More Than Just Beauty: Woman in Art

Personal visions born in the artist’s imagination do not have the same status as an allegory; and yet, like allegories, they can also take the form of various anthropomorphic shapes, among which the image of a female is prominent.

Deciphering the meaning of this kind of individual imagery requires knowledge of the epoch, the distinctive features of its art, and the artist’s work and social environment.

The second half of the 19th century, which was sensitive to social injustices, added subjects of a social nature to the iconography of children.Images of children from this time range from half-angels to pitiful ragamuffins from whom the unfair adult world has stolen the joys of childhood.

We can also find pictures with children cheerfully working, playing and studying. The sentimental and sensual view of children sometimes has a hint of eroticism. This is especially evident in images of adolescent girls, even if the artist was not aiming to convey it.

Since the 18th century, the social and domestic aspects of motherhood have become more prominent in works of art. Works from the 19th century and later that radiate an anxiety for children who will have to face the cruelty and injustice of the world as soon as they leave the safe haven of their mother’s arms.

Because they were born into a family which is doomed to struggle for its daily bread, comprise a separate sub-theme of the theme of motherhood. Nevertheless, the prism of social critique did not overshadow artists’ veneration of woman, who is endowed with the power to give and foster new life.The image of the female almost always has some features of the Madonna or a goddess.

The artist’s ability to transmit to the viewer the gaze with which he looked at his real or imaginary model has long been one of the criteria for evaluating the work’s artistry and suggestiveness. The emotions behind this gaze range from shy tenderness to explicit passion and physical desire.

The desire embodied in the work is not necessarily proportionate to the extent of the model’s nudity. Often images of fully clothed women or girls convey eroticism just as well as images of half naked Bathshebas, Dianas, Susannas, Venuses, bacchantes or mermaids.

Nevertheless, art historians argue that the true artist usually finds inspiration for his picture in another work of art, rather than a living woman.

For instance, Picasso drew his inspiration from Ingres’ bathers,while the Lithuanian artist Juozas Mikėnas found it in images of women painted by Picasso.

The great voyages that began in the Renaissance period opened up to Europe not only the mysteries of China and the captivating worlds of the Near East and India, but also the no less exotic life of its own lower strata that was to be found at close proximity to the towns and villages. The Romantics particularly favoured images of a strange but alluring reality, and captured them with the intention of ‘domesticating’ and getting to know that reality. 

The artists of the Positivist era continued their efforts, followed by the Modernists. Regardless of the differences in their style, manner and moods, all of these works radiate the curiosity of an ethnographer and the keen eye of an observer. They appealed to contemporaries who did not have the chance or were unwilling to experience first-hand the unusual, ‘different’ world, which included not only faraway exotic lands, but also the ‘other side’ of their own land: Jews and gypsies, peasants and marginalised city dwellers (drunks, prostitutes, beggars and travelling performers,and also small-scale artisans, laundresses and market vendors).

The portrayal of this ‘different’ world and its inhabitants gave rise to various misconceptions which later became clichés, and led artists to emphasise the purity of the peasants and their connection with nature, the sensuality, wealth and luxury of the East, and the savage and passionate spirit and the gift for clairvoyance of gypsies.

Today, as in the past, the viewer enjoys an unexpected and intriguing angle on reality, and exoticism within the shell of realism, whether the artists have depicted curious sights of distant lands through the eyes of an explorer or the surrounding reality of their own country.