By the early 1800s,
neoclassicism had become an extremely popular art style. Even though
Napoleon lost power and was exiled, the style stayed dominant. Jacques-Louis
David, a key figure in this movement, continued to influence art through his
role at the École des Beaux-Arts—a French school for training artists,
architects, and designers. The school had been founded in the 1670s by a French
culture minister and had evolved into a center for fine arts education. David
took charge during the French Revolution and remained influential afterward.
David’s students
carried on his neoclassical style. One of the most important of them was
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (pronounced like “Ang”). Ingres continued to
paint in the neoclassical tradition, but he also painted other types of
subjects, so he’s usually described as part of academic painting or French
academic painting.
One of Ingres's major works shows Homer—the ancient Greek poet known for writing the Iliad and the Odyssey—in the center, being honored like a cultural hero. Around him are famous philosophers, scientists, and artists, many of whom were French. This painting is called Apotheosis of Homer. Apotheosis means to raise someone to the level of a god.
In contrast, the
people in Ingres’s painting are dressed in ways that don’t match the historical
period of ancient Greece. This is called anachronistic. Ingres was
trying to show how the great figures of French and European culture were part
of a tradition that began in classical times. He placed Homer in the center,
then showed ancient thinkers like Socrates, Pericles, and Aristotle behind him,
with more modern figures closer to the front of the painting.
At the bottom,
there are symbolic figures representing Homer’s two epics—the Iliad and
the Odyssey. In the foreground are people from the 1700s and later,
including Mozart, Poussin, Molière, and Racine—important figures in French
culture.
Ingres’s painting
connects modern French culture to the classical past. He’s showing that French
writers, artists, and musicians are continuing a long tradition. This was
typical of neoclassical painting, but Ingres gave it an updated twist by
including more recent figures and dressing them in clothing from their own
times.
While Ingres makes
classical references in his paintings, many of them are also ways to show the
nude body, mainly for visual enjoyment. Ingres and others around him even
developed new ways of painting the human body that focused on physical beauty.
One example is Jupiter
and Thetis. This painting is highly detailed and realistic, which makes it
seem believable. At the same time, it’s very sensual. In the image, Jupiter (or
Zeus) is sitting on a throne while Thetis kneels in front of him. The setup
looks like a male fantasy, with a sexual element to it.
The way the figures
look shows what 19th-century artists thought was the ideal body. Jupiter is
large, square-shouldered, and looks well-fed. Some have compared his appearance
to an opera singer. Thetis has soft features, sloped shoulders, and visible body
fat under the skin. This body type was seen as the standard of female beauty in
France at the time.
Under Jupiter’s
foot, there is a small classical frieze, a carved decoration that refers
to ancient Greek art. So again, there’s a classical element used to frame the
painting.
On the right is
another painting, La Grande Odalisque. An odalisque is a word the
French used for a harem girl, usually from the Middle East or North Africa.
These areas were often under Islamic control or part of the Ottoman Empire
during the time the painting was made.
There are social
and political meanings in this image. A well-known author, Linda Nochlin, wrote
about it in her article The Imaginary Orient. She was influenced by the
ideas of Edward Said, a scholar from the Middle East. Nochlin’s main point is
that during the 19th century, as France became more involved in North Africa
and the Middle East, French artists created unrealistic images of that region.
These images made people from those areas seem less advanced than Europeans.
The artists used
very realistic painting styles to make it look like these scenes were true.
This gave the paintings an anthropological feel, like they were showing
real life. But in many ways, these images were false and political. They
weren’t based on what life was actually like in those places.
In La Grande
Odalisque, the woman is surrounded by items like incense, feathers, silk,
and jewelry. These are luxury goods, or commodities, and her body is
shown in a similar way—as something to be looked at and desired. This is a lot
like how women are used in advertising today, where they’re often shown next to
expensive products like cars or alcohol.
At the same time,
the painting presents the Arab or Islamic world as being morally weak. It shows
people as lazy, smoking opium, and focused only on sex and pleasure. This was
not true of Islam or those cultures at that time. It was a made-up image shaped
by European ideas and goals.
Another problem is
that the woman in the painting has pale, white skin. If she is supposed to be a
harem girl from the Middle East, her skin tone doesn’t match. This makes it
even clearer that this isn’t a realistic portrait. It’s a European version of what
they imagined the “Orient” to be—any place east of Paris.
Linda Nochlin’s
argument is that orientalism—the way Europe represented Eastern cultures
in art—was often a way to hide the fact that the art was focused on looking at
beautiful women and expensive goods.
You can also say the same thing about some uses of classicism in art. Ingres was a highly skilled painter, but many of his works supported French ideas about empire and power. These paintings helped promote the idea that France had a right to take over foreign lands by suggesting that those cultures were less developed or were falling apart.
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