*This is the third installment of a five-part series on the evolution of large-scale French Painting and a personal favorite of the author*
Although Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres’ La Grande Odalisque continues to mark the shift in style and subject for French large-scale painting, it is still emblematic of the nineteenth century Academic style. Ingres was a student of David’s; they soon parted ways, however, due to artistic differences--differences that would become emblematic of Ingres' style. Nonetheless their academic and professional backgrounds are strikingly similar. Ingres trained in the Academic style that was now rooted in the Neo-Classicism David introduced in his Oath of the Horatii. In 1801, Ingres also won the coveted Prix de Rome, but did not travel to Italy until 1807. During this time he, too, gained commissions from the emperor, Napoleon, with the aid of his teacher, David. Staying true to the academic style set forth by David, Ingres painted large-scale images of mythology or the grand past with several grandiose images of Napoleon himself. It was not until Ingres finally set forth on his travels to Rome, however, that he would finally paint La Grande Odalisque. Ingres’ La Grande Odalisque is quite unique in its focus on precise draftsmanship mixed with figural distortion. Like David, Ingres favors line over color. The woman’s figure is beautifully rendered through use of chiaroscuro, her golden skin highly realistic. Every textile is expertly painted to accurately capture its own unique texture. Ingres still utilizes color to emphasize the odalisque’s form and sensuality, but his artistic focus does not lie there. What is so unusual, however, is that despite the close attention to form, line, and texture, Ingres paints a female whose figure is not one of nature. In fact, it appears as though she has just a few too many vertebrae. This ultimately becomes a trademark of Ingres’ female nudes. David painted figures exactly as they were, to illustrate his true ability to capture the human form accurately. Although Ingres’ stylistic idiosyncrasy steers him away from being a perfect prototype of the academic style, he was still deemed its champion in the beginning of the nineteenth-century to combat the changes that were starting to arise with the advent of Romanticism. The painterly evolution continued as Odalisque introduced a thoroughly modern and exotic subject matter. As Napoleon began his campaign to Egypt in 1798, the fascination with the Near East began. Orientalism was introduced and paintings were slowly becoming more exotic to reflect this newfound interest. Paintings became increasingly erotic, sensual and filled with women from harems. Ingres, too, was fascinated with this new subject matter and made it the focus of Odalisque. The woman is a concubine within a harem, as the term odalisque implies. There is nothing grand or mythological about Odalisque. Nonetheless, with a powerful painter and Prix de Rome winner such as Ingres now painting Orientalized figures, it helped usher in a full Orientalist movement within the Academic style that ultimately influenced future artists such as Jean-Léon Gerôme. Although Ingres appears to be breaking from tradition in several ways with Odalisque, there were several aspects about his painting that allowed viewers to more readily accept these changes. Academics typically painted royal portraits, mythological scenes or dramatic images from the ancient past; Ingres did not. Thus, part of what made the painting acceptable was its size. For although Odalisque is large, roughly three-feet by five-feet, it is not painted on the same grand scale as the Horatii or Coronation. Furthermore, while there appears to be a sharp break in subject matter, Ingres was clearly influenced by his studies in Italy. What helped ease in Odalisque to the general public was its clear reference to the Venetian Renaissance master, Titian, and his Venus of Urbino. The subject may not be grand or mythological, but it is directly influenced by an earlier attempt to rekindle the Classical spirit of Rome by Titian. The same is true for his unusual elongation of the female form. Ingres was criticized for this feature, but once again it was eventually tolerated because of Michelangelo. Having studied in Rome and the Sistine Chapel, Ingres understood the artistic liberties one could take with the human form while still creating a realistic, but exaggerated figure. He drew upon this in Odalisque. One could criticize him, but not his inspiration. Thus, La Grande Odalisque was met with less critical scorn and eventually accepted.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorScholar. Student. Unadulterated lover of all art forms. Archives
September 2017
Categories
All
|