Blog #7 - Neoclassicism and Romantic Expressionism

This week's look at Goya's Romantic Expressionism certainly gave me food for thought (no pun intended with the picture below!) as I viewed some of his more darker images. There are a series of pictures painted when he was 72, already fully deaf from a debilitating fever, and all the images were originally depicted on the walls of his house. They are commonly called the Black Paintings, and were painted between 1819 and 1823.


Saturn Devouring His Son, Goya (1819 - 1823)

From the mythology surrounding this god, Saturn was forewarned that one of his sons would overthrow him. So as each of his children was born, he ate them. But his mother hid the last son Jupiter who eventually grew up to, yes you guessed it, overthrow Saturn. Just can't escape these prophecies! It is not known why Goya chose this subject matter as he did not keep any notes on his art work of this period. This painting was one of 6 that hung in the dining room. What an appetizer!







I find this painting fascinating, not only because of the artwork but also because of the controversy it sparked. And also because people had so many varying opinions about the painting! It is entitled Une Odalisque, or Grande Odalisque, which is translated to Concubine or Harem Woman. Napoleon's sister Caroline Murat, also the Queen of Naples, commissioned Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres to paint it in 1814.

Critics of the time thought he was being untrue to the neoclassical style and breaking toward Romanticism. Additionally, people thought the woman's anatomy and pose was impossible and postulated that she would have had to have 5 extra vertebrae if the pose were reproduced by a human woman.

Sound anything like our current size 00 fashion models who can't eat anything in order to stay stick thin for the camera? Or how about that woman who a few years back sculpted her body to mirror the measurements of a Barbie doll? She even removed some of her ribs. I would hope that Ingres did not have this in mind when he painted, to put forth an archetype of women that would never be feasible. I will keep my hopes pinned on the fact that he was attempting to make a different type of statement relating to the grace and beauty of women.