Art Lovers discussion

Rokeby Venus
Diego Velazquez
National Gallery

"Completed between 1647 and 1651, and probably painted during the artist's visit to Italy, the work depicts the goddess Venus in a sensual pose, lying on a bed and looking into a mirror held by the Roman god of physical love, her son Cupid... In this work, Velázquez combined two established poses for Venus: recumbent on a couch or a bed, and gazing at a mirror. She is often described as looking at herself on the mirror, although this is physically impossible since viewers can see her face reflected in their direction. This phenomenon is known as the Venus effect. In a number of ways the painting represents a pictorial departure, through its central use of a mirror, and because it shows the body of Venus turned away from the observer of the painting."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rokeby_...

Venus and Cupid
Artemisia Gentileschi
1625
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

"...Venus’s face has full cheeks, heavy lids, a prominent nose, and small protruding chin—all features of Gentileschi's own face. The body movements are natural: Venus’s hand rests lightly on her side, her legs are gently laid together. The work blends together realism and classicism through its iconography and the artist’s style."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_a...

The Birth of Venus
Sandro Botticelli
mid 1480s
Uffizi Florence, Italy

The Birth of Venus
William-Adolphe Bouguereau
around 1879
Musée d'Orsay, Paris

"Venus is considered to be the embodiment of feminine beauty and form, and these traits are shown in the painting.Her head is tilted to one side, and her facial expression reflects that she is calm and comfortable with her nudity. She raises her arms, arranging her thigh-length, brown hair, swaying elegantly in an "S" curve contrapposto, emphasizing the curves of her body."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bir...

The Birth of Venus
Alexandre Cabanel
1863
Musée d'Orsay, Paris

"Cabanel's erotic imagery, cloaked in historicism, appealed to the propriety of the higher levels of society. Art historian and curator Robert Rosenblum wrote of Cabanel's The Birth of Venus that "This Venus hovers somewhere between an ancient deity and a modern dream"; he described "the ambiguity of her eyes, that seem to be closed but that a close look reveals that she is awake ... A nude who could be asleep or awake is specially formidable for a male viewer".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bir...

The Birth of Venus
Odilon Redon
1912
Museum of Modern Art, New York
(Redon created six different versions of The Birth of Venus.)

Heather wrote: "The Birth of Venus
Sandro Botticelli
mid 1480s
Uffizi Florence, Italy"

This is one of my most loved paintings. Boticelli is my favourite Renaissance painter. Birth of Venus and Primavera are my favourites of his.

I was lucky to see Bouguereau's version of The Birth of Venus a few years ago when I visited Paris. It's absolutely gorgeous, but it's scale really left an impact with the painting being 3 meters tall!

I don't remember seeing Cabanel's painting whilst I was there - it was either not on display during the time of my visit, or Bouguereau's masterpiece took my breath away so much it made the other rendition of the subject leave my mind. :P
I would love to go back and see them in the future.

I appreciate all your comments, Laura!
Question: in what museum did you find Bouguereau's Birth of Venus?
I’ve been to the Louvre, Musee’ d’Orsay and L’Pompidou and with a painting that large I’d think I’d remember it. But I was there in 1993 so I probably don’t remember much of anything, plus, if it’s in the Louvre, there is a chance I missed it.
I’m just curious.

It was in the Musee' d'Orsay, I'm fairly certain! It was back in 2009, if I remember correctly. I would love to visit it again.

Laura wrote: "It was in the Musee' d'Orsay, I'm fairly certain! It was back in 2009, if I remember correctly. I would love to visit it again."

Thank you. Yes, I was disenchanted with Paris itself but loved the museums I did see there. I had the opportunity to visit the original Rodin museum located in his own house. That was awesome! As everyone knows, and now you do, too, sculpture is my favorite medium and Rodin is one of my favorite sculptors. So that was an extra treat that I did on our one day off from class. We had a choice to go to Versailles, or somewhere else and I chose to see the Rodin museum. Only one other guy wanted to go with me, then another girl who had a crush on him chose to go with us, also. The rest of the class went to Versailles. I have absolutely no regrets of my choice!

Okay, that was a little off the topic. But of the other three museums that I named above your post, I enjoyed the Musee' d'Orsay the best, even more than the Louvre. That may have been because I didn't see enough of the Louvre to really appreciate it, you really need about a week in there to even catch a glimpse of everything! I took the short tour of the highlights. You know what I mean.

I think for me the Louvre was incredible, but the vast number of works there made it too much to take in all at once! If I went back like you, I'd really need to visit for multiple days to absorb that amount of information.

Hellenistic sculpture is my favourite type of sculpture, so I think the Louvre was incredible for that! The Winged Victory of Samothrace was absolutely stunning; you don't get the same sense of scale from a photo.

I've not been to the Rodin museum; one to add to the list for my next visit. :)

What I liked the best about the Louvre was the Egyptian antiquities. I took a series of lectures about them. The last time I went there I could not see them. Either they were repatriated to Egypt or that section in the basement was closed for a period.

That’s too bad! I never saw any of those while I was there.
There was a mummy exhibit that toured around a few years ago. I don’t know if it just toured the USA or went international, but did you get to see that?

unfortunately did not see the touring exhibit, Heather. I was in Paris in 2014.