Love in art (I think this is where it goes)

Janell Fondry

May 11, 2000 07:41 PM

Vimala C. Pasupathi

In painting, artists' portrayals of eroticism have been depicted by different composition that, from the Renaissance to Rococo time period, became more overt with the change in social context. A) In the Renaissance, the depiction of sexuality was veiled or muted, yet sexuality has steadily become more overt over time depending on the social acceptability of eroticism. B) During the Flemish Baroque movement, Peter Paul Rubens was a leader in artistry with a tremendous skill to capture the beauty in female nudes, reminiscent of Botticelli's works C) Jean-Honore Fragonard used the new appreciation of the human body created during the 17th Century, and Rubens, in the 18th Century Rococo movement II. Botticelli A) Social Climate 1)"the flood of new thoughts, purposes, and views, which transformed the mediaeval conception of nature and man" 2) Medici's wealth and appreciation for this new temperament triggered tremendous financial support for many works of art 3) Botticelli was a humanist, a societal group that wanted "to translate Virgil, Homer, Hesiod and Pindar and to update them" (Enigmas). These thinkers wanted to make the ideas of the great minds of Ancient Greece reemerge in Renaissance Italy B) As a result of his humanist ideal, Botticelli composed Mars and Venus, a re-creation of Lucian's description of a painting that was lost before Botticelli's time. The painting was created as a wedding 1) Sexual Context a) Lucian describes these beings in the original painting as 'Loves.' Four satyrs, faunlike mythological gods of love with small horns and furry lower halves that are hooved (18). These little creatures are careless and playful and are ignorant to danger. They are playing with Mars's lance and other war paraphernalia with disregard to their own safety and the safety of the others depicted. b) Mars's nudity and sleepy pose coupled with the 'loves' surrounding them seems to suggest a period of sexual exhaustion for the two lovers c) The figure's posture conveys her confidence and pride in herself representing a complacency and love for herself. This love is harbored in her great physical beauty as well as her inner strength. d) Mars is shown in the nude, vulnerable to many things, including the traipses of the satyrs. Venus is shielded from these vulnerabilities by her dress and this displays her domination over Mars e) The eroticism is mostly implied by the Goddess of Love's complete control over Mars, the God of War II. Peter Paul Rubens A) Social Context 1) the death of the leaders of the Protestant Reformation (Jackson). And the endorsement of the Twelve Years Truce between the Dutch and Spain which was the economic turning point of a struggling Flanders 2) High demand for art spurred by economic wealth and a dominant Catholic Church B) Sexual feeling 1) Like Botticelli, Rubens's world of nudity in later Baroque paintings was equated with mythology 2) Rubens's nude subjects also inspired the attitude change about the human body in the 17th Century 3) In his work Triumph of the Victor, Rubens demonstrates how a work of art can have erotic undertones without being overtly sexual. Lucie-Smith contends the suggestions of sex are not conscious. 4) The victor is clad in armor, which is a symbol of a permanently erect penis and is the aggressor in the piece and exhibits dominance over all the figures shown 5) His dagger, which is a symbol of aggression and phallus, is placed on her lap and directed to a fold in her drapery that resembles a woman's vulva The symbol of the man's phallus in a dagger closely associates to his aggression in relation to sex 6) actual representation of both male and female genitalia makes the suggestion of the act much more evident to the audience than Botticelli 7) Actual act of sex is not shown… it only alludes to the possibility of sex. III. Jean Honre Fragonard A) Social Context 1) The society of pre-revolutionary France was one that harbored a changing attitude from serious and ostentatious to frothy and superficial. The reign of Louis XVI hoped to maintain this ideal of decadence in the arts 2) despite the explicit nature behind it, this painting is held in high regard internationally as one of the great creations from the Rococo genre 3) it is the pre-Revolutionary French attitude of frivolity that contributes to the painting's appeal B) Sexual Connotations 1) scene with the commissioner's mistress shown seated on a swing pushed by a bishop with an image of himself lying in a place on the ground where he can peer up her skirt 2) full dress with seemingly innocent intentions in passing her day 3) Taking advantage of her by he is enjoying the view up her skirt, and fantasizing about her 4) The painting is a scene of an overt sexual fantasy 5) An eminent sexual encounter