Over the years many artist have viewed sensitive subjects within their work. Sex is one of the sensitive subjects that has been viewed in a positive and negative way. Before and during the 19th century, most paintings, sculptures, and art pieces focused on the features of a human's body. During this time, most artist believed that showing these features of a human could show the role a woman and man had in life. Sculptures in early times focused on the body of a man and showed distinctive features from head to toe. Most sculptures were representations of Greek Gods, which showed their strength and power throughout their body. Showing the sexual side of men in art, lead to showing the sexual features of a woman. The sexual features of a …show more content…
In this painting is shows a nude woman covering her private areas (p69) . As a viewer of the painting, I believe the woman is more focus on showing her confidence in herself rather than worrying about her nudity being the topic of the painting. In comparison to the Venus of Urbino, the Venus of Willendorf which is Figure 7.3, is a small sculpture that displays realistic features of a woman's body. The sculpture presented features such as breasts, legs, pubic areas, and toes. The Venus of Willendorf also represented the stability in fertility and good fortune in the life of a woman. The Venus of Willendorf lacked the actual appearance of a women, it had distinctive dimensions of a woman. Its obvious that these are two different pieces of art, but these pieces of art informs a viewer of how the sexual appearance of a woman contributed to this era. Over time artists incorporated the sexual appearance of both man and woman into their artwork. Some artist would show men and woman as a primordial couple. The first primordial couple that is shown in the textbook is Adam and Eve (Figure 7.11). The focus of the painting wasn't entirely based on the multiplying of Adam and Eve, but the representation of the couple were seen in a nude manner. The man in the painting who represented himself as Adam, covered his eyes, but showed the reproduction genitals of his body. The female representation of Eve, was shown by a woman who covered her reproductive areas, but walked
Nude figures have been featured in art works since around 30 to 25,000 B.C. And throughout the history of art, we can see a lot of artists being inspired and influenced by great talents before them, in one way or another they would carry the style or ideas of those previous artists into their own art and create new masterpieces. One particular example is Édouard Manet’s Olympia from the Realism period, and Yasumasa Morimura’s Futago. The two paintings share great similarities in their composition, but the content and purpose of the paintings, and style wise the two pieces are very different.
The primary focus of ancient Greek sculptures was that of the human body. Almost all Greek sculptures are of nude subjects. As the first society to focus on nude subjects, Greek sculptors attempted to "depict man in what they believed was the image of the gods and so would come to celebrate the body by striving for verisimilitude or true – likeness (realism and naturalism!)."(Riffert) Not only did the Greeks celebrate the human form in their art but also in everyday life. (Riffert) One of the favorite topics for sculptors was that of the athlete. In Greek culture athletes were described as "hero–athletes". (Riffert) This shows that athletes were revered and looked upon as heroes. The influence
The style of the Venus of Willendorf is appropriate for her time period because most early pre-historic art consists of small figurines of nude women with little or no emphasis on facial features, which are exactly the characteristics of the Venus of Willendorf.
The article also acknowledges how the sculpture is a unique find in art especially in terms of how well the sculpture has been preserved and how the damage to the sculpture were minimal as compared to other similar discovered Venus sculptures. Arenas acknowledges how there are also numerous interpretations and explanations on how the arms of the Venus de Milo actually look like or what they are actually doing. The article also presents sultrier take on Venus de Milo, seeing her in all her seductive glory. Through the eyes of Arenas, there is more human, yet otherworldly perspective of Venus de Milo, one which matches romanticized women in mythology. Arenas also envisions the sculpture in relation to feminine charm and how it and the sculpture represents a severed phallus come to life. This represents social and carnal anxiety as well as longing, potency and also impotence.
The main focus of the painting intended by Titian is a nude woman, Venus, looking straightforwardly at the audience. The young woman’s nipples are erect; with her left hand covers her pubic area, the sexuality of this painting is unquestionable. She is completely naked except for the ring on her little finger and the bracelet around her wrist. It is clear that the intention of this painting is to evoke sensual feelings in its audience.
Reclining nude female is a common subject matter in art history since the Venetian Renaissance, Titian’s Venus of Urbino painted in 1538 is one of the earliest reclining nude female in painting history. It described a beautiful young female laying on her bed with her sleeping dog, on the back ground is her maids looking for cloth or her in the cassone. Manet’s Olympia that painted in 1865 is a painting with a similar composition, A nude young female who was suggested a prostitute, behind her is her black female maid holding a big bouquet of flower which is possibly from her customer. On the same part of the composition, there is an animal as well, but this time it is a cat. Titian and Manet’s reclining nude female have a same composition and subject matter, however They are very different in art history, both stylistically and culturally.
The Venus of Willendorf was believed to be created 25,000 years ago, is none-freestanding sculpture and is sculpted out of oolitic limestone. The subject matter I believe it to convey a fertility figure for men and woman to gaze upon. The Venus of Willendorf is a none-freestanding female nude stature, which is an 11 centimeters high, made out of oolitic limestone and now resides in Naturhistorisches Museum. She was found in 1908 in Austria in a village called Willendorf. This small oolitic limestone figure representing a woman in the nude is believed to be created 25,000 years ago. The stature has been carved out of oolitic limestone and has been given a red ochre tint. I believe that Venus of Willendorf was created to represent fertility in
Even though some artists, as Berger claims, tried to resist this tradition, they couldn’t overcome the cultural tradition of female objectification that has continued to the present. These artists failed to create a different view in culture because of the media and how the perception wouldn’t change in the eyes of men. One famous artist who tried to resist this awful trend was an artist name Rubens. In his portrait of his second wife, the painting named Helene Fourment in a Fur Coat, he tried to portray the same message with a different image.The image is of a women with no other clothing other than a fur coat looking shameful. The middle-aged looking women in the painting was wearing a big brown fur coat. The difference between a regular “nude”
The Venus of Willendorf was found in 1908 by a workman named “Johann Veran” (Selen). It was found by archeologists at a Paleolithic site. Here at the Naturhistorisches Museum in Vienna, Austria, we have the only authentic Venus Figurine (Naturhistorisches Museum Wien). The artifact’s purpose is still being speculated by many. But from what I can infer, the figurine was used a a maternal figure, and it shows the richness of female fertility.
The reading claims that nudes throughout artistic history have been an important source of beauty and controversy. Nudes began to spike during the Baroque period as they were used for the more expressive and emotional arts of the time. In the nineteenth century, nudes became more common, yet became more sensitive. Artists would train by drawing nudes of ancient Greek statues and figures from myth. However, many artists would then move on to create works depicting prostitutes or peasant naked women. This would not please patrons as they were extremely societally taboo. However, this did not start artists from making them, as they moved into the twentieth and twenty-first century. This shows the importance of artistic nudes and their impact
The sculptures and paint show details how society viewed and interpreted women body, sexuality, and maternity. In addition, revealed that these women were protected from threats around them with ornaments. Civilizations since early times, believed that we were in permanent threat from forces we do not see or cannot explain and because of it, we protected ourselves with artificial elements in a form of jewelry, crowns or caps. This idea has been continue from one generation to the next to the point that in modern societies some of us still use this type of protection in our bodies (e.g., small cross, divine images, tattoos, etc.).These pieces of art also indicate that humans believed in gods with superpowers and they are looking over us constantly. Humanity also believes in dark forces or demons trying to makes us do things that would upset the good gods. Some of the differences between these sculptures and paint are the material in which each one of them were created. The first figure, the Woman of Willendorf was carved in limestone, the second piece, the portrait of Queen Tiye was carved in wood and the last piece, the Virgin and Child Icon was created of tempera on a wood. You can also notice how the details on their faces and bodies changes throughout the time and years. The woman of Willendorf figurine offers details of a voluptuous nude women’s body but there is not face, or feet. Queen Tiye statue shows the face of a woman in detail closed to the gods but without any body parts and lastly The Virgin and Child Icon, is an expression of divinity of the views, reflections and beliefs from the gospel. Because communities started to innovate on the art of carving and painting, populations began to discover and/or create art with the objective of expressing different purposes of our daily lives, such as the beauty of a woman’s body, or to commemorate an ancient
Venus of Urbino demonstrates a beautiful, young woman, Venus, lying nude on what appears to be a reclined couch or bed. However, the woman illustrated means much more than merely a nude woman. There have been many interpretations of this beautiful woman over the years but many art historians agree that the Venus of Urbino has to do unambiguously with the male sexual desire for the female nude body.
Artist and people viewing the art work have always had a fascination with the female nude. Even when I was a child my attention was captured by the nude art not because I was a kid and I saw a nude lady , but it forced me to wonder more about why the female nude was so amazing as a tool for art and why this is repeated so many times throughout the centuries. One female nude painting in particular was the subject of controversy and exposed the syncretism and or the power of the female nude painting.
Both Goffen and Pardo view many of Titian’s paintings of women to be erotic or sensual and site that as an important quality of the painting. Pardo discusses the importance of the evocation of emotion for the success of a painting. It’s “Truth” she wrote, was based on this ability to be erotic and create feelings. The ability to contact the senses of the eye and touch was also a sign of skill attributed highly to Titian with his use of colors and the rough canvas he preferred. Goffen also discusses the Renaissance beliefs that women are innately sexual, and that this was not seen as a bad thing. In fact, to be beautiful is related to being virtuous and so many upper class women wanted their portraits to portray a sensual nature. Pardo relates this to the paintings uses as decoration or for personal sexual enticement. While this most definitely could be true, and probably was for many pictures, she doesn’t discuss and point of agency for the women portrayed and may simplify their
In many works of art throughout history, female breasts have been featured prominently and in the nude. The symbolic meaning credited to the breast was usually associated with fertility and nourishment, both spiritual and physical, and in the wider sense, with life. Eroticism, nourishment, abundance, expression, feminine power, as well as feminine subservience, are different contradicting themes of the breast played out in time.