Aphrodite dressed elegantly and loved to wear jewelry. Her eyelashes were always curled and she had a constant smile on her face. Even though she was as beautiful as she was, it was said that she was a weak and frightful goddess. Her purpose as a goddess; arousing desire to humans and gods, as well as beasts and birds. She was connected to the death and rebirth of human beings and nature.
Ignoring the fact that they are both naked (which was a common portrayal during this time period, in fact Praxiteles was the first to depict a full scale female nude ), this sight would not be unusual to see. I really enjoyed this aspect of the sculpture. Earlier depictions of Greek gods showed them with overstated muscles in poses that seem peculiar and rigid. The simplicity of this sculpture humanizes them, making the notion of gods much more accessible. This humanization also led the way for sculptures to begin addressing everyday occurrences with ordinary people, such as the Spinnario.
The wax figure of Madame Du Barry was displayed and everyone was surprised by the artwork. From there, Tussaund knew what she wanted to be. In this wax figure sculpture, it displays Madame Du Barry lying on a long chair with her hand across her face. She is appeared to by sleeping which is why the title of the sculpture is “Sleeping Beauty.” Curtius taught Tussaud the art of wax modeling; she showed a lot of talent and started to work more with him. In 1777, she created her first solo wax figure.
The Greek gods are just one example of Paganism. Those mighty Olympians taught people to be humble and that you weren’t better then the Gods. There is an example of someone thinking they were better then the gods. It was the Arachne she was an amazing weaver she thought she was better then Athena. They went into contest and Arachne had won, out of spite Athena turned her into a spider so she could weave forever.
The statue of Aphrodite that I had chosen is of her crouching naked at her bath. It was made in the second century AD by the Romans. It is a version of the original from Hellenistic(1) Greece. It can now be found on exhibit at the British Museum. In the fourth century BC there was a sculptor known as Praxiteles whom created the life-size naked statue of Aphrodite.
There are many other tales of Aphrodite, as her Roman name is Venus, she is also known as the daughter of Zeus and Dione. Family life In Homeric legend Aphrodite was forced to marry the ugly god of fire, Hephaestus, with this marriage, she had hoped to reach the freedom she needed instead of being controlled. Aphrodite was very independent and constantly in search for a new lover. One of her more familiar lovers was Ares, the god of war, whom she later married. Aphrodite felt no pain in being deceitful, as she flourished in the fact that she could have anyone and everyone, love and admire her.
What’s interesting about the male that she is holding is that he is nude and also has a third eye, very much like the one seen on all the one dollar bills. The nudity of the male probably shows her admiration for the male body, or her sexual attractiveness to it. Upon doing some research, I was able to find out that the eye wisdom, which could represent that she viewed males as being wise and/or intelligent. Using a little of my mother’s knowledge, I learned that the god-like
This work is housed in the National Gallery in London, England. This painting is touching on the myth of Apollo, a god, and Daphne, a nymph. In the Greek Mythological universe, Apollo is a very flirtacious god, and usually comes away with nothing to show for it. This time however his lust is the result of Eros, who was insulted by Apollo when playing with his bow and arrow. Eros in turn shot Apollo with a golden arrow, resulting in and undying desire for Daphne.
Why are representations of women seen differently in art? In art, the nudes especially, portray a woman as an object, rather than a person with passion and emotions of their own, to be viewed and enjoyed by the spectator, it was all about the viewer. The women in art were to have no feelings of their own but to make the viewer feel that the woman in the image is theirs and is there solely for their viewing pleasure, which in most instances was a man. They were to be beautiful and eye candy for the man. The woman was there exclusively to be viewed or to be surveyed by the spectator and in some cases also viewed by herself; it was believed one of the only reasons she should examine herself is to see how others, primarily men, perceived her.
All of her paintings were from personal experiences such as her marriage, miscarriages and her numerous operations. Out of Kahlo’s 143 paintings 55 are self portraits. Over her bed was a mirror so she could see herself and this was how she produced the self portraits. I admire the way which she paints her portraits as she never tries to beautify herself as many would, in fact she seems to make herself appear uglier. ‘They thought I was a surrealist, but I wasn’t, I never painted my dreams, I painted my reality’.