HAA 0010 Lecture Notes - Lecture 19: Genre Art, Margaret Theresa Of Spain, Jan Van Eyck
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1 Apr 2015
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March 30
Body and Identity: The Female Nude
Venus of Willendorf
•Venus = beauty and fertility
•used in childbirth rituals?
oprehistoric culture, so we’re not sure what the use actually was
•could have a memorial function or some other function beyond fertility and
childbearing
•suggested that figures are a method of communication between groups of people who
couldn’t otherwise communicate
Ancient Greece
•kore: female sculpture, often found in temples or tombs, always clothed
•there were many functions of nudes for the Greeks
ofemale nude didn’t fit into any of these functions
olegend of Zeuxis carving out a place for women among the heroic nudes
being in the nude vs. being naked
female nude portraying perfect beauty, created by combining multiple girls
together
Aphrodite of Knidos
•first full-length nude female sculpture
•viewable on all sides in the cult temple
othe public voted to display the nude over the clothed sculpture
•Venus Pudica: modest Venus
oshe’s bathing, so it’s mundane nudity
oshe’s covering her genitals with her hands, albeit poorly
Female Nude in the Renaissance
Birth of Venus
•commissioned by the Medici family
•has a modest Venus Pudica pose
•Neo-Platonism: new Platonic philosophy, an attempt to combine Christianity and
Platonism together
otwo interpretations of Venus
Earthly: inspires sexual attraction and love
ethereal: inspires love of god
ocontemplating physical beauty allows us to contemplate spiritual beauty
•very classical painting
•idealized: she’s not very well-rounded, she’s very ethereal
•disegno: line, drawing, craftsmanship
omore concerned with lines, prevalence of drawings
sculptural quality to artworks
oprominent in central Italy and Tuscany
•colorito: color, application of color
oprominent in Venice