The Birth of Venus and the Nude Maja

On our first day back at college we had a lecture about the figure and the body in Art and were asked to choose 2 of the pieces we looked at and look into them in further detail in our own time and write a report on them. I chose my first as the Birth of Venus - This painting is one of the masterpieces of Italian Renaissance and recognisable world wide.

The birth of Venus was painted by Sandro Botticelli in 1484-1485. It was commissioned by a member of the Florentine Medici family, which was one of the most powerful in all the European dynasties - for over 300 years they ruled Florence.

This painting is one of Italian Renaissance and at the time, mythological subjects were trending and were used to express humanistic values. Botticelli’s city, Florence, was an important centre for humanist studies. At this time Botticelli went through a moral and artistic crisis during the political turmoil that put the religious fanatic Savonarola in charge of the Florentine government.

The painting is a fantastic example of how the Roman mythology inspired his work. Venus is the Roman goddess of Love and Beauty so it is suited that the painting features a young nude woman with a very symmetrical face (symmetry in facial features is seen as the most attractive even in today’s standards). The shell she is standing on was a favourite feature signifying fertility at the time and was associated with Aphrodite, Greek goddess of love and beauty, and with Venus, Roman goddess of the same attributes. To understand what this painting was about I researched (and remembered from my school days)  what the story of Venus is, and it  goes like this:-
 God Uranus had a son named Cronus who overthrew his father, castrating him and throwing his genitals into the sea. This resulted in the fertilisation of the water and  resulted in the birth of Venus.
 After her birth she came ashore on a shell, pushed along by the breath of Zephyrus, the god of the west wind. In the painting we see the figure Zephyrus embracing the nymph Chloris - goddess of flowers (as you can see flowers floating around her) which, to me, is symbolic of the act of sex.
The whole painting is a narrative of this story and it tells it pretty well. The floaty, unrealistically proportioned, “perfect” figures are typical of the time and give the im pression of a kind of unattainable beauty that is nothing short of God like.

I find myself thinking of my own work and how my own work tends to come form a self narration of my own life and it shows me that my artist inspirations can spread wider than I first thought.

Francisco Goya was one of the great painters of the 18th century and is still known for it today. A Spanish artist, Goya is seen as the last of the Old Masters and as the first of the moderns. Goya was known for painting the gruesome and outlandish and sometimes based on mythology like the birth of Venus above (Saturn devouring his son comes to mind), but the two paintings i am going to talk about are actually portraits.  The first, called La Maja Desnuda (The Nude Maja), was painted in 1800. It depicts, a nude woman, who seems to be of high status, posed reclined across pillows and sheets with a slight smile and flushed cheeks directly holding the viewers eye.One thing i found interesting is that she has the tiniest of pubic hair which we found out in our lecture in men symbolises power. Which is another clue to the fact this woman was not actually a prostitute  because at the time hair on women was seen as unsightly. The flush of her cheeks makes me think this could be post sex... maybe one of Goyas lovers? Some of my research has pointed to it...could be wrong but i came to this conclusion after looking at the second of the paintings - " La maja vestida" where she is clothed but in the same pose but with a much less relaxed look in my opinion. This painting is just as interesting as the way her dress holds between her legs it gives the impression of pubic hair also which also suggests a sexual element to the piece and would be a strange way to paint a commissioned piece for a high class woman of the time (again suggesting that there is a much more intimate relationship between the artist and model).

I just found this painting so interesting to looks at, particularly the fact that the subject is looking directly at the viewer. Eye contact is a powerful thing and to have a woman giving it with such confidence during the 18th century was not common is these types of paintings. From what I could gather the story behind the painting is that a duchess entranced by the Maja image, (meaning harlot or prostitute), she asked Goya to paint her portrait depicting her in this way. 

Nudes were unique at that time in the Spanish art and a risky chance that Goya took particularly with the addition of public hair but a fantastic comparison to the very pure and innocent Venus to the Maja dressed nude here. it is interesting that you can get so much from the context of a peice. It is a very personal but valid part of Art.