Comparing Venus Of Urbino, The Naked And Clothed Maja

The following paintings: The Venus of Urbino, The Birth of Venus, Olympia, The Naked and Clothed Maja demonstrate a vast knowledge of the history of painting and the dialog between artworks. These paintings portray the image of reclining female nudes in the western art tradition and the responses of four artists – Titian, Cabanel, Manet and Goya- to that tradition. In creating their reclining nude figures, these authors demonstrated their knowledge of art historical precedence, including Renaissance painting—this heritage becoming both a backdrop against which they oriented their paintings, as well as a starting point from which they created their original artworks. The slightly more complicated idea is that even for artists like Manet and Goya, who wanted to reject certain norms and traditions, heritage became a point of reference, as those

With the wedding chest in the corner in the background where the servants are placing clothing, she is implied to be a bride preparing for marriage. Overall, having foreground and background come together creates a successfully balanced composition. The idea of faithfulness in marriage is emphasized by the image of the lap dog sleeping at her feet. The green curtain in the upper left corner is another prominent Renaissance convention. In this case it has a particularly sexual implication in that is related to the Renaissance tradition of keeping arousal images concealed in bedrooms, only pulling back the curtains when needed. Also, we can see one hand on her genitals – she is masturbating which signifies woman’s arousal and therefore fertility as the main goal of marriage. In addition, there was another practical benefit as relates to fertility in that it was believed a beautiful child would be conceived if that person were looking at an object of beauty at the time of sexual contact. Therefore, this was a highly sensual image, serving multiple sexual