ODALISQUE
La Grande Odalisque (1814)
by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres
Medium: Oil painting on canvas
Movement: Neoclassical painting
The Odalisque (1745)
by Francois Boucher
Medium: Oil on canvas
Movement: Rococo, Renaissance
Both of Boucher and Ingres paintings depicts a female nude lying on a divan, posing on her back and slightly turning her head towards the viewers. The figure is surrounded with deep blue silk and fabrics, in contrast with her tone, which gives it a luminous glow.
The term odalisque refers to a female attendant in a Turkish seraglio. It came from the french word meaning “chambermaid” from oda, “chamber”. It can also refer to female slave and a wealthy man’s mistress or concubine.
“La Grande Odalisque” of Ingres represents the idea of feminity rather than a real woman. It differs from Boucher’s with his lack of illusionary depth and decorations. By looking at Ingres picture, the viewers eye will directly focus on the subject “the lady” rather than its ornaments or the background. Boucher’s painting, on the other, is ordered by folds of fabric, cushions, and rugs, which divides the viewers attention unto the arrangement of the objects.
Although both of its subject are the odalisque, Ingres puts emphasis on the figure. Still, Ingres painting have also manifested a fine details of the woman‘s turban, fan, and curtain.
Ingres turns the subject into an oriental setting. At that time, odalisque became a common fantasy figures being featured in many erotic paintings. He shows far more nudity than Boucher’s odalisque with extending the torso of the woman to show that it is a fantasy woman and not a real nude woman.
Ingers was a French Neoclassical painter but his works are shown to be strongly influence by Renaissance and Baroque painting and this can be evidently seen is his famous artworks.
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