Abstract
The aim of this paper is to see how paintings techniques and world description changed through epochs concentrating on a single theme of female body. the three chosen works for analysis are Caravaggio's Death of the Virgin (1604-1606) for Baroque, Jacques-Louis David's Madame Recamier (1800) for Neoclassicism as part of the Enlightenment and Francisco Goya's The Nude Maya (1800) as an example of Romanticism.
Key words: Baroque, Enlightenment, Romanticism, female body, paintings, light.
Caravaggio's Death of the Virgin (1604-1606)
Jacques-Louis David's Madame Recamier (1800)
Francisco Goya's The Nude Maya (1800)
Looking on the background of all studied materials, the three chosen works for analysis are Caravaggio's Death of the Virgin (1604-1606) for Baroque, Jacques-Louis David's Madame Recamier (1800) for Neoclassicism as part of the Enlightenment and Francisco Goya's The Nude Maya (1800) as an example of Romanticism. The main aim of this research is to see how paintings techniques and ways of world description changed through epochs concentrating on one common theme for all chosen paintings - description of female body.
Caravaggio's work describes the Virgin Mary on her deathbed surrounded by moaning crowd. The viewer sees the very realistic human body of a woman lying on the bed with her pale and swollen arms and legs resting on the pillows. Her shape just as all surrounding people corresponds to the realistic proportions of a real human being; thus, no idealisation or iconographic description was used (Keith, 2010). On the front of the painting is a crying girl right next to Mary's bed, the mourners surround her bed and are shown in proportion of who stands closer and who further. Looking at the faces of described people they are shown in their imperfect but sturdy human appearance of any peasant or nobleman alike (Keith, 2010). The main reason why this painting can belong to Baroque style is not simply because of its realistic approach to description of human body, but rather in the used technique. Instead of bright and colourful Renaissance painters, Caravaggio used the play of light and shadow, emphasising on the depth of dark shadows and enlightening of the most important elements of composition. In case of this painting, the emphasis was placed upon the body of the Virgin, while the crowd was painted in dark colours and shadows. This also sent a message of her holiness in death and inconsistency with the world of living (Keith, 2010).
Jacques-Louis David's Madame Recamier shows the image of a woman in a traditional Greek/Roman long tunica lying on the sofa. Her whole appearance, from clothes to hair style and ancient lamp to enlighten the room reminds of classic Antiquity (Carrier, 2003). The figure is central to the whole composition and is described in a slight idealised manner of the Renaissance - round forms and brightness of the face and decorum (Carrier, 2003). On the other hand, the main emphasis of the painting, meaning the woman's figure is achieved through the playing with light and darkness - the front of the painting is light and the female figure seems to be the source of that light, since behind her back the background was dark and plain (The Fine Art Diner, 2012). This work belongs to the Neoclassicism first of all, because of historical context of description, meaning Greek details, certain degree realism in female body description unlike Rococo, simplicity in composition, use of light and darkness as main means of attention manipulation instead of colours of Rococo and Renaissance (The Fine Art Diner, 2012).
Francisco Goya's The Nude Maya describes a naked female body on the bed. In this work Goya follows his traditional technique of a dreamy perception of reality, which is achieved through a "looser, more spontaneous technique" (HaeLim Lee, 2011). This was giving an impression of softness and emotionality of the image. Unlike previous two works, this one described female body in a more detail, and also concentrated on the face and diversity of colours in it (Tips and Techniques, 2010). The depth of colour in details like pillows and bed cloths contributes to certain surrealism of the image and depth of imagination. The whole composition is mainly light and emotional in its nature. This work belongs to Romanticism because of soft techniques and general emotional posture of the naked woman's body (Tips and Techniques, 2010).
Each of the painters had his own philosophy for creating this or that painting or being an artist in general. Caravaggio worked in order to recreated reality as it was and not simply follow iconographic prescriptions of the Church (Keith, 2010). Jacques-Louis David's philosophy was in creation of works of art in the name of freedom and it did not matter whether that freedom was in terms of French Revolution or personal freedom of describing what history can teach (Carrier, 2003). Goya believed that personal impressions and emotions should be the leading forces of artist's creativity (Tips and Techniques, 2010).
Each of the works fitted perfectly well to their time specifics. The Virgin showed that saints could no longer be idealised and that human body was a corner stone of it all. So, this work reflected the changes in the Italian society from canonisation of saints to showing their human nature, or at least appearance (Keith, 2010). Madame Recamier reflected the simplicity and beauty of the French Revolution, its spirit of freedom and irrelevance of social stratification - she was simple, gracious and beautiful ('The Fine Art Diner', 2012). Maya reflected the sensuality and sexuality of female body which was yet to be accepted in the European society, which was still largely dominated by Victorian perception of women (HaeLim Lee, 2011).
References
Carrier, D. (2003). The Political Art of Jacques-Louis David and his Modern-Day American
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HaeLim Lee. (2011). Romanticism - Art. Francisco de Goya (1746-1828). Retrieved from
http://www.personal.psu.edu/users/h/q/hql5056/finalProject/art.html.
Keith, C. (2010). Low Life, High Art. New Republic, 241(20), pp. 21-28.
'Tips and Techniques: Francisco de Goya' (2010, April 6). Retrieved from
http://startstudioarts.si.edu/2010/04/tips-and-techniques-francisco-de-goya.html
The Fine Art Diner (2012, March 19). Madame Recamier: The New Queen of France.
Retrieved from http://thefineartdiner.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/madame-recamier-new-
queen-of-france.html.
