Annotated Mona Lisa, The - Strickland, Carol [52]
Then Delacroix and Géricault burst on the scene, championing emotion and color rather than intellect and draftsmanship as the basis of art. Against the “barbarism” of these “destroyers” of art, Ingres became the spokesman of the conservative wing, advocating the old-time virtue of technical skill. “Drawing is the probity of art,” was his manifesto. He cautioned against using strong, warm colors for visual impact, saying they were “antihistorical. ”
The battle sank into name calling, with Ingres labeling Rubens, the hero of the Romantics, “that Flemish meat merchant.” He considered Delacroix the “devil incarnate.” When Delacroix left the Salon after hanging a painting, Ingres remarked, “Open the windows. I smell sulfur.” In turn, the Romantics called the paintings of Ingres and his school “tinted drawings.”
Ironically, this arch-defender of the Neoclassic faith sometimes strayed from his devout principles. True, Ingres was an impeccable draftsman whose intricate line influenced Picasso, Matisse, and Degas (who remembered Ingres’s advice to “draw many lines”). But Ingres’s female nudes were far from the Greek or Renaissance ideal. The languid pose of his “Grande Odalisque” was more Mannerist than Renaissance. Although identified with controlled, academic art, Ingres was attracted to exotic, erotic subjects like the harem girl in “Odalisque.” Critics attacked the painting for its small head and abnormally long back. “She has three vertebrae too many,” said one. “No bone, no muscle, no life,” said another. Ingres undoubtedly elongated the limbs to increase her sensual elegance.
Ingres preached logic, yet the romantic poet Baudelaire noted that Ingres’s finest works were “the product of a deeply sensuous nature.” Indeed, Ingres was a master of female nudes. Throughout his career, he painted bathers, rendering the porcelain beauty of their flesh in a softer style than David’s.
In “Portrait of the Princesse de Broglie,” Ingres paid his usual fastidious attention to crisp drapery, soft ribbons, fine hair, and delicate flesh, without a trace of brushwork. The color has an enamellike polish and the folds of the costume fall in precise, linear rhythm. Ingres is chiefly remembered as one of the supreme portraitists of all time, able to capture physical appearance with photographic accuracy.
ODALISQUE
The reclining, or recumbent, female nude, often called Odalisque after the Turkish word for a harem girl, is a recurrent figure throughout Western art. Here is how some artists have given their individual twist to a traditional subject.
Giorgione, “Sleeping Venus” (the Dresden Venus), c. 1510, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden. The first known recumbent female nude as on art subject was by the Venetian Giorgione, a Renaissance pointer about whom little is known. He probably painted “Sleeping Venus” in 1510, the year of his early death from the plague. Titian was said to have finished the work, adding the Arcadian landscape and drapery. Traits associated with this popular genre of painting are a simple setting, relaxed pose propped on pillows, and the absence of a story. Giorgione was handsome and amorous, a keen lover of female beauty, yet he portrays his Venus as a figure of innocence, unaware of being observed.
Goya, “The Nude Maja,” 1796-98, Prodo, Madrid. Goya was denounced during the Inquisition for this “obscene,”updated version featuring full frontal nudity. The title means “nude coquette, ” and Goya’s blatantly erotic image caused a furor in prudish Spanish society. His friend and patron, the artistocratic but very unconventional Countess of Alba, is believed to be the model. A clothed replica of the figure, in an identical pose but very hastily sketched, also exists. It is said that Goya painted it when the Count was on his way home, to justify all the time the painter had spent in the Countess’ company. Goya was probably inspired by Velázquez’s “Rokeby Venus, ” a recumbent nude seen from the back. Although an outraged