Exercise: Annotate a Henry Moore Figure Sculpture, Part 4,Project 4

Annotate an image of a Henry Moore figure sculpture. If you can, choose one that you can actually go and see for yourself first - preferably one that's displayed in a public outdoor location rather than in a gallery.

Exercise:Annotate a Female Nude in the Western Tradition, Part 4, Project 3

This exercise asked me to:-

Choose one of the classic nudes in the western tradition, shown as the sole figure in a painting; so I decided to start with the one that inspired so many who followed - Giorgione's Sleeping Venus. This was the first time a Goddess had been shown sleeping, and the first time that Venus had been painted with dark hair, albeit with reddish highlights. 

The questions posed include:

Do you think this image invites the sensual gaze? If so, how has the artist used the formal elements of the painting to achieve this?

Compare your chosen image with this one by "a female artist", Maria Szantho. 

All of the discussion around feminism in the previous post perhaps made me notice immediately  the use of the phrase "a female artist" in this question, as if I am bound to find differences in these two paintings because they were done by people at opposite ends of the sexual spectrum. I must admit to being slightly put off when I see the preface "female" in front of someone's occupation. Art history language is extremely gender-biased, and the word "artist" refers to a man unless it is qualified by the adjective "woman".

 Is this relevant? Do you want to invite sexual sterotyping, OCA? Since I have trawled the internet and looked in every book I have without finding another copy or reference to this painting (date/size/medium/subject etc) I wonder why you didn't just write "unknown female artist"? After a lot of searching, I found one or two blogs that talked about this Hungarian artist, who was very well-known in her own country, representing it in the 1939 New York World's Fair with three of her paintings. So, not exactly unknown, but certainly hasn't stood the test of time like Giorgione.

Reclining Nude, Maria Szantho. Date unknown. Photo taken of image in OCA Course Handbook for this exercise.

Lastly, the exercise asks: Have you ever been to a life drawing class or drawn  or painted a female nude. Did you see this as a formal challenge or were you conscious of additional cultural factors at work?

I must say I found this exercise very hard-going. Instead of finding these annotations easier as I go along, I seem to be finding them harder and harder. Here goes:

Research Point: How Women are Portrayed in Art - Part 4, Project 3

Q. Does the female nude exploit women for male gratification? Or does it depend on context? 

Wilendorf Venus, 25000-30000B.C.

My first reaction to this question is that there is no definitive answer. If there were, it would be possible to insert the word "always" before the word "nude" and be sure that there are no exceptions; but there are always exceptions..... According to Breazeale in The Language of the Nude, "the nude (for the past several hundred years in Europe) was a vehicle to express many meanings" including religious, classical and literary. But if we go back further to the first known depiction of a female nude, the Wilendorf Venus (right), we see a female nude who has been interpreted as a fertility symbol, perhaps of a Goddess. Female nudes also appear in Indian temple art from circa the first century B.C., but again are related to Goddesses of Fertility and have religious significance.

There followed a long period in Western European art when females were not depicted nude at all. Why? The Greeks were very skilled at showing heroic nude male figures, notably champions of the Olympic games. In fact the homo-erotic society that was Ancient Greece celebrated male nudity; and erotic displays of delectable perfect young male bodies were commonplace. The penis, erect or otherwise, was not hidden, and hirsuteness was an accepted attribute of mature male gender. Female nudity was quite the opposite, however, and not seen until Praxitales' famous Aphrodite of Knidos (see previous post - 11 June, 2014) which was to influence art for the next several hundred years (but even this was carefully devoid of female genitalia). A double standard definitely existed in public art where male/female nudity was concerned. 

Once Christianity took hold in Western Europe, the only permissible nudity was in religious  scenes depicting Adam and Eve, or the Last Judgement,  and nudity came to be associated with shame. The role of the nude was to stir the mind, not the passions and the Church was in charge.

 Susanna and the Elders (1610): Gentileschi

Portrait of Helene Fourment

It was not until the early 13th century that nudity regained respectability, and became a major theme in Western art. The Italians rediscovered an interest in their Classical past, the Church lost its monopoly on wealth and an art market began to emerge. The idealised female nude prevailed until the 16th and 17th century, when more naturalistic nudes were depicted, like Gentileschi's 1610 painting of Susanna and the Elders; Rubens' painting of his child-bride, Helene Fourment, in 1638; and Velazquez' painting (below) of Rokeby Venus (1647-51).

Rokeby Venus (1647-51): Velazquez

The early 18th century saw female life models being used in art academies in Britain, as in a sketch made by a young Hogarth in 1735. Drawing the female nude became established as the greatest challenge for artists, an area where they could compete to show their artistic prowess. In fact painting the female nude was more popular in Britain than it was in the rest of Europe, with France not using female life-models until the 19th century. One of Britain's best-known-but-later-forgotten painters of the female nude in the 18th century was York-born William Etty, (1787-1849) who became controversial for his "lascivious" portrayal of too much female fleshiness.  (For a 6-minute video of a 2011 exhibition of his work, see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TTWeWzzkR8 ) In his defence, he said, 

"Finding God's most glorious work to be Woman, that all human beauty had been concentrated in her, I dedicated myself to painting—not the Draper's or Milliner's work—but God's most glorious work, more finely than ever had been done." 

Etty was in fact one of the major influences on Delacroix's depictions of the female nude in paintings such as the Death of Sardanopolis (1827).

 

Death of Sardanopolis (1827): Delacroix

Youth on the Prow and Pleasure at the Helm: Etty

Certainly his paintings of women were controversial, and he managed to cram so many pink and curvaceous naked subjects into one allegory that his rival JMW Constable called it "a bumboat"! The painting in question, Youth on the Prow and Pleasure at the Helm (right), 1830, was regarded by many as too indecent to be hung in respectable houses, but Etty steadfastly rebuked allegations of smuttiness by declaring,  "To the pure in heart, all things are pure." Etty's persistent denial of anything but purity of mind  makes me question the idea that simply incorporating female nudity in a painting exploits women for male gratification. The pose or activity of the woman, the context in which she appears nude, the behaviours of others in the composition, the intent or meaning ascribed by the artist, all have an effect on the viewer whose subjective experience of the work

When a work of art that displays nudity is being viewed, the responses from all viewers will vary; some might feel exploited, some might be moved by the beauty of the piece; some might see it as erotic, while others might see it as sensual; some might be scandalised while others might be amused. The intent of the artist must also be appreciated.

Origins of the World:- photo courtesy of www.gustavcourbet.org

As the 19th century progressed, there was a revolt among artists in France against the Academies and their stranglehold on artists' freedom of expression. Courbet shunned the idealised female form in favour of more realism and truth. His 1886 painting "Origins of the World" (opp.) looks as if it was intended to shock, given that it is explicitly shows a woman in a position that cannot be understood as anything other than sexual, given that it shows explicitly her genitalia and her legs wide open. I feel a little bit voyeuristic looking at this, as it is not a view of another woman that I  ever see in real life, and it brings back memories of gynaecological examinations where I feel very much powerless and at the mercy of the examiner. Obviously, I expect others to have a different reaction to this painting, as they cannot have the mental associations that I (and/or other women) are likely to make. It is probable that some people whose preferred sexual partner is female might find this painting gratifying because of the mental associations they have of a supine female body, but this might not be the case for, say, homosexual men, who might be unmoved by subject. All viewers, however, are likely to be able to appreciate the technical brilliance of the brushstrokes, the modernity of the composition and the determination to present female anatomy in its natural state rather than the airbrushed version offered by the ancients.


More deliberate attempts to shock followed, using, as Whitney Chadwick states in Women, Art and Society, "an erotically based assault on female form: Manet's and Picasso's prostitutes, Gauguin's "primitives", Matisse's nudes, Surrealism's objects". Renoir is quoted as saying, "I paint with my prick", and referring to his models as "beautiful fruit"; while Picasso said, "Painting......that is actual lovemaking". All of these artists are making a comparison between artistic creativity and sexual energy, and are presenting women as powerless and sexually subjugated. Carol Duncan in her article, "Domination and Virility in Vanguard Painting" points to a long history of male pleasure being the rationale for representations of the female body in art. They have depicted women as obedient animals, powerless before the artist. The liberation of artists like Vlaminck, Van Dongen or Kirchner means the domination of others (i.e.women); the artist's freedom requires their (womens') unfreedom.

Identifying the female body with nature, generation, and the instinctual life have become important areas of identification for some women artists. But this has had its pitfalls, not least because it seems to suppport allegations (by men) that this is the only aspect of existence that women can paint about, and sits well with the gender-stereotype notion that women are consumed by their neuroses. Many of the female artists who turned to the subject they know best - the female body - were sidelined in the debates raging around the modern art movements of the early decades of the 20th century. Two of the first female artists working with nude female forms were Suzanne Valadon and Paula Modersohn-Becker - hardly household names now. Georgia O'Keefe threatened to stop painting altogether unless critics ceased to over-analyse her work with Freudian interpretations of "female" imagery in her flower paintings. Feminism definitely was seen by her as "a burden and a barrier to her development as a painter". What, I wonder, would she have made of the expulsion of Leena McCall's painting of Ms Ruby May from the Mall Galleries this week? Regarded as "too pornographic" by the Mall Galleries after complaints from visitors, the painting was substituted with another nude that does not show any pubic hair.  REALLY??   IN  JULY, 2014???

Fulcrum (1997) Jenny Saville  photo courtesy of The Guardian

Jenny Saville, one of the Young British Artists of the 90's, has concentrated on painting the female nude and transgender/transexual bodies over the last 20 years. She has supported the feminist-led attempt to destroy the role of the muse, model or lover that has been historically assigned to women in the world of art. She constantly challenges the image we have of the stereotypical female/male/transgender body. She has stated that she wants to paint "modern bodies", which I take to mean the bodies we all see around us - in the park, at swimming-pools, on the beach, on the tube........ definitely not the idealised Goddesses of the ancient Greeks. (See a slide-show of her work here ). Her work shows none of the gender-stereotypes of the past - more warts-and-all depictions of fleshiness with no trace of the smuttiness directed at Etty or the faintly veiled sexual urges of Egon Schiele or Lucian Freud. What I see when I look at Jenny Saville's work is openness and honesty. Now there's an idea................... will it catch on?




References:

Burnage,S., Hallet,M.,and Turner,L., (2011) William Etty:Art and Controversy, London, Philip Wilson Publishers Ltd.

Breazeale,W. et al. (2008) The Language of the Nude: Four Centuries of Drawing the Human Body. Surrey: Ashgate
Chadwick, Whitney (1990). Women, Art, and Society. London: Thames and Hudson
Perry, G (ed) (1999). Gender and Art, Yale University Press



http://www.dundee.ac.uk/museum/exhibitions/djc/lifestudy/graves/
http://www.royalcollection.org.uk/eGallery/object.asp?exhibition=H2Hexhibs=H2HE18&object=913482&row=1 (sketch by Hogarth of a female life-model) 
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/jul/07/painting-pornographic-pubic-hair-outrage 
http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2012/jun/10/jenny-saville-paintings-oxford-solo-show?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487#/?picture=391319278&index=14

Gallery Visit: Visit a Cast Gallery - Part 4, Project 3

Research - Conservation - Interpretation - Entertainment

For a really interesting introduction to the Victoria and Albert Museum Cast Courts, you can visit vimeo.com/90982128

My sketch of Trajan's Column in the West Court

This assignment was really enjoyable for me as I spend at least two days a month in the Victoria and Albert Museum, often doing drawings in the Cast Courts. Until November 2014, the East Court will be closed for refurbishment, but the West Court is open and has a magnificent collection of Northern European and Spanish sculpture together with the amazing Trajan's Column. Like all exhibits in museums, the works are seen out of context, with little information given on how they would be viewed originally. Many of them would have been outside, so the impression of scale will be/was quite different when approached from a few hundred feet away as opposed to from a doorway; but the fact that one has to crane one's neck to look up at the tallest exhibits makes visitors feel very small when walking around these magnificent and inspiring spaces. Trajan's Column (opp.) is one of my favourites, soaring 38 metres upwards with a continuous frieze winding 200 metres in total to tell the story of Trajan's campaigns from 101AD-106AD against the Dracians of the Danube frontier. It was possible for Roman citizens to climb up the stairs inside the column and stand outside at the top to view the Forum below. Originally the whole sculpted surface was picked out in colour with metal accessories added, and could be viewed at various heights from the balconies of the surrounding libraries of the Forum buildings in Rome. This plaster casting is clearly monochrome and therefore doesn't offer the colourful experience of the original. The gallery is not high enough to hold the column in one piece, so it is shown as two parts, making it easier for people today to appreciate areas of detail that would be too high to see in its original position. Some of the carving in the original column has been lost to the ravages of pollution, so this cast has become a very valuable record of detail that has ceased to exist on the original. From an Art History and Conservation point of view, Trajan's Column holds enough interest to keep me busy for years to come. I find the whole concept of cast courts quite inspirational, as they take hundreds of years of history and bring them together in the moment under one roof. To visit these works in situ is now impossible in some cases and exteremely time-consuming in others (although there are several that I plan to see!).

Fontaine des Innocents, Paris (non-copyright photo)

To some extent the two parts of Trajan's column dominate the cast gallery, and dwarf the smaller pieces of sculpture and relief on the walls. I particularly like to draw the nymphs and putti that formed part of the Fontaine Des Innocents in Paris, (see photo right), carved in stone in 1547-49 by John Goujon (see below left and right).  They are hung side by side on a wall in the cast gallery, giving an impression that is quite different from seeing them in situ, where they adorn the four sides of the fountain.

  

My photo of the nymphs  

My photo of nymphs and putti. 

Own photo of St Stephen.

The cast courts give students like me an amazing opportunity to get up close to sculptures by experts from centuries ago who were at the pinnacle of their expertise, and the casting itself has been done with such skill and attention that it is often difficult to believe that the medium is different from the original. The cast (left) of St. Stephen shows  not only the detailed carving of the figure, but also the original paint colours used. My sketch of the head detail (below) allowed me to contemplate the marks made by one of the greatest sculptors of the Late Middle Ages, a contemporary of Albrecht Durer, the great Tilman Riemenshneider of Warzburg, Germany.  Set at eye level in the cast court, this sculpture is a joy on its own, but seen in the context of the other parts of the altarpiece, it is an amazing achievement. Interpreting the work of Riemenshneider in a pencil drawing gives me the opportunity to study the marks made by the chisels and rasps used in the art of woodcarving in a way that I would not fully appreciate just by looking.

Own photo of the whole altarpeice.

My sketch of head detail of St Stephen

The whole altarpiece (left) shows St Barbara and Stephen carvings on the right side.

My sketch of detail of head of St Barbara

Another of my favourite pieces to draw in the Cast Courts is this statue of the Three Graces (right), which is a copy of the original in the Louvre (below), by the famous Franch sculptor, Germain Pilon. Made in stone in 1525, I find it so graceful - and difficult to draw - that I return to it time and again. One of the slight problems with drawing in the Cast Courts is that it is not always easy to get far enough away from the subject to fit it all in to the page; and being close to these large sculptures often means an uncomfortable standing position. However, there are compensations, as it is relatively quiet compared to some of the other galleries in the V&A, and I am often left undisturbed. There is quite a different feeling seeing the original in white alabaster with the gilded urn atop the heads - it look much "finer" and more "pure" than the cast, and somehow less heavy.

The original (copyright The Louvre)

My photo of the plaster cast in V&A

But the opportunity to walk all around the work from a few inches away more than compensates. The way the Cast Courts have mixed up pieces from various countries and various centuries also gives the visitor a wonderful opportunity to compare and contrast the different styles that were being used by sculptors over several centuries - nearly 2000 years in all from Trajan's Column to the present day.

Untitled (Room 101) - Photo courtesy of The Guardian

In 2004, the Turner prize-winner Rachel Whiteread exhibited her Untitled (Room 101) cast in the Cast Courts (above), showing that there is a place for modern works in these galleries.Showing the room that inspired George Orwell's vision of the worst nightmare, rats and all.  It was cast by Whiteread before the original was demolished and gave visitors a unique chance to explore the space without the fears aroused by Orwell's vision. I hope they continue to evolve. as Adolf Borbein states in his informative article on the history of plaster casts, they "teach the eye and train our undeveloped capacity to respond to three-dimensional plastic form".

There is much evidence of casts being used by artists throughout history - Leonardo da Vinci was known to have a large collection - and drawing from casts was an essential part of art training. The first casts we know were made by the ancient Egyptians, and the first cast collections can be found in ancient Rome. But modern artists are also turning the casts themselves into artworks in their own right. In a previous post (27th December, 2013) I wrote about Antony Gormley's "6 Times" sculptures in Edinburgh, where he uses casts of his own body to interpret nature and our relationship with it as he follows the path taken by the Water of Leith.  George Segal (1944-2000) used plaster casts in several of his works, including "Woman Washing her Foot in a Sink (1964) (above left) and Juan Munoz used them extensively in his work (see Towards a Corner(1998), above right)  Perhaps one day, we shall see some of their work in the Cast Courts, which will hopefully survive and thrive well into the future.


References:

Taylor,B.(1995), "The Art of Today", Orion Publishing, London, UK
Honner, K. (2004) "Pop Art", Taschen Basic Art Series, Cologne

Borbein, Adolf H. (1997) "On the History of the Appraisal and Use of Plaster Casts of Ancient Sculpture (especially in Germany and in Berlin)" available at http://www.digitalsculpture.org/casts/borbein/ 

Videos:

vimeo.com/90982128 


Web-sites
http://www.digitalsculpture.org/casts/felice/index.html
http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2003/nov/13/art2
http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/t/the-vanda-cast-collection/
http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/t/the-cast-courts/