure of seeing a nude woman on its head, turning it into a terrifying and alienating experience.
This work is significant in this series as it shows the end-game of the kind of confidence that comes with challenging the male gaze. These figures do not offer anything of service to men in terms of eroticism, instead making a mockery of their gaze while showing their own strength, acting as “bodies that educe comparatively natural and confident postures” (Chave 599). Their motivations are almost hostile, making the viewer radically reevaluate why they are looking at this body and potentially seeking out the kind of eroticism found in female nudes. Picasso challenges this sense of sexuality, making the nudes playful and innocuous instead to limit their intimacy. The presence of multiple women further neuters the sense of intimacy found in works like Venus of Urbino; where once there was a single woman inviting the man to look at her, the women have now ganged up, lost their sensual forms, and mock the men for daring to look at them with such distance. Picasso’s work takes the humanity out of human experience and reshuffles it, so that we might further investigate what it means to us; in the case of the Demoiselles, the experience being reorganized is the objectification of women.
Bibliography
Chave, Anna C. "New encounters with Les Demoiselles d'Avignon: gender, race, and the origins
of cubism." Art Bulletin (1994): 597-611.
Rubin, William. "From Narrative to" Iconic" in Picasso: The Buried Allegory in Bread and
Fruitdish on a Table and the Role of Les Demoiselles d'Avignon." Art Bulletin (1983): 615-649.
Annotated Bibliography
Bernheimer, Charles. "Manet's Olympia: The Figuration of Scandal." Poetics Today 10.2 (1989):
255-256.
Chave, Anna C. "New encounters with Les Demoiselles d'Avignon: gender, race, and the origins
of cubism." Art Bulletin (1994): 597-611.
Eck, Beth A. "Men are much Harder Gendered Viewing of Nude Images." Gender & Society 17,
no. 5 (2003): 691-710.
Lipton, Eunice. Alias Olympia: A Woman's Search for Manet's Notorious Model & Her Own Desire. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1999.
Rubin, William. "From Narrative to" Iconic" in Picasso: The Buried Allegory in Bread and
Fruitdish on a Table and the Role of Les Demoiselles d'Avignon." Art Bulletin (1983): 615-649.
Schiewetz, Katie. "Love Me Tender: Figuring Out the Real Meaning Behind Titian's Venus of
Urbino." (2005).
