Norm Quotes Mike: An Obvious Oversight

After posting the last entry about Rockwell's Rosie the Riveter one of my students pointed out on facebook that he has directly borrowed from Michelangelo's "The Prophet Isaiah" from the Sistine Ceiling.  Good eye Logan!

But did you know that Raphael grabbed the pose from Michelangelo first?  The story goes that when the ceiling was still under wraps in 1511 the architect and painter Donato Bramante snuck Raphael into the chapel to sneak a peek.  Raphael's "School of Athens" still in progress at the time, he is said to have scraped off the fresco to start it over again inspired by Michelangelo's style.  His figure of Heraclitus is said to be modeled after his rival Michelangelo who hated Raphael as a plagiarist.   

Does the Female Nude Really Dominate Art History?

Recently I was having a discussion with a very close friend about why Western Art has become a politically incorrect area of focus.  "Well it is true that there have been a disproportionate number of female nudes in art history." she said, which I accepted, assuming she was probably right.  But later that night I tested the hypothesis.

Titian, Bacchus and Ariadne, 1520-23, National Gallery, London 176 x 191 cm

Yes, I know that one isolated sample is not conclusive, but my business is painting not statistics.  I just thought you might want to know the results of my own experiment.

I began with the first page of H.W. Janson's History of Art, probably the most referenced art historical source, counting every clearly distinguishable nude male torso and female torso, excluding babies.

Out of 361 torsos distinguishable to me as male or female, here is what I found:

Nude male torsos:  240
Nude female torsos:  121

That's almost twice as many males as females.

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres. Le Grande Odalisque. 1814. Oil on canvas. Louvre, Paris, France.

In both genders an effort was usually made to hide or obscure the loins in frontal poses, in fact more than I supposed.  There were a few exceptions in which no attempt was made which I also numbered:

Males:  51
Females:  18

A scene from Genesis on the Sistine Ceiling fresoes by Michelangelo, 1508-1512

Only two images in the book could be definitively classified as a"female nude" in subject matter.  How many female nudes can the average person without an art degree even recall by name?  So where does the notion come from that Art History is so obsessed with the female nude?  I have my own opinions, but they are less interesting to me than the fact that the assumption appears to be untrue. Maybe if I picked another book I'd find different results, but...I don't have time!  I expect a survey of modern art would yield different results considering the likes of Picasso, Gaugin, Modigliani, and Matisse.

The Pieta Retold by a few of my favorite painters.

I have a thing for pietas.

Michelangelo did the famous one. The pieta is traditionally a depiction of Mary holding the dead Christ across her lap. Literally translated "piety", the word means something more like "mourning". in this case.

In art, though, the pieta is less a story than a form through which to express a certain emotion or pathos. It is not at all necessary to know the story, because the message is in the shapes and in the bodies. As in most of the classic motifs, they usually come from an ancient source predating Christianity, and are recycled and reinterpreted much like what a "standard" is to a jazz musician.

Above is an example of something like our pieta predating Jesus by nearly 600 years. It is by the greek painter, Douris, and represents the mythological characters, Eos and Memnon.

In this entry, though, I'll be focusing on some interpretations on this theme by contemporary artists.

Here are three by Bo Bartlett. The one above is a commentary on the Civil War.

Bo's use of the flayed lamb here is a clever parallel, and I like the way the sky itself looks like there is a fire for the sacrifice somewhere just outside of the frame.

This (above) is probably more accurately a descent from the cross. If you're offended by the female with nail wounds, remember that many women too were crucified in the days of the early church. I love all the urban debris scattered in the background, the red couch, and the guy pointing as if making some kind of accusation. I don't remember Bo's exact explanation for all of the stuff in it, but I don't really care. It's a staggeringly beautiful piece that cuts right down to the soul.

Vincent desiderio with his son. Check out the projected images in the background.

My rendition. Actually it's more of a "Madonna and Child" foreshadowing a "pieta." Ok, I said my "favorite painters". If I wasn't at least one of my favorites why would I continue bothering?

Steven Assael's parents.

Another steven Assael above. He did a few of these firefighter pietas with my pal David as the model for the little boy.

Here's a political pieta by Harvey Dinnerstein, a teacher of Assael. It is probably more accurately a "deposition" in which a group of disciples is carrying the body to the tomb, but in essence the same form. I'm not sure if he ever did a full painting of this, but I find it incredibly powerful. An image like this transcends the political message and becomes something universal and timeless. These are probably vietnam protesters, but could just as easily be a much older event or a future event. I enjoy the contrast between the limp, dead arm at the bottom and the defiantly raised arm, stabbing diagonally toward the upper left corner. I feel the outrage myself just looking at it.

Max Ginsburg is a great painter, but to me this one is a little overstated. The message here seems to be carried more by symbolic bits such as the flag, the screaming woman, the fire, and the blood, rather than in the shaping of light and the movement of the bodies. I might like it better in black and white.

Ooh, sepia is kind of nice. Actually I LOVE that!