Hayley Ditchburn BA Hons, Fine Art
What Makes a Portrait Sexual, 2006
Throughout
history, artists and sculptors have devoted their lives to re-creating
the image of the human figure. I intend to explore what makes an image
sexual, how this is achieved and different artists who have created
these sensual portraits from as early as ancient Greece to modern day
artists. I will look at changing trends over the centuries and how the
nude portrait has developed and been adapted according to changing
morals and changes within society.
In
Praixitele’s Greece, nude images and sculptures were an everyday
occurrence, however, they were highly idealised and not yet
anatomically correct by any means. As ‘Kenneth Clark describes her (The
Esquiline Venus) “She is seven heads tall, there is one head’s length
between her breasts, one between her breast and her navel, and one from
her navel to the separation of her legs.”’(1)
Although
we see the replicas of Praixitele’s nudes as sexual and idealistic,
what we don’t know is the intention of Praixitele himself. It is
possible that he intended them to represent virginal goddesses or
religious women. Also we cannot know how the ancient Greeks saw them.
It is likely that they saw the statues in a completely different way to
how we do now.
We can
place definite sexual connotations with the work of some of the Flemish
artists of the 15th Century, in particular Van der Goes’ ‘Adam and
Eve’- ‘Van der Goes’ Eve is a young woman 6 or 7 months pregnant.’(2)
Although this image isn’t overtly sexual he had no intention of
idealising the figures, also, their nudity and her pregnancy suggest
sex in a very subtle and natural way that was typical of that era.
Moving
into the 19th century and we see the emergence of artists such as Manet
and Degas whose images portray the female as a soft and elegant being
in a subtly idealistic way. This was welcomed by the public in a time
when the emergence of early photographic images of nudes were causing
an uproar as they were seen as extremely explicit as they showed all
the body’s imperfections.
Degas
used photos to aid his composition and create modern images, however
‘To describe Degas as someone who immediately translated he lessons of
photography into painting is, in any case to make him seem radical …
Nothing could be more misleading.’(3) Thus, he was able to maintain a subtly sexual way of painting, bringing it up to date at the same time with photography.
During
that period, Manet was painting in a similar style with soft dreamlike
qualities to his paintings and sexual overtones that later inspired
Picasso to re-invent his famous ‘Dejeuner sur l’herbe’ using cubism to
bring a classical image into the 20th Century. In doing this, Picasso
created a new sexuality for the image that was more up to date and edgy
without becoming explicit.
This, to
me, proves that a pose can be as important as the style in which a
piece is painted when trying to create a sexual mood.
Another
reason for Manet’s nudes to be perceived as sexual is that his nudes
seem always to make eye contact with the onlooker thus becoming much
more personal, however, this also gives them a fairly sordid edge when
you realise that the nude woman is flirting with the artist. This is
especially noticeable in ‘Olympia’. The way Manet has made his women
appear to know you’re looking gives it an edginess that you don’t see
in the work of artists such as Degas where the subject is looking away.
Another artist who used this tool of endearment was the 18th Century
artist Francois Boucher.
Moving into the
20th Century and eroticism in art became much more overt and explicit.
Artists Picasso and Dubuffet represent the act of sex in childlike
sketches that, to me, seem to show two things; the sordid nature of sex
but also the natural human instinct to reproduce. ‘Jean Dubuffet shows
the sexual act with disarming nonchalance. … He reduces the sexual
intercourse to a functional process.’
With this
new explicit twist on sexual images such as Paul Wunderlich’s
‘Pornographic works of art’ including Leda und der Schwan (Leda and the
Swan), 1966 that depicts a woman beneath a swan indulging in a sexual
act, we must question whether they actually affect us as successfully
as the more subtly composed and executed work of Boucher and Degas, or
simply shock and disgust us. This shows me that the more explicit an
image becomes, the more likely it is that it will lose its sexuality.
I have
found that a little left to the imagination is often much more
aesthetically pleasing and sensual than full nudity and explicit
images, especially with regard to couples and the act of sex. The less
pornographic the image, in my experience, the more comfortable the
viewing experience, making the images ultimately more enjoyable.
The idea
of partially hidden figures in an embrace is reflected in the work of
artists Klimt and Utamaro whose print ‘The Lovers’ depicts ‘… two
lovers, their faces hidden, embrace … Their naked bodies can be
glimpsed through the delicate swathes of the patterned silk kimonos.’(4) I see this image as much more sexual than Wunderlich’s explicit drawings.
We must
consider when looking at these images of nudes, at what point they
become sexual images as opposed to just figure studies. This change can
be seen when looking at the work of artists such as Jenny Saville in
comparison to that of Stanley Spencer for instance. Saville’s nudes are
obese and painted in a way that only exaggerates this causing them to
simply become figures.
In
comparison, Spencer who battled with his sexual desires and devout
Catholicism painted his nude wives as sexual and flirtatious although
similarly to Saville he did not idealise them in any way and could be
said to have exaggerated their faults.
Spencer’s
nudes became more erotic when he introduced himself as another naked
figure looking at them from the foreground. The result of this is the
figure’s obvious knowledge of the painter and ultimately the viewer
looking at them creating a similar effect to eye contact with the
viewer.
Two very
important factors in the degree of eroticism in a painting are the way
the artist intended it to be seen and the way the viewer sees it. This
seems obvious, but every person sees everything differently, therefore
to certain eyes, pieces that were intended to be very sexual may not be
or vice versa. Something that I find pornographic may not be to someone
else and ‘Much of the looking we do is conditioned by our sense of
maleness and femaleness…’(5)
Another
factor in the way a painting is seen as sensual or not is the context
in which it is seen. A painting that would be sensual if it were seen
alone may appear tame alongside others of a more pornographic nature
and the situation of the viewer sees it could also affect their feeling
towards it, viewed in a busy gallery, the onlooker may not feel so
comfortable with an image in comparison to seeing it alone in their
home.
The scale
of a piece can change the way an image is seen as well. If a painting
is on a very large scale it could be intimidating to the viewer or on
too small a scale the minor details that make it sensual may be lost
unless it is studied at length and in depth.
In
Conclusion, having looked at several artists and eras, I feel that a
painting is made sensual mostly by personal opinion and the context in
which it is seen. However different centuries produced very different
artists and nudes. I have also learned that when a piece is too
explicit, it can lose all sexuality and minor details such as the focus
of the eyes can make a portrait much more sexual than it otherwise
might be.
1- Bodies on Knowledge, Liam Hudson
2- Bodies of Knowledge, Liam Hudson
3- Bodies of Knowledge, Liam Hudson
4- The Art Book
5- Bodies of Knowledge, Liam Hudson