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The female form has been the subject of art and the inspiration for artists for thousands of years, but when did it start to become a commodity? Today, we each have our own views on modern day society that influence how we view art. How might our viewpoints differ from the contemporary viewers of these works, and how might that impact our approach to them?

To answer these questions, we will look at various works depicting women in different periods of history, and by both male and female artists. Recalling the reclining Venus as a traditional and socially acceptable depiction of the female form, we will begin by considering Titian’s Venus of Urbino. This will then lead us to take a look at Édouard Manet’s Olympia, roughly 300 years later. Continuing to move through time, we will look at Pablo Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, followed by Cindy Sherman’s Untitled Film Still #35. Finally, we will consider Simone Leigh’s Las Meninas.

Each piece presents a snapshot of the time period it was created in and the society the artists were part of. As such, these artworks provide insight into how society viewed women across the periods of the different works. When we consider these works, we must keep in mind our own viewpoints that have been shaped by our modern society and try to recognize when they clash with those of the pieces we are viewing.

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1.  Are there similarities in the ways women are portrayed or viewed in each of these pieces?

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1.  Are there similarities in the ways women are portrayed or viewed in each of these pieces?

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2.  What commentary do these pieces make on women's roles in society?

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2.  What commentary do these pieces make on women's roles in society?

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3.  How might depictions of the female form have changed through time, and how do we view the female form today that might have been influenced by such depictions?

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3.  How might depictions of the female form have changed through time, and how do we view the female form today that might have been influenced by such depictions?

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Titian, Venus of Urbino, 1538, oil on canvas, 119.20 x 165.50 cm, Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence.

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Cindy Sherman, Untitled Film Still #35, 1979, gelatin silverprint, 9 7/16 × 6 9/16" (24 x 16.7 cm), Museum of Modern Art, New York.

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Simone Leigh, Las Meninas, 2019, terracotta, steel, raffia, porcelain, 182.9 x 213.4 x 152.4 cm (72 x 84 x 60 in.) Cleveland Museum of Art.

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Pablo Picasso, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, 1907, oil on canvas, 8′ x 7′ 8″ (243.9 x 233.7 cm), Museum of Modern Art, New York.

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Édouard Manet, Olympia, 1863, oil on canvas, 130 x 190 cm, Musée d’Orsay, Paris.

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Cindy Sherman’s Untitled Film Still #35 is one of seventy stills in her Untitled Film Stills collection which features Cindy playing the role of female archetypes, such as the lonely housewife, often portrayed in film. Each photograph is staged to resemble the film stills frequently made and distributed to promote a movie. In each photograph, Sherman becomes the female types she portrays, challenging her audience to acknowledge these archetypes and how they are created and consumed through media.

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In Olympia, Manet calls upon the canonical style of the reclining nude, traditionally accepted as depicting a pagan subject rather than an individual. Olympia breaks with this tradition, giving the woman depicted full agency and autonomy in her upright position and alert gaze that engages the viewer in the scene. Not only does Manet give his reclining nude authority in her pose, he names her Olympia, a name that implicates her as sex worker. Manet is challenging the idealized nude and creating a piece that comments on the commodity of women’s bodies.