Women Becoming Objectified
Our world has changed a lot throughout history. A specific example is how, in general, women's appearance has changed over the years. Society has become more comfortable with immodesty particularly with the female body, and nudity has become more common. The Alba Madonna by Raphael (1510), The Swing by Jean-Honore Fragonard (1766), and Draped Model by Eugene Durieu and Eugene Delacroix (1854) portray this transition of women’s nature. These paintings and photograph show how immodesty in women has become more acceptable among men, potentially impacting the way women dress.
The Alba Madonna was painted by Raphael in 1510 during the High Renaissance. Raphael’s work is known for its clarity, harmony and unity of design.
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In The Alba Madonna we can see Mary's integrity, watching over kids and dressing modestly. The girl in The Swing is also dressed in modest attire, but she is presented in a flirtatious way that doesn’t give her character any depth. She's just seen as flirty girl who has a boy looking up her dress while Mary in The Alba Madonna is seen for more than just her body. She is seen as a strong woman who has a lot to offer society and the world. The male artist of The Swing is the one who depicted the women in a more immodest way. From the High Renaissance to Rococo time period we can see that these two paintings show women are becoming represented more immodestly, frivolously and sensually by male …show more content…
In The Alba Madonna Mary is the focus. We can see her facial expression very clearly and her body language shows this sense of movement and power. This gives her character, identity and humanization. The girl in The Swing is also the central focus and her body language has movement but we can’t see her facial expression as well. Because her face is not as clear, it gives hers less of an identity to be seen more as physical object of man's desire. Although she is seen as playful and carefree, this depiction naturally focuses us more on her body and the boy seeing up her skirt rather than on her inner personality. It gets more extreme from here in Draped Model, as the woman's face is not even seen at all. She is turned around. She also is very still with barely any body language and is, therefore, not a focus of individuality and strength of personality like the Madonna for example. This gives her no identity, but instead is an objectification. She is dehumanized. She is just seen as a physical body and with no personality or depth. Thus, proving women’s immodesty and even nudity has become more acceptable over the years by
At the top of the artwork the upper part of the cross extends beyond the altarpiece. The edge of John the Evangelist’s red robe on the left of the altarpiece and the edge of Mary Magdalene’s pale blue skirt on the right are cut off when the panel ends, giving the viewer the feeling that, rather than looking in on the scene, the viewer is actually taking part in the scene. This, added to the empathy invoked through the delicate, heart-wrenching rendering of the figures in the artwork, let the observer directly interact with the painting and places him/her within the narrative.
The scene takes place in the clouds, she is in the heavens surrounded angels. It's a moment of pure devotion, love, and fantasy. Clouds are often connected to the gates of heaven. It is at these gates where you are in a liminal space between life and death. Your judgement is being decided. Thus, again suggesting that this is a vision of Mary's. Mary is looking at her child and seeing that he is meant to "live and die for our sins", and there is no way to stop it. He was born only to be led to his death. He is in the liminal space between life and death, thus the physical setting within the sculpture and the ethereal setting of the Madonna and Child parallel each other to help convey Donatello's idea that Mary is an extremely powerful figure whose life was entirely led by the idea of faith and trusting that there is a plan. Christ came into Mary's life by Gabriel, an angel, coming down from heaven to tell her that god has a plan for her and that she will be the mother of Gods son. Her life was predetermined by god and she was meant to have complete trust in her god. Donatello's purpose with this sculpture was to convince his viewers to trust in god, protect Christ, and show complete devotion to Mary and the angels. It was to convey that Mary is the Queen of the heavens and is someone one must tout and
The painting depicts a mother and her four children, who are all leaning on her as she looks down solemnly, her tired, despondent expression suggests she felt trapped in her roles as being a mother and a wife. The woman and her children are clearly the focal point of the artwork as the bright colours used to paint them stand out impeccably against the dull, lifeless colours of the background. This painting appears to be centred around the ideology that women are home-keepers, whose main role is to satisfy and assist her husband while simultaneously minding the children and keeping the home tidy and ready for his return. The social consequences of this artwork could have been that the woman could have been berated for not taking pleasure out of being a mother and raising her children, as a woman should. She could have been made redundant as her husband may have felt as though she is no longer useful if she couldn’t adequately adhere to her roles as a mother and a
The composition of this painting forces the eye to the woman, and specifically to her face. Although the white wedding dress is large and takes up most of the woman’s figure, the white contrasts with her face and dark hair, forcing the viewer to look more closely into the woman’s face. She smokes a cigarette and rests her chin on her hands. She does not appear to be a very young woman and her eyes are cast down and seem sad. In general, her face appears to show a sense of disillusionment with life and specifically with her own life. Although this is apparently her wedding day, she does not seem to be happy.
The history of the Madonna and Child starts in the Byzantine era. In this era paintings were not meant to look realistic, but rather were supposed to remind the viewer of a story or theological concept, in this case usually the concept that Jesus was both fully God and fully human. The years progressed and these paintings became more and more realistic as the Renaissance era was ushered in. During this time period artists strove to paint more accurate representations of their subjects. Even during this time, however there was still a use of iconology. Though all of these paintings have basically the same content, with the addition of various saints and angels, the theology that we can see in each painting differs greatly.
In conclusion, it is significant to recognize the revolution of the female silhouette throughout history along with women’s roles in today’s society and also, the physical restrictions imposed on them. The silhouette of women’s fashion has changed as the idea of the perfect female figure has reformed. Nevertheless, in the early twentieth century the concept of women leading more active and lively life meant that fashion also needed to become more cooperative to physical action and less limiting.
Artemisia Gentileschi (1593 – 1652), daughter of a well-known Roman artist, was one of the first women to become recognized in her time for her work.. She was noted for being a genius in the world of art. But because she was displaying a talent thought to be exclusively for men, she was frowned upon. However by the time she turned seventeen she had created one of her best works. One of her more famous paintings was her stunning interpretation of Susanna and the Elders. This was all because of her father. He was an artist himself and he had trained her and introduced her to working artists of Rome, including Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio. 1. In an era when women artists were limited to painting portraits, she was the first to paint major historical and religious scenes. After her death, people seemed to forget about her. Her works of art were often mistaken for those of her fathers. An art historian on Artemisia, Mary D. Garrard notes that Artemisia “has suffered a scholarly neglect that is unthinkable for an artist of her caliber.” Renewed and long overdue interest in Artemisia recently has helped to recognize her as a talented renaissance painter and one of the world’s greatest female artists. She played a very important role in the renaissance.
In “The Undefinable,” by the end of the young woman’s first visit, the narrator is appraising her body for its worth in a portrait. The woman views this appraisal with disdain, mocking the “rounded form, healthy flesh, and lively glances” that appeal to the painter, common tropes of upper class portraits (Grand 285). Over the course of her next two visits, the narrator begins to worship and “glorify” her being (Grand 285). In the midst of her glorification, the man is able to paint in “love and reverence” a woman as she is, so that he “may feel her divinity and worship that!” (Grand 282, 284). The goddess-like terms of exaltation that the narrator describes the women with come with a frenzy to paint the ‘soul’ of the young woman, who was “a source of inspiration the like of which no man hitherto has even imagined in art or literature” (Grand 287). The inspiration, which solidifies the woman’s role as the muse, comes from a desire for her soul, not her
Madonna of the Meadow was a painting by Raphael Sanzio, using the medium oil on panel in 1508. This painting expresses a sense of sweetness, softness, and overall a general, subtle, warm and comforting feeling. Venus of Urbino was painted by Titian in 1538, using the medium oil on canvas. This painting expresses a sensual feeling and one of lust and true beauty, quite different from Raphael’s painting. While both artists chose to use oil paint, which was common during that time, Raphael painted on paneling, whereas, Titian chose to paint on canvas.
The media negatively influences the way women are portrayed in modern society and culture. This can severely impact the way a woman views her self worth and beauty.
Images that eroticism is implied tend to represent the availability of the women’s bodies, in the implication that they are objects of eroticism (Sturken and Cartwright 2009: 116), consequently affecting the way society views women such as illustrated in Figure
This painting is a great example of asymmetrical balance. The angels are placed nearly exactly identical on each side of the throne. The angels themselves are sort of mirroring one another. Besides the navy cloak worn by the woman this painting does a great job at equally distributing the visual weight. The yellow hue is found to be consistent throughout. Giotto did a good job at blending and balancing the colors from yellow all the way to green. There is also a great deal of emphasis found throughout Giotto’s painting. The woman holding her child is definitely the main focal point of the painting because it is found directly in the center on a throne worshiped by angels. There is also a great deal of emphasis found on each character of the painting by the light yellow halo found above their heads. This does a good job at emphasizing everyone’s importance in the
The immediate background consists of natural mounds of dirt and a brick wall that enclose the Virgin, Child, and St. John, amplifying the protective effect that Mary’s figure has. The dirt mounds roll inward with a brick wall bordering them on the right, drawing the viewer’s attention towards the three figures. The background is painted in broad terms, with a simple, uniform depiction of tree leaves and smooth rock faces on the horizon. This contrasts with the fine-lined detail and texture of Mary’s hair, facial features, and veil, which further contribute to her elegance and highlight her
2017). The female gaze is used as an attempt to subvert the image of the man being “the bearer of the look” and the “woman as the image” (Mulvey, 1975: 19). Yes, in that specific scene, the belly dancer was the “image” to be looked as we would expect from traditional cinema, however, she was not sexualized in the way a masculine point of view would present her (Mulvey, 1975: 20). What this does is that it feminizes both the spectators and the camera’s point of view from the very beginning, indicating a sign that we will be introduced to events and relationships from a female perspective that would otherwise be unknown to us in the male dominated world of Bent Familia (Mulvey, 1975: 25). This scene is also very important because it tells the
During the Renaissance, the Virgin Mary was prevalent theme throughout this period where artists such as: Fra Angelico, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Bothicellical and Perugino were inspired to paint the Virgin Mary. The paintings show a motherly pleasant looking women holding or caring for her child. The paints are capturing the Mary as a human but giving her a divine appearance. The child being Christ shows her power by giving birth to him and by caring for the Son of God. In essence providing love, caring, and protection for the young child of God. For example, plate 15 and frame 23, these plates show a compassionate caring mother that is humanistic in depiction but larger or more encompassing of the painting than the Christ child. This is implying her importance in the early life of Christ. This also shows the power or her earthly influence over the child even though she is a human and not a deity. This gives her a special place in the church as the earthly Mother that is the most perfect of humans, other than Christ.