POOF... I'm back.
It's been over a month since my last post and I deserve a slap on the wrist... bad little blogger, but I'm back now and am ready to hit the pavement running. I've got a whole bunch of stuff to blather on about, so whoever you are out there... brace yourself.
I guess I need to put a 'PG' rating on this post or an 'R' as it may (it does) contain nudity.
The tradition of nudity in Art History is millennial and as a student of this faculty one has to differentiate between what we see as 'naked' and what is considered 'nude'. Naked and nude both sound the same but they have different connotations: naked being more vulnerable and maybe slightly more overtly sexual whereas nude can be considered more of an artistic state and is a more public and proud.
The tradition of female nudes is a re-occurring motif, a favorite of artists through the ages and my theme of the day. There are probably many thousands of renderings of this subject and I only chose a few to illustrate the evolution of this theme from the Renaissance to mid 20th century.
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| Sleeping Venus, Giorgione, 1509 |
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| Venus of Urbino, Titian, 1538 |
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| Danae, Artemsia or Orazio Gentileschi, 1612 |
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| Odalisque and the Slave, Jean-Dominique Ingres, 1840 |
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| The Birth of Venus, Alexandre Cabanel, 1863 |
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| Olympia, Edouard Manet, 1863 |
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| The Spirit of the Dead Watching (Manao Tupapau), Paul Gauguin, 1892 |
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| Blue Nude (Souvenir de Biskra), Henri Matisse, 1907 |
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| Girl Under a Japanese Umbrella, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, 1909 |
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| Reclining Nude, Pablo Picasso, 1969 |
This is when I love art history more; when I can see patterns evolving over the millennia. In context they're all probably completely different, think about the years in which they were painted, for whom or why the were commissioned/created, the media, the attitude towards women etc... However on a base and purely visual/aesthetic level... you can clearly see a connection. Look at the evolution over 400 years from Giorgione to Picasso... even if you don't understand it or like it, you gotta admit these boys really take the whole 'Practice makes perfect' thing to heart.
- Life is good
Listening to: 'A change would do you good' - Sheryl Crow
Observations: Starting to watch West Wing with ma momma
Craving: More days in the week
I loved your blog on the nudes. I just painted my first nude yesterday and have been looking for a blog just like you wrote here about the connection through history. I too am an art history buff. I sent my blog thru Twitter yesterday about "Is it Art? Or is it just something to hang over the sofa?" See DanaPayneArt on Twitter.
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