context of practice: Image Analysis Essay

Take "Bacchus, Ceres and Amor" by Von Aachen (1552-1615) [Fig.1], although the attention of the other, male figures in this painting are focusing their attention within the image, the woman is looking out, seemingly detached from her peers. She is only in place for the surveyor, her body is henceforth not "naked" but "nude". The female "nude" differs from a naked image of a woman as she is aware of her naked body and of the sexual implications it brings forward. The woman’s form is suggestive without being explicitly sexual, she is seemingly coy in the way in which she turns her body away yet still bares both her breasts and her buttocks to the surveyor. She is the only figure not clothed in anything, although the other figures are only draped in cloth, her cloth is transparent and therefore redundant in its purpose. Her lighter skin also brings her further into the foreground and successfully makes her the prime centre point of the image. Following this, the male figure in the painting is gazing at her, encouraging the other viewers to follow his line of sight, it is almost an instruction for the viewer to follow in his lead.

"She is not naked as she is.

She is naked as the spectator sees her." - John Berger

Rembrandt was one of the first to break this tradition of the female figure recognising her male surveyors in his panting "Danae" (1600-1669) [Fig. 2]. Here the artist has created a more intimate relationship between himself and the model. The woman is looking away from the spectator and thus cannot deceive himself into believing that she is naked for him. She can not feasibly be turned into a "nude". Unlike in Von Aarchen’s painting, both figures have their gaze focused on something happening outside of the painting that the viewer is not involved with, this suggests a narrative and thus the woman is not just a static being but suddenly has character. The viewer gets the sense that they are not involved in the events unfolding in the painting and thus can not place themselves within it.

Of course, there are many female artists in the present day whom have successfully created the naked female figure without it breaching upon the title of "nude". An artist of note would be the painter Jenny Saville; her work focuses on the movement and manipulation of heavy, raw female flesh. Instead of including the gaze of her models, she brings the focus away from their faces and towards the masses of flesh in bold, confident brush strokes and dynamic angles. Particularly in the painting “The Mothers” [Fig. 3], Saville is looking in on herself and visually figuring out what it means to be a woman. On why she chose to paint children she stated; “I’ve tried to stay away a little bit, about the issues surrounding biology being determinate and that women are here to have babies. But, it’s so powerful…”. Again, in the painting, Saville is not focused on the surveyor but instead focused on the children she is holding. This successfully brings forward the importance she is trying to stress on identifying women as functioning biological beings instead of purely aesthetic ‘nudes’ only present for the male gaze.

Nan Goldin represents a female photographer working to dissipate the societally ingrained image of females in art. As a photographer of "snap-shot style" image making, entwining boundary less gender with intimate and often very visceral images of herself and those around her. Like John Berger's analysis, Goldin is looking in on herself and even goes as far as to photograph herself examining her own image in a handheld mirror. She also entitles one of her books "I'll be your mirror" (1998), the title of which was inspired by Nico and the Velvet Underground, a reflection of the time in which she was working. Goldin uses the reflection of herself as a portal to consider her drug fueled and underground life as projections into the world of minority classes and genders. In this image, "Self-Portrait in my Blue Bathroom" [Fig. 4], her body is not present, therefore can not be objectified. She has used the mirror, not as a symbol of vanity, but as a tool in which to show a glimpse or herself. By doing this, she has dissipated the notion of vanity and its ties to reflection. On the subject of gaze; instead of looking at her reflection, she is focused on something happening outside of the shot. Similarly to Rembrandt’s Danae, this suggests action that the viewer is not involved with. Goldin has taken this idea one step further by involving expression; she seems startled and is not passive like many of the female in Bacchus, Ceres and Amor, thus in turn suggests character and prompts the viewer to consider an event prior to the image which they see before them. The title of this image is personal, ‘in my blue bathroom’; she is claiming ownership over the space in which she exists and simultaneously making her work personal and intimate. All of these aspects build the image of a woman whom is not just a stationary figure but a being with emotional capabilities and a life outside of the image.

To conclude, the female form has been manipulated by the male gaze throughout the history of art, and seemingly this hasn't changed. In the cases illustrated in this essay, the artists have used and manipulated their social responsibility to portray the female form for the viewing of the masses. In the first image, this was to appeal directly to the male gaze. Second image began to break this down, whereas third and forth images entirely changed the direction of gaze.

[Fig. 1]