The Nude in Weatern Tradition
The depiction of the nude female model by a male artist in oil painting has played a significant role in the western tradition over the last 500 years. The oil painting of the female nude is subject to the artist's interpretation of her form. She is affected by the artist's desire for his model, as well as his art and she is torn between the artist's inability to be both lover and painter. Hubert Damisch's "The Underneaths of Painting" helps the reader understand the importance of the male painter's imaging of the female form. By analyzing Balzac's Unknown Masterpiece, Damisch uncovers several tangents to the unique relationship between artist's and the women they create on canvas. Balzac tells a tale of the truth behind the creative process of an artist and the way he perceives his vision when finally completed in oil. Poussin is a young painter who doesn't quite understand how the concepts of desire and love will affect the perception of his model, and lover, Gilette. He soon embarks on a journey that takes him underneath the paint: "Under the paint and as its 'truth', instead and in the place of the so-called picture, the exchange
There are many layers of paint put on to one canvas, but the image isn't visible right away, she must grow through the brushstrokes. When the last brush of paint touches the canvas, her beauty is revealed to the eye. The artist has created his masterpiece and she can be discussed like a real woman now; she has a name, she has the personality the artist has given her which makes her come alive, she is so real that observers feel the need to touch her and she looks right back. The paint from which she came is an afterthought and because Poussin is hungry for a piece that can accomplish all this, he chooses his work over his love. "What of the working of desire in its relation to the desire of the other?" assuming its last true face: a woman for a picture and a woman for what forms (or ought to) its subject. It is at this point in the picture where the subterranean, archaeological presence of the woman reveals itself, that something is given to see, something that can be spoken, that can be named, something moreover alive, delectable, a foothold for desire; in a word, something that looks at us unlike the inexpressible wall of paint that holds it captive," (Damisch 202). "...one has to choose between being a lover and a painter. Poussin will be assailed by doubt at the thought that another person could look at Gilette, and look at her as only he was allowed to see her: naked. But this doubt will soon vanish: the young man will forget his mistress, he will desire only to be a painter, he will see his art and nothing else," (Damisch 200). The artist has desired to attain a beautiful, inspirational model to develop his masterpiece- he
Some common words found in the essay are:
Masterpiece Damisch, Gilette Poussin, Essay Topic, Underneaths Painting, female nude, Art History, Elizabeth Towers, damisch 200, female model, oil painting, desire love, desire model, love damisch, lover painter,
Approximate Word count = 1115
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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