The Mirror Like Reflection Of Art

Throughout history female figures have played an important role as subject matter. The female figure is very subjective, as peered through the different lenses of varying cultures. The status and functions of women in these cultures are the primary factors that influence how they are portrayed in art of a certain culture. However, the female figure itself through its natural and inherent iconography represents fertility and the importance of women in society. This natural iconography creates certain parallels in content between all works that use the female figure as subject matter. This varying subjectivity of a female’s status based on an artist’s culture will create differences in content and themes; however some aspects remain similar

Prehistoric and ancient artists represent men and women in various ways and the works of art tell an altered story, which reinforces old-fashioned gender roles. Additionally, representations of prehistoric and ancient genders illustrate the social standards of their specific periods. The views of gender presented by the works of art are still recognizable, despite all individual’s current sensibilities and views today. An individual’s contemporary view is of gender and gender rules illustrates the significant social progress that the human culture has made. Although the Woman of Willendorf and Kouros/Statue of standing Youth artworks were created at different times, the genders can still easily be depicted within the artwork.

“Art is the most intense mode of individualism that the world has known.” -Oscar Wilde. Women are wild, sensitive, magnificent, mysterious, and above all: individual. Art’s many different medias allowed artist throughout the ages to capture women at both their strongest and most vulnerable points. It has the power to capture a woman: as a naïve, young girl clutching her brother as they are painted into a lasting portrait, a golden statue of an angel sent down to Earth to help a saved man take his first steps into an eternal life with God, to the powerful goddess, Artemis, transforming a hunter into a deer and having his hunting dogs tragically attack him. The six pieces of art chosen express the individuality of each women who has walked, walks, and will walk the earth.

The concern of this piece of artwork is the importance of fertility to mankind. The artist was emphasizing the important fertility features woman have that lead to procreation and ensure mankind’s existence in the future. The emphasis on the breasts and pelvic region are related to what

Art is one aspect of the past that has carried on for decades. Art in any form may it be poetry, novels, and playwright, sculpting as well as painting, has been an outlet for generations and continues to be an outlet and a means for expression. This paper will discuss “ The Mona Lisa” one of Da Vinci’s most famous paintings, as well as another great painting, Antonio Veneziano’s

Throughout history people can see many of the developments and differences among cultures, through the artworks that were produced. This essay will carefully analyze, evaluate, and compare four distinct works, from different time periods and cultures. The works to be compared are: The Woman from Willendorf, The Bust of Nefertiti, Figure of A Woman, and Young Flavian Woman. Throughout this paper the style and function of each individual work will be explored, along with the cultural ideas presented in each piece.

Painting portraits, portraits of women, youth and loved ones became more popular than scenery. Here, women are no longer mythological creatures and have stepped out into everyday life, although there is still an air of idealism around them. (Fig. 2)is a work of this period with an emphasis on the female element.

He focused on the development of the culture and used an example concerning feminism which successfully arouse the reader’s sympathy. Centering on the thesis of supporting Williams’s idea that cultural is a particular way of life that expresses certain meanings and values, the author used some examples such that the devastation women suffered from due to the feudal ethical code to arise ethical appeal in me. Nevertheless, his illustration was too general and lack of specific description and reflection, which made this illustration not strong enough to act as the evidence to support the thesis. In his second example, he put considerable emphasis on popular arts, which is an aspect that easily neglected by people. Notwithstanding it is a good idea to bring it out and focus on the notion of popular arts, the description of the illustration failed to go into detail and lack in reflection, which did not satisfy with the requirement of this week’s journal. His illustrations could have been more persuasive if they are written in a more detailed and elaborate

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.

1. According to Gerrard, the fundamental problem for female artists during the Renaissance era is the dichotomy between her as the artist and her as the overused object for the male artist. There was this notion during this period that women were almost exclusively in the object position. In addition, it was difficult for the female artist to navigate how she becomes identified as an artist. Since women were not thought of as artists there was a patriarchal balancing act of placing female artists in the field. Women artists could be argued as an exception to the rule, “not woman,” or “only a woman” by downplaying their artistic ability. Since women were commonly depicted in art idealized, feminine, and at times eroticized, a female artist needed

The objectification of woman, as argued by John Berger in “Ways of Seeing,” discredits art pieces’ meanings and treats women as objects by the expectation of women being sexual servants while judging women in paintings based off of their social class and beauty in paintings such as The Mirror by Léon Bazille Perrault, Venus of Urbino by Titian, and Olympia by Monet. The difference in the treatment of gender in artwork changes its subjectivity. A man in a painting appears strong, powerful; a true hero or a man of great importance, while a woman in a painting lounges, representing beauty. The difference is that the power of the man is in what he has does, while the beauty of the woman is what she is, or as John Berger suggests, “men act and

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

Women mastered the same artistic techniques as men, often with less professional training, yet they employed those techniques differently. Women, for example, were one of the most popular subjects of artworks, and were portrayed uniquely by male and female painters. Morisot’s painting Before the Mirror and Manet’s painting, Before the Mirror, demonstate the technical differences between the artwork of men and women. Beond sharing a name, style, and subject, the paintings are extremely different from one another. In Manet’s Before the Mirror, which was painted in ????, ?? years before Morisot released her version of the painting, a half-clothed, white woman stands in front of a gilded, full length viewer with her back turned to the viewer. Around the mirror are flowers and other nice, vain objects; the women are standing in no specific or deniable place. Instead, she simply exists. The woman of the painting is dressed in a clinched, blue corset and skirt. Her neck and shoulders are bear, and she is faceless as her face does not reflect in the mirror. In Morisot’s version of “Before the Mirror, the woman is painted much ore slender, given delicate shoulders and neck, a natural waste, and dressed in flowing, plain, ivory clothing. Her body is turned slightly more towards the viewers, but her back still faces the viewers. In addition, the shoulders and side of the breast are exposed, and the face of the woman reflects in the mirror, but her exposed breast does not clearly reflect in the mirror. She is set in a bedroom; an unmade bed sits in the right hand side of the painting and below the mirror

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.

When one thinks of art and religion, one may think of gender role defiance and non-conformism. While this may be generally true in present times, it was not always this way. Women and men have had distinctly different places in society, these places often being unequal. Generally most well-known works throughout the ages have adhered to and represented what society regarded as the proper gender roles for men and women. This is represented in three works of art which will be discussed: Hamlet by William Shakespeare, The Courtier: Book 3 by Baldassare Castiglione, and Luncheon on the Grass by Eduoard Manet. While these three forms of art come from different times and are of different mediums, they are connected in that they follow and represent the gender roles of their time.