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Lady in a Bamboo Grove, China, 1495–1552

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Lady in a Bamboo Grove, China, 1495–1552

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As the title suggests, this piece by Qiu Ying depicts a young woman alone in a bamboo grove. All of her skin is a porcelain white, a reflection of beauty standards in ancient China. Clothing takes on an important role in Her robes completely cover her body, however a large portion of her neck is visible along with some of the clothing underneath the robe. Traditional Chinese and Japanese robes intentionally create the appearance of a straight body, with the amount of neck showing around the skin reflecting how revealing the wearer wants their clothes to be. In the case of the young woman shown here, most of her neck is exposed. Her gesture with her hands in her sleeves and raised hand suggests that she is heartbroken. Many of Qiu’s scrolls depict similar themes of lovesick women, reflecting how women in China during this period were valued for their roles as martial partners.

Artist: Attributed to Qiu Ying
Title: Lady in a Bamboo Grove
Date: 1495–1552
Medium: Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk
Dimensions: Image: 49 × 17 1/2 in. (124.5 × 44.5 cm)
Location: Metropolitan Museum of Art (not on view)
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/36013

Notes:

Laing, Ellen J. "Qiu Ying." Oxford Grove Dictionary Online. Last modified January 15, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1093/gao/9781884446054.article.T070289.

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The Mona Lisa is perhaps one of the most famous paintings in all of art history. Like many great artists, da Vinci challenged the role of women in society through his works. Leonardo da Vinci’s most famous work depicts a portrait of a woman looking directly at the viewer in a time where most female portraits showed women avoiding eye contact with the viewer. During the fifteenth century when the Mona Lisa was painted, women were confined to their homes where they did not look men in the eyes. Although her clothing does show some of her chest, her outfit is not extravagant or overly revealing. The focus of the piece is on her expression, notably her famous “half-smile.” Da Vinci celebrates feminine beauty without relying on sex appeal, and specifically chose to include a transparent veil worn by new mothers. The muddied colors of the painting and detailed landscape behind her, combined with her veil, create the feeling that we as the viewer are admiring a figure not unlike Mother Earth.

Artist: Leonardo da Vinci
Title: Portrait of Lisa Gherardini, wife of Francesco del Giocondo
Date: 1503-1506
Medium: Oil on wood
Dimensions: 30 x 21 in
Location: The Louvre
Accession number: INV 779
https://collections.louvre.fr/en/ark:/53355/cl010062370

Notes:

Jean Robertson and Deborah Hutton,
The History of Art: A Global View (London: Thames & Hudson Ltd., 2021), chap.
42, 736,https://digital.wwnorton.com/histartglobalbookpreview.

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The meaning behind Giorgione’s The Tempest is widely debated. A nude mother nurses her child near a man standing and observing. In 1939, X-rays revealed that another seated nude woman was planned in place of the man standing on the left. Even today, frontal nudity is especially controversial in media of any kind. At the time, the inclusion of a nude woman was unprecedented. Following Giorgione, the reclining female nude became a common subject in Italian artwork from artists like Titian. Some have assumed that the woman seen in the final version belongs to the Romani people. Many art historians read this piece as being a pastoral with no allegorical meaning.

Artist: Giorgione
Title: The Tempest
Date: 1506-1508
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 33 x 19 in
Location: Gallerie dell’Accademia, Venice
Ascension number: 915
https://www.gallerieaccademia.it/en/tempest

Notes:

Jean Robertson and Deborah Hutton,
The History of Art: A Global View (London: Thames & Hudson Ltd., 2021), chap.
42, 768-770,https://digital.wwnorton.com/histartglobalbookpreview.

"Giorgione." Benezit Dictionary of Artists. 31 Oct. 2011; Accessed 27 Mar. 2022. https://www.oxfordartonline.com/benezit/view/10.1093/benz/9780199773787.001.0001/acref-9780199773787-e-00074272.

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In Rembrandt’s The Night Watch, a huge crowd of men seemingly charging forward into battle contains one lone female figure who radiates a soft, golden glow. Her presence has confused many art historians, similarly to the inclusion of the nude woman in Giorgione’s The Tempest. It is thought that the “golden girl” is based on Rembrant’s wife, who passed shortly after the painting’s completion. Her look of confusion and lack of military gear suggests that she is out of place in the military setting, reflecting how women were limited to domestic settings during this period. She is thought by many art historians to be a kitchen maid who, while preparing a feast, has gotten caught the crossfire and chaos. Others feel as though her inclusion, and especially the radiance surrounding her, reflects the way Rembrant chose to honor his wife during her final years.

Artist: Rembrandt
Title: The Night Watch
Date: 1642
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 11’ 11” x 14’ 4”
Location: Rijksmuseum
Ascension number: SK-C-5
https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/SK-C-5

Notes:

Berger, Harry, Jr. 2007. “Supposing Rembrandt’s ‘The Night Watch.’” Virginia Quarterly Review 83 (1): 178–95. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=sso&db=asu&AN=505258473&site=ehost-live&scope=site.

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Ecstasy of Saint Teresa, Naples, Italy, 1647-1652

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Ecstasy of Saint Teresa, Naples, Italy, 1647-1652

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Bernini’s Ecstasy of Saint Teresa provides a unique insight into female sexuality during the seventeenth century. The Biblical story of when Teresa is stabbed through the heart by an angel is shown in this piece. The angel holds his arrow loosely and smirks as he aims it towards her chest. The expression on Saint Teresa’s face reflects someone experiencing an orgasm; where the viewer would expect the experience of being impaled to be painful, it seems profoundly pleasurable to the Saint. In her own account of events, Saint Teresa says that she experienced so much pain that she nearly went into shock as she was consumed by the love of God. Though the angel is not fully nude, he is only covered with a single cloth and we can assume that the same is true for Saint Teresa. He lifts her cloth gently near her breasts and looks at her cheerfully in the eyes. Taken outside of a religious context, this would likely have been seen as pornography by the general public of Naples at the time. Reading this piece as a celebration of pleasure, it is remarkable for how well it depicts a pleasurable sexual experience for a woman.

Artist: Bernini
Title: Ecstasy of Saint Teresa
Date: 1647-1652
Location: The Church of Santa Maria della Vittoria

Notes:

Warma, Susanne. 1984. “Ecstasy and Vision: Two Concepts Connected with Bernini’s Teresa.” Art Bulletin 66 (September): 508–11. doi:10.2307/3050453.

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The Embarkation for Cythera, France, 1717

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The Embarkation for Cythera, France, 1717

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The Embarkation for Cythera reflects how women were treated in relationships in France during the 1700s. Cherubs fly through the sky above nearly a dozen couples sitting in a forest. A man gently rests his head on his partner’s shoulder and what can be assumed to be their child is tugging on her dress. A symbol of love, Venus, sits next to this couple and seems to watch over them. Another symbol can be found in the center of the composition: a dog. Dogs have historically represented fidelity when depicted next to couples in paintings. Seen as a representation of women’s roles in society, this piece can be seen as a turning point from the way women are seen in The Night Watch and other prior works. In previous paintings like The Night Watch and The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa, women in The Embarkation are given agency and equal footing to men in their courtship.

Artist: Jean-Antoine Watteau
Title: The Embarkation for Cythera
Date: 1717
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 4′ 3″ x 6′ 4″
Location: The Louvre

Notes:

Levey, Michael. “The Real Theme of Watteau’s Embarkation for Cythera.” The Burlington Magazine 103, no. 698 (1961): 180–85. http://www.jstor.org/stable/873302.

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Marriage A-la-Mode: 2, The Tête à Tête, England, 1743

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Marriage A-la-Mode: 2, The Tête à Tête, England, 1743

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William Hogarth uses his series, Marriage A-la-Mode, to critique the wealthy in England. In the second plate in particular, a young woman is depicted at the center of the composition next to her downtrodden husband. Much of the composition is empty, reflecting the state of her marriage with her new husband. Taken out of context, this plate does not provide much commentary on the roles of women in England during the 1700s. However, looking at the whole series, a story is told about a young woman’s ill-fated marriage. Throughout all six paintings, her role in life is told entirely though the context of her husband’s relationship with her. The first panel shows her parents arranging her marriage and the last shows her wedding ring being removed after her death. Especially among the wealthy, English women were seen as objects to be won and kept by men.

Artist: William Hogarth
Title: Marriage A-la-Mode: 2, The Tête à Tête
Date: 1743-1745
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 27.5 x 35.7 in
Location: The National Gallery, London
https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/william-hogarth-marriage-a-la-mode-2-the-tete-a-tete

Notes:

Bertelsen, Lance. “The Interior Structures of Hogarth’s Marriage À La Mode.” Art History 6, no. 2 (June 1983): 131–42. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8365.1983.tb00801.x.

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A Teenage Boy and Girl with a Viewer for an Optique Picture, Japan, 1788 

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A Teenage Boy and Girl with a Viewer for an Optique Picture, Japan, 1788 

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nHundreds of years after the work of Qiu Yang, certain beauty standards in Asia persisted for women. In Harunobu’s A Teenage Boy and Girl with a Viewer for an Optique Picture, a young boy and girl in elaborate robes are shown looking through Dutch glasses. Like in Lady in a Bamboo Grove, the young girl is depicted with pale skin, thin eyes and eyelashes, and stark black hair held up by a hairpiece. Her robes cover her entire body and more of her neck than in Qiu’s work. However, her hand is shown while she is conversing with the young boy. Japan borrowed greatly from China during its formation, and its influence can be seen in these similarities. Robes remained an important symbol of status and wealth, especially with elegant kimonos like these.

Artist: Suzuki Harunobu
Title: A Teenage Boy and Girl with a Viewer for an Optique Picture
Date: 1725-1770
Medium: Woodblock print; ink and color on paper
Dimensions: 10 3/4 x 7 3/4 in.
Location: Metropolitan Museum of Art
Accession number: JP3024
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/56422

Notes:

"A Teenage Boy and Girl with a Viewer for an Optique Picture." The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Accessed March 27, 2022. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/56422.