# data[].attributes.headline
Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli, 1444-1510, Tempera on Canvas, Florence, Italy

# data[].attributes.subject
Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli, 1444-1510, Tempera on Canvas, Florence, Italy

# data[].attributes.body
Botticelli was the first known artist, to my knowledge, to paint the Birth of Venus, and it's one of the most well known paintings out there. This painting is of the Venus, the goddess of love and beauty. Venus has been a popular subject matter through out art history for centuries, and she's also been the inspiration for many paintings that depict other beautiful women in them as well, such as the Venus of Urbino. Venus as a whole has been an idolized figure in many paintings, because of her unique beauty and figure.
During this time period, nude paintings were not yet fully accepted in Renaissance culture, but this specific painting was actually seen as being intellectually uplifting, and it used the artistic idealization of the Birth of Venus to help do this.

Robertson, Jean, and Deborah S. Hutton. “Chapter 38, Page 641.” Essay. The History of Art: A Global View. Thames & Hudson Inc., 2021.

# data[].attributes.headline
Venus of Urbino by Titian, 1538, Oil on Canvas, Florence, Italy

# data[].attributes.subject
Venus of Urbino by Titian, 1538, Oil on Canvas, Florence, Italy

# data[].attributes.body
This version of Venus was created by Titian, a very popular and well known painter. It's a life sized painting of an unidentified nude woman (rumored to be the famous Venetian courtesan Angela Zaffetta), who later started being identified as Venus (The Roman goddess of love and beauty). This type of nude painting had started to become more acceptable in private art collections. It's also been interpreted as a private portrait for Guidobaldo and Giulia Varano, after consummating their marriage. This woman, identity not 100% confirmed, is an idol nonetheless; with the way that she looks so delicately laid on the bed, her golden locks, and the careful position that she is laid in. Especially, the way that she is posed, this is a common pose that you can see in many paintings of nude women. I also thought it was interesting that in Botticelli's Birth of Venus, her hands are covering her breasts and private areas to show her as being a modest figure, and in this painting Venus is covering her private area as well.

Robertson, Jean, and Deborah S. Hutton. “Chapter 47, Page 770.” Essay. The History of Art: A Global View. Thames & Hudson Inc., 2021.

# data[].attributes.headline
The Pilgrimage to the Island of Cythera by Antoine Watteau, 1717, Oil on Canvas, Musée du Louvre, Paris

# data[].attributes.subject
The Pilgrimage to the Island of Cythera by Antoine Watteau, 1717, Oil on Canvas, Musée du Louvre, Paris

# data[].attributes.body
This piece is a bit different than the others, not only because the sole focus is not that of a woman, but also because it's described as Fete Galante. This was a term created to describe Antoine's painting, because of the combinations of styles and various themes. This painting depicts a scene in which a group of people are seen either leaving or arriving on the Island of Cythera, which is the Island believed to be the birth place of Venus. A statue of Venus is seen blended in with the trees on the right side of the painting. This painting was known to represent the inspiration of desire and love between the people on the island, accompanied by the beautiful goddess. It's known as a pleasurable painting, and pleasure is often one of the known factors attached to Venus. This style is associated with the Rococo period of art, where there was a conspiring increase of enlightenment, pleasure, and ambiguousness.

Robertson, Jean, and Deborah S. Hutton. “Chapter 56, Page 907.” Essay. In The History of Art: A Global View. Thames & Hudson Inc., 2021.

# data[].attributes.headline
The Happy Hazards of the Swing by Jean Honore Fragonard, 1767, Oil on Canvas, Wallace Collection, London

# data[].attributes.subject
The Happy Hazards of the Swing by Jean Honore Fragonard, 1767, Oil on Canvas, Wallace Collection, London

# data[].attributes.body
This painting created by Jean Honore Fragonard is an incredible piece of erotica, pleasure, and playfulness. This painting depicts an action scene in which a woman is on a swing with her husband behind her pushing her, but her lover in front of her hiding in the bushes. She kicks her foot up and spreads her legs playfully as she reaches "full climax" of the swing, so her lover can see up her skirt, in secrecy. And theres a cupid seen at eye level with her, observing what she is doing and putting his finger over his mouth as if he's going "shhh". This painting sticks out to me, out of all the other paintings that we've been educated about in class, because of the unique sexual and erotic nature of it. It is almost celebrating the liberation and freedom of having a secret sexual affair. I don't think I've seen another painting during this time period where a Woman was expressing sexual freedom and liberation. This painting really idolizes and showcases pleasure for a woman that I have not seen before. It's incredible! And so liberating. I think this painting was a huge culture shock.

Robertson, Jean, and Deborah S. Hutton. “Chapter 56, Page 918.” Essay. In The History of Art: A Global View. Thames & Hudson Inc., 2021.

# data[].attributes.headline
Zeuxis Choosing his Models for his Painting of Helen of Troy by Angelica Kauffman, 1775-1780, Oil on Canvas, Brown University Library, Providence, Rhode Island

# data[].attributes.subject
Zeuxis Choosing his Models for his Painting of Helen of Troy by Angelica Kauffman, 1775-1780, Oil on Canvas, Brown University Library, Providence, Rhode Island

# data[].attributes.body
Angelica Kauffman was a very talented female painter, who specialized in the genre of history painting. She was born in Switzerland and trained by her father, and she began her career in Italy. She was one of only two women who were elected to the Royal Academy, and during this time period there were very view female artists, let alone being given the same opportunities as men. So, really, Kauffman was a female icon herself, a very idolized and influential woman. This painting is portraying the scene of Helen of Troy, who wanted to be painted as the most beautiful woman in the World, choosing the models she wanted to model as her. Helen of Troy wanted to use the physical attributes of five different beautiful women to create the perfect idealized painting of the most perfect woman. Helen of Troy is placed almost perfectly centered, and the artist painting her is a man seated on a stool. But, one of the models are shown picking up the paint brush as if she's getting prepared to paint it herself, (Seen in the far right side of the painting). I believe this was Angelicas way of giving female artists the recognition and representation that they deserve, and maybe this was even Angelicas way of painting herself as this inspiration for it. She was showing women as making history in art.

Robertson, Jean, and Deborah S. Hutton. “Chapter 57, Page 931.” Essay. In The History of Art: A Global View. Thames & Hudson Inc., 2021.

# data[].attributes.headline
Cupid Awakening Psyche by Antonio Canova, 1787-1793, Marble, Musée du Louvre, Paris

# data[].attributes.subject
Cupid Awakening Psyche by Antonio Canova, 1787-1793, Marble, Musée du Louvre, Paris

# data[].attributes.body
John Campbell is the man who commissioned Canova to create the Cupid awakening Psyche, and Canova decided to depict a very climactic and sensual scene from the Ancient Roman narrative painting called Metamorphoses. In this poem, a young woman named Psyche has fallen into a deep trance-like state from breathing in fumes from a flask that belonged to the Goddess Venus. As many know, Venus is known as the goddess of beauty and love, but she was viciously jealous of Psyches beauty, and demanded her to be gone. But Venus's son, Cupid, was hopelessly and madly in love with Psyche, so she revived her with a gentle touch from his arrow. But in this particular sculpture, Canova decided that instead of showing the actual scene where she is being touched by the arrow... he wanted to recreate the moment of embracing after she had awoken. This was a very intimate and emotional moment of the two showing their love for one another. This is yet, another imaginative mythological myth where Goddess Venus is involved! She's seen as a common theme throughout these images I've chosen. I've also noticed that with the idolization of women in art, it almost always has the beautiful/sexual nature of women that comes with it.

Robertson, Jean, and Deborah S. Hutton. “Chapter 57, Page 924.” Essay. In The History of Art: A Global View. Thames & Hudson Inc., 2021.

# data[].attributes.headline
La Grande Odalisque by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, 1814, Oil on Canvas, Musée du Louvre, Paris

# data[].attributes.subject
La Grande Odalisque by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, 1814, Oil on Canvas, Musée du Louvre, Paris

# data[].attributes.body
Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres created this beautiful painting of an Odalisque, which was (the french term for a harem woman). This is another painting of a reclining female nude, which was a very popular theme in European art. This particular piece has many characteristics inspired from various styles and different time periods. One being, the most obvious I think, the fact that this is heavily inspired from Titians famous painting Venus of Urbino. They share many characteristics of each other such as, they are both laying on a bed nude, they both have a cloth/curtain hung behind/to the side of them, and they are both looking directly at the viewer. But what is different is that in Venus of Urbino, Venus's body is turned towards us, and Odalisque is turned with her back facing us. Jean Auguste also took inspiration from the mannerism period, where the body is elongated and the skin looks very smooth and almost reflective, (like the Venus of Urbino). This painting also includes objects of trade or importance, such as the hookah beside her. Although, the pose in this painting was the most commonly used pose to portray mythological/idolized women in art for many years, Jean took a different approach. He wanted to take a more present-day setting approach, allegedly of an Islamic World view. This painting was also made to be publicly displayed, so his justification for such an erotic style was that the woman belonged to a foreign World, where such views did not apply as they did in European culture.

Robertson, Jean, and Deborah S. Hutton. “Chapter 58, Page 945-946.” Essay. In The History of Art: A Global View. Thames & Hudson Inc., 2021.

# data[].attributes.headline
The Birth of Venus by Alexandre Cabanel, 1823-1889, Oil on Canvas, Musée d'Orsay, Paris

# data[].attributes.subject
The Birth of Venus by Alexandre Cabanel, 1823-1889, Oil on Canvas, Musée d'Orsay, Paris

# data[].attributes.body
By this time, the beliefs on how woman should be portrayed somewhat modestly had started to disperse, and this painting shows this. This beautiful painting by Alexandre Cabanel was accepted by the jury for the official Salon of 1863. As soon as it got shown to the public, it captivated the French publics and critics, and many people wanted it. Napoleon III ended up purchasing it. Cabanel, who was an academic painter, gained enormous fame over his life time, decided to paint Venus as his subject. In many other paintings of the Goddess Venus, she is seen as being depicted as a reclined female nude, with beautiful golden locks, and with great beauty. In Botticelli's Birth of Venus, she is seen on a shell, just coming out of the ocean, and in this version Venus is seen laying directly on the sea. She is also surrounded by Putti. This nudity and erotic nature was acceptable during this time because of the mythological history behind it. This painting also uses techniques of Neoclassicism.

Robertson, Jean, and Deborah S. Hutton. “Chapter 62, Page 1005.” Essay. In The History of Art: A Global View. Thames & Hudson Inc., 2021.