Why did nudity appear in art? It might be from the time of Adam and Eve. The idea comes from the pristine beauty of the naked body or could be during the time of Renaissance Art.
When a person is at the forefront of the painting, the body, soul, and mind are beautiful and ideal. Be that as it may, always the paintings in the nude style were and will be interesting, relevant and popular.
Most of the Renaissance Art depicts religious images used as devotional objects. They’re considered great works of art by the viewers during that time.
At all times, the image of a woman inspired creators. Woman paintings of nudes created in the 19th century was a frequent theme in academic art. Mothers, lovers, daughters, strangers. All became heroines of paintings from antiquity when his wife and priestesses portrayed next to the pharaoh. And along with the heroes on the Greek amphoras, beautiful dancers depicted. Then, in Ancient Greece and Rome, the image of Venus (or Aphrodite) was born as a symbol of female beauty, which in every era found a new incarnation.
Gustav Klimt has created artistic classical nudes. The master used mythology and allegory to disguise his deep erotic nature. His drawings often give out a sexual interest in women. As a rule, his models agreed to pose in any erotic positions.
“I never wrote self-portraits. I am much less interested in myself as a subject of the picture than other people, especially women … There is nothing special in me. I am an artist who writes day after day from morning to night … Anyone who wants to know something about me … should consider my paintings.”
The painting “Naked Truth” (1899) Klimt continued to challenge the public. A red-haired woman holds a mirror of truth. And we can see a quote from Schiller above it: “If you cannot please everyone with your deeds and your art, few will like it.” To like many is evil.”
The legendary Kiss
The most famous work of Gustav Klimt’s the Kiss painting. He created it in the “golden” period of his work. This period has its name not only due to the highest flowering of the artist. The works of the artist have special coloristic features of the style. The master began to widely use gold color in his works as the actual paint. He also used real gold leaf.
Before this work, the kiss motif already “flashed” in Klimt’s work. But in this work, he reached its climax. The author interprets the kiss as a symbol that demonstrates the unity of man and woman, male and female.
Today, researchers believe that the artist painted himself and his beloved Emilia Flöge on this world-famous painting. The eternal bachelor Klimt had a long and difficult relationship with this woman. Exactly her name he pronounced after having a stroke. That was his last word.
The legend of the painting “Kiss”
However, there is another story about this masterpiece. It can also be a nice legend and is worth mentioning. An earl ordered a portrait of himself with his beloved in a passionate kiss. He also gave a locket with a portrait of his love. The artist set to work. Soon, he was able to show it to the earl. He incredibly liked the canvas. But he could not resist a question why the lips of those two in the picture never joined in a kiss. Klimt said that he wanted to portray an atmosphere of desire and passion leading loved ones into a hug. Later both the customer and his beloved admired the painting. Soon they were leaving for a honeymoon. But some biographers recall that Klimt allegedly revealed the secret of this “under-kiss.” While delighting a locket, the artist fell in love with a young girl. So, the unfinished kiss was an act of small revenge out of the jealousy for a successful earl.
It is no coincidence that “Kiss” became the most famous work of the artist. After all, the picture concentrated all the basic iconic elements of the composition, characteristic of the master’s style. We find flower meadows in the landscape works of the author. A complex ornament is the main feature of the huge number of his mature works.
Description of the painting by Gustav Klimt “Kiss”
Two lovers are standing on the edge of a cliff dotted with small flowers. The areola whelms their erotic happiness. The whole world has shrunk to the size of a small point on which they stand. Golden clothes give the impression of a single figure. Only the difference between the ornaments allows us to separate one figure from another.
The male figure is the main one in this picture. It hovers over the female image. A man defends his beloved and dominates her at the same time.
Despite the intimacy of the moment, the viewer does not have the feeling of a peeker. The heroes do not hide from anyone. Their image is characterized by some kind of subordinate simple mortal cosmic state. In their world only they exist, immersed in each other.
Jupiter and Kallisto
Francois Boucher created “Jupiter and Kallisto” at the peak of his fame and success. The artist was fond of allegorical and mythological subjects revealed in an elegant and subtle manner. This ensured the special interest of King Louis XV and the higher aristocracy in his work.
The canvas is an artistic embodiment of Ovid’s Metamorphosis. It tells the ancient Roman myth of Jupiter’s love for the beautiful nymph Kallisto. Jupiter dreams of seducing a girl and turns into a nymph’s girlfriend, the goddess Diana. In the image of the goddess-hunter, the loving god is able to approach Kallisto and captivate the nymph, obliged to remain chaste.
The artist depicted the meeting of two girls at the forest edge in a sensual and playful manner. Jupiter in the guise of Diana hugs young Kallisto in a patronizing and ambiguous manner. There are small Cupids around them. They make garlands and wreaths from forest flowers and their presence creates an atmosphere of passion and love. Only a prey bird behind Diana’s back hints at an insidious transformation. The eagle is a symbol of Jupiter and its faithful servant. In many of the artist’s paintings, the mighty eagle becomes a special sign of the presence of the thunder god.
The canvas is impeccable and sophisticated. The painting “Jupiter and Kallisto” painted to decorate the interior and has no sharp shapes, dynamic poses, and flashy colors. Each element speaks of languid bliss and graceful relaxation. The color scheme is created in soft blue, powdery pink and pale green colors.
50 NUES: EDUARD MANE AGAINST ALEXANDER CABANEL
Not all nude females were undressed, visitors to the Paris Salon and the Les Miserables believed in 1863. The Birth of Venus by Alexander Cabanel and The Luncheon on the Grass by Eduard Manet are two of the paintings that made the most noise that year. One with a plus sign, the other, you guessed it, with a minus sign.
“The birth of Venus” admired by both ordinary visitors and representatives of academic art. For himself, it bought by the French emperor Napoleon III.
The painting “The Luncheon on the Grass” by Eduard Manet, 1863 criticized by journalists. Ladies turned away to condemn her, and men threatened to pierce the “obscene” canvas with reeds.
Nowadays, such a reaction may seem inexplicable. But let’s plunge into a world that is still delighted with the ideals of neoclassicism, though already on the verge of the modern era.
Sabine women stopped the battle between the Romans and the Sabines, Jacques-Louis David in 1799.
“Nudes of the late 18th century are not images of the bodies of specific people. These are collective images of the best physical characteristics that nature has endowed with a man. So the artists exalted the uncovered body, freeing it from the banality of materialism ”, – Nicolas-Henri Smelting.
Nudity of women
Only in the second half of the 19th century, romantics and Pre-Raphaelites soften severe male images. They add sensuality to them and artists carried away by female nudes.
“Naked virgins with perfect bodies were good not only the symbolic values that they personified. They best served the voyeuristic needs of society. ”- Nicolas-Henri Zmelti
Turkish bath by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, 1852-1859 (the picture finalized by the artist in 1862). One of the harmonious works of Ingres, combining poetry, the beauty of a females and detailed realism.
This artistic nude painting painted during the artist’s training in Rome, and world art. The work was marked with two names – “The Big Bather” and “The Bather of Walpinson”. The first name is quite logical while the second is intriguing. Although everything is clear with this name as it only connects with the name of the first owner of the picture.
The image is incredibly plastic and calm. There are no flashy colors and bright contrasts except for one — the red spots on the turban the shawl. It is somewhat knocked out of the calm palette of the picture.
Drawing a naked human flesh, each artist tries to convey his understanding of beauty. Since, when we say “naked body,” we mean mainly women, the central theme of the nude genre is the theme of femininity, sensuality, and motherhood. This is not to say that the male body is ugly, it does not have that plastic wealth. To make it clear why artists are “attracted” to portraying female nature, one needs to recall such a poetic image – the “mystery of nature”. So, a woman – this is the secret of nature, a symbol of creativity and harmony. Nude art painting in the works of contemporary artists, as before, occupies one of the central places.
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