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Examples of Nude renaissance art
The birth of venus analysis of art
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The Birth of Venus, by Sandro Botticelli, after 1482, was the choice for my writing assignment. It can be found on page 401, in our textbook, The Humanistic Tradition, by Gloria K. Fiero. The painting is a tempera on canvas and is 5ft x 9ft ½ in. Canvas was often used because it was less expensive and easier to transport. The Birth of Venus was one of the first non-biblical female nude paintings. Many of the earlier artwork of nude females were of Eve. As I was doing research, I found many different opinions and interpretations of the work. Often nude female artwork enhances a demeaning image of the female. In my opinion, this picture was way more than the nudeness of the female. It represented natural beauty and love. The soft pastels and flowers floating in the water made it seem natural and peaceful. The details that appear in her hair and the lines of her pose were very elegant and made the piece so beautiful. The details of her hair blowing in the wind and the drape blowing like a flag. Although she is nude I believe Botticelli showed the femininity and curves of her body in a romantic way. In much of my research she was referred to as the ancient Goddess of Love- Born of the Sea. This painting was unlike any other renaissance paintings that I have seen. The typical renaissance artwork seems to show more solid figures that represent people. The Birth of Venus appears to be almost angelic features in their characters. It is believed she emerged from the sea as a grown woman. Looking at the painting I can almost visual being in the fantasy of the painting. It seems like Zephyr the god of winds and breeze- Azura were embraced as one blowing soft wind pushing Venus to shore where she would be met and draped wi... ... middle of paper ... ...impressed with the painting. There were indications that the painting by Botticelli was banned for almost 200 years because of the nudity. Since his painting in 1486 there have been many other paintings. Some fuller figure, some with more deformity, and some with more symmetric. Then there were more paintings with women nude and revealing more of the body. Botticelli’s, The Birth of Venus, may have been controversial for a minute but once you look beyond the nakedness of the picture one can find the great beauty that it entails. Often I have found some nude paintings and artwork distasteful and awkward. This however, was not the case with The Birth of Venus. This was absolutely breathtakingly beautiful. I found it to not only beautiful but very inspiring for true love. True love for nature, elegance, expressions of femininity and the hope of something new.
The difference is that one is considered a goddess and the other is known to be a prostitute. The goddess is depicted with a chunky body and the prostitute's body has a sensual nature. She is lying on an oriental stole on a couch. She is wearing pearl earrings, a choker around her neck, and a bracelet on her arm, a flower in her hair and the kind of shoes she has on confirms the idea that she is a lady of the night life, along with the black cat that symbolizes that she is a prostitute. Another difference is that there's a maid standing right next to her fully dressed. as if to make you more aware of her nudity. She is holding flowers and has a blank look on her face. The public or the critics could not accept or understand why he would replace a goddess with a prostitute. Also it was not the nudity that appalled people; this was common and had been for centuries but only in a different perspective. The viewers were scandalized by the brazen look on her face. It had more of a bold challenging look. The painting made a bold stand and was too much to accept. The people were so upset by it that the administration had to take extra safety measures to keep the
It offers and understanding that women were held at a different standard then than they are now. This figurine shows that women had a larger mid-section but was because they either needed the body fat for long, cold winters or the better idea was because it showed they were fertile and they were able to produce babies and keep the legacy going on. It also provides a better image of what the men and women had to go through in order to survive, like the long hard winters, the needing to hunt for food and could mean sometimes not having food. Venus of Willendorf was not considered an obese women, “where features of fatness and fertility would have been highly desirable”, (PBS, 2006). I can use this article because it explains the whole point about a women’s image. Women were not looked at how skinny and “good looking” they were in a pair of jeans. Women, in this time, were looked at as if they can be fertile or not. Being able to have children was a huge thing in this time since it was one of the point of living, to have a
...e of Knidos, created by Praxiteles, can only be found in copies today, but at the time was the first sculpture of a goddess nude. He had transformed marble into the soft and radiant flesh of the goddess of love and taking on a worldly sensuousness. Originally located in a rotunda where it could be seen from all angles. Female nudity was very rare to the Greeks, especially that of a goddess. The sculptor made it look like Aphrodite’s nudity was nonchalant, which made it more sensuous with a welcoming look on her face. With several copies, all being found to be slightly different, all still capture the goddess’s womanly beauty that is not too sexually aggressive. With he hourglass torso, sloped shoulders, large hips and thighs, slim calves and ankles, and small feet and hands, this statue is the polar opposite of any manly figure, which is why it is known to be luring.
It is determined the Antonine Woman as Venus is a woman of aristocratic status. The portrait is made of fine-grain marble, a medium only upper-class persons could afford. Also, only persons of wealth could afford to have such a protrait made. The woman is portrayed as Venus, a goddess who is connected to the imperial family, and members of a royal family would often have themselves depicted as a deity. (De Puma 26) We know she is being portrayed as Venus because of her bare breast and the upper-arm ring. The bare breast is a key to Venus because she is the goddess of sexuality and desirability. The upper arm ring can be an attribute of Venus as the Statue of Aphrodite (Venus) by Praxiletels displays the same jewelry on a nude body. (Fantham 175)
The Birth of Venus is a beautiful Renaissance canvas masterpiece created by Sandro Botticello. The picture illustrates the birth of Venus in a very mystical way. Venus has emerged from sea on a shell which is being driven to shore by flying wind-gods. She is surrounded by beautiful roses which are painted in a truly remarkable color. As she is about to step to land, one of the Hours hands her a purple cloak. The back drop includes the sea and a forest. The overall effect of this painting are almost overwhelming, color and beauty meet the eye in every angle.
The Venus of Willendorf is one of the earliest sculptures of the body made by humans during the Paleolithic era. She was made from limestone native to her location and covered with red orche. Despite standing only 4.4 inches, the purpose of the Venus of Willendorf is widely debated. Some will say the exaggerated breasts, navel, and vulva connects her to fertility as a representation of a mother goddess. Others, such as those in my class, believe her to be a figure of body image. The stumpy female figure features hanging breasts, an obese middle and belly, and distinct buttocks in all, represents a realistic form of a severely overweight woman. Due to the hash ice-age environment of where she’s from leads one to believe fatness and fertility would have been highly desirable. Whether the sculpture was based on a fantasy or a real life model the infatuations with the idea of self-acceptance through body
I choose to look at the painting “The Toilet of Venus” or more commonly referred to as “The Rokeby Venus” by Diego Velalazquez. The “Rokeby” part came into effect, because the painting was originally displayed in the Morritt Collection at Rokeby Hall in Yorkshire, before being moved to its current home in the National Gallery. Diego Velazquez was born in Seville in 1599, and went on to become one of the most brilliant and influential painters ever to come from Spain. He lived in Madrid for most of his adult life, and was employed as a court painter. Throughout his career, he tackled a wide variety of subjects, such as landscapes, scenes from real life, and mythological/religious figures. He was a master realist who excelled at capturing essential features upon the canvas. He painted “The Rokeby Venus” between 1647 and 1651, and was his only nude portrait, as well as the first one in Spain, at that time. Initially the painting met with some disapproval, especially from the Church, since it was a nude, but eventually the work received great praise, and became known, as being one of the most beautiful and significant portrayals of Venus in the history of Western Art.
The painting was deemed scandalous and inappropriate by the people of the mid-1800’s. In more ways than one the painting disregarded society’s standards of the time. The painting depicts two women and two men having a picnic together in a nature setting. Upon hearing this description one might envision a peaceful, harmless illustration and thus wonder why it may be hard to imagine this painting as upsetting. The two men in the painting were fully clothed in modern clothing of the time period, while one woman was completely nude and the other was in her undergarments. By juxtaposing the fully clothed men with the naked women, Manet challenged “Academy Standards” of French painters of the time. According to the “Academy Standard” nudity was supposed to be reserved for religious, mythological or classical characters, and the women in Manet’s Luncheon on the Grass were none of the above. In fact, the two women are suspected to be prostitutes, and the men, their customers. In illustrating the men with modern clothing, Manet’s image alluded to the subject of prostitution which was a very real issue at that time. Manet questioned the morality of society and the people by illustrating prostitution in such a real, modern way. This was a tremendous scandal because prostitution was not discussed and especially not illustrated on a large scale canvas, it was pushed under the rug and overlooked by society. The painting was highly criticized and rejected at first, but later became widely renowned. It paved the way for a new, modern artistic development. It shaped and reformed the idea of what was conventional for artists to paint and what was accepted, widening the freedom of creators, allowing them to illustrate real problems they saw in their
As time kept passing, more and more magnificent sculptures were made by numerous artists. One of the most memorable sculpture was Aphrodite of Knidos, goddess of love and beauty. Back in the Late Classical Period, the civilians were only used to seeing ideal male nude bodies, but Praxiteles decided to make a different approach and sculpted the first female nude. Because he obviously had never seen a goddess before, he used his imagination and sculpted bathing Aphrodite as humanlike possible. He did not make it look idealistic, but instead made it beautiful with flaws.
Long, J.C., (2008). Botticelli’s Birth of Venus as wedding painting. Aurora, The Journal of the History of Art, 9, p.1. ISSN 1527-652X.
Venus is a term that has long been associated with artwork, most specifically the classical forms of beautiful women. The term Venus has also come to represent female sculptures of the Paleolithic era. The most notable of these female sculptures is the Venus of Willendorf, 24,000-22,000 BCE. The age of the figurine has been changed several times. Originally when found the date was estimated to be 15,000 to 10,000 BCE. During the 1970’s the time period was adjusted to 25,000 to 20,000 BCE; the date was again recalculated in the 1980’s to 30,000 to 25,000 BCE; the most recent estimate of age was in the 1990’s and was placed at 24,000 to 22,000 BCE after scientific research was performed on the rock stratification. This statuette was discovered by Josef Szombathy in 1908 near the town of Willendorf, Austria, in an Aurignacian loess deposit, which loosely defined is a yellow brown loamy geological deposit dating to the Paleolithic period. The name Venus was first associated with the figurine as a joke. The small, crudely carved statuette of an obese woman contrasts heavily from the graceful classical forms of sculpture such as Aphrodite of Cnidos, Praxiteles, 350 BCE. Although it would be difficult to associate the word beautiful with this statuette, there can be no doubt that it reflects the female form. The statuette has also been known as “la poire” or “the pear” due to its size and shape and more recently was donned the Woman from Willendorf. The removal of the title Venus served to take away the figurine’s status of goddess and lower it to the human level, therefore allowing more consideration of the figurine’s purpose (Witcombe, sec. 3).
orbit is the most circular of any planet, with an eccentricy of less than 1%.
Long, J.C., (2008). Botticelli’s Birth of Venus as wedding painting. Aurora, The Journal of the History of Art, 9, p.1. ISSN 1527-652X.
These works may be labeled objectifying also because a male painter painted them. Today, these works could be seen as empowering to women. The first painting gives off an emotional ride of one duplicated woman or two women. The second painting shows an emotional journey of prayer and relaxation of a woman sitting in the lotus position. The third painting could represent a strong and empowered women respecting herself and her body. Times have changed and so have views of women in society which have influenced a change in how people view nude women in
Venus’s standing inside a large pearl colored seashell with golden edges, represents female genitalia giving a symbolic birthing scene, and has been blown ashore by Zephyors and Chloris who’s floating above the sea on the right of Venus. Zephyors is the god of the west wind ,his face shows strain from the power of his breath his cheeks inflated with air ,lips puckered , forehead wrinkled with by the force he’s expelling the wind. Zephyors skin is tan with long brown hair the same as the color of his angelic wings , his body is in a bracing pose with his arms pushed back with his hand opened his chest exposed and forced forward, his blue cloak tied around his neck is blown back from the winds wrapping around his right arm and pelvis. Zephyors left hand is wrapped around Chloris. Chloris is a nymph associated with spring and blossoming flowers, her arms are wrapped around Zephyors with her fingers intertwine on his right side her right leg is hooked on his upper left pelvis down to his knee. Chloris upper body is facing Zephyors with her head nearly touching his looking towards Venus, her mouth is slightly open face relaxed her eyes focused on Venus almost in awe of her beauty .Chloris cloak tied on her left shoulder rich dark green color with gold highlights draped over her body with her left breast exposed. Her skin