Logan Green lmg3398

Women Lost In Thought

Women have been the subject of many paintings throughout all of art history. In some

paintings, women have been painted to show off their elegance, while in others, women are

painted with the same stature as a male. Charity by Jacques Blanchard (c.1634­35), Sleeping

Venus With Two Putti In a Landscape by Giovanni Lanfranco (c. 1632), The Toilet of Venus by

Simon Vouet (c. 1640), and an unknown artist’s Leda, after Michelangelo of the sixteenth

century each display a woman as the main subject of the work of art. The women in these four

works of art are all placed in different scenarios, with very little connection between them. Yet

there is one similarity that stands out to the viewer: the sense of ease these women possess.

Despite the external factors around them, the women in the artwork chosen appear to remain

relaxed, and lost in their own thought.

Three of the four pieces of work selected are more closely related than the other.

Charity, Sleeping Venus With Two Putti In a Landscape, and The Toilet of Venus are paintings

from the baroque era, and therefore will have some similar features. In each of these paintings,

the viewer’s eye is first drawn to the rich blue color. The blue is strategically placed where it is

in each of these paintings so that the viewer may focus on the main subject­ the women. In

Charity, the mother is draped in a silky blue garment. Blanchard placed light colored cherubs on

and around the garment, which creates a contrast that further expresses the rich blue color. The

blue clothing creates a frame for the mother’s breast, leading up to her expressive face. When the

viewer’s eyes make their way to her face, you can see that the mother is preoccupied in thought,

despite the commotion the cherubs have created around her. The mother looks away from her

children, as if to be distracted by something entirely different. The mother is lost in her own

thought. While in Sleeping Venus With Two Putti In a Landscape LanFranco doesn’t wrap his

subject in a blue garment, he still uses color to bring focus to her. Like Blanchard, LanFranco

uses the contrast between blue and a porcelain color to illuminate the woman, only he adds a

dash of red to the mix. Venus’ resting, elongated body stretches from one side of the canvas to

the other. The vibrant blue sky above mirrors her body. Venus is lying on a crimson red garment

which further creates a contrast between a vivid color and white, bringing more attention to

Venus herself. The gradient of color on Venus’ body starts at her toes and grows darker as you

reach the final viewpoint­ her face, which falls under the shadow of her tent. Here, we see a

sleeping Venus­ as the name suggests­ who is undisturbed by the cherubs admiring her. Similar

to in Charity, Vouet uses an enticing blue garment to attract the viewer’s eye in his work The

Toilet of Venus. Not only does Vouet use this bright blue, but he uses an array of vibrant colors

that all aid in bringing the viewer’s central focus to the subject of his painting, Venus. The eye

first is attracted to the blue garment wrapped loosely around Venus­ which pops due to the

contrast between rich blue and white­ but then is immediately moves to the pastel blue and pink

colored drapery that is accompanied by a detailed gold vase in the lower right hand corner of the

painting. The drapery moves up the side of the frame, where your eye meets the crimson red

drapery, which takes up a large portion of the top half of the painting. From there, your eyes drop

to the little cherubs holding a decorative gold mirror. Within that mirror, the viewer witnesses

Venus looking back at herself, and away from the women who are trying to give her attention.

The viewer can trace the track in which Vouet brings focus to Venus­ from the blue garment

Venus is wrapped in, to the pastel drapery and gold vase, to the crimson drapery, to the mirror

with her reflection, and finally we meet Venus herself. Despite the vibrant colors, and multiple

people around her, Venus seems fixated only with her reflection in the mirror. No matter what is

going on around her, the outside factors don’t seem to phase Venus. In the paintings Charity,

Sleeping Venus With Two Putti In a Landscape, and The Toilet of Venus, the artists create this

visual contrast between bright colors, and a porceline, white woman, which aids in illuminating

said women. The faces and posture of these women give off the impression that they aren’t

worried about their surroundings, that there is something else that pangs their minds.

Contrary to the baroque­esque paintings described earlier, the fourth piece of art, Leda,

after Michelangelo, is an etching. While for obvious reasons this work of art is a bit different

than the others, it still conveys the same image of a woman so consumed in her own thought.

While the fact that this piece is an etching prohibits the artist from using color contrast to bring

focus to the woman, he still succeeds in making the woman the center of attention. The eye is

immediately drawn to the woman’s thigh due to the fact that it is this large smooth space, that is

surrounded by many little etchings. The detailed wing under the woman’s thigh helps to create

this contrast. Resting on top of the thigh is the woman’s limp hand, which captures the viewer’s

eye instantly. From there, the eye travels up the woman’s arm to meet a plant that lines the top of

the woman’s stomach. The plant leads directly into the exasperated mouth of the woman. We can

see that something has consumed this woman’s thoughts, something that causes her jaw to drop.

She does not seem distracted by the cherub next to her, or anything that’s going on around her.

However she is entirely distracted by whatever may be going on in her mind.

Despite that Leda, after Michelangelo is an etching rather than a painting like Charity,

Sleeping Venus With Two Putti In a Landscape, and The Toilet of Venus, the bodies of all four

women are fairly similar. The first similarity between the women is their pure, white bodies,

which was very common in artwork during 16th­18th centuries. As previously discussed, these

white bodies helped in creating the woman as the center focus of the art work. Along with the

color of their skin, the women are all rather thick, another common feature of women painted

during this time period. These woman are full, from their thighs to their busts. This gives the

women mass, they occupy a space. In the pieces Charity and The Toilet of Venus, the artists

drape the women in a garment, that help to exploit their dimensions and weight. The women in

Sleeping Venus With Two Putti In a Landscape and Leda, after Michelangelo are lying nude on a

piece of cloth. The artists give their women mass by the detail in which the garments fold and

crease under their bodies. However, despite the efforts these artist made to add weight to these

women, the all seem as if they are weightless. The women’s bodies seem to be gently placed into

the pieces of art. While the women fit directly into their surroundings, they kind of float above

the rest. This element further draws the viewer to focus on the women, and really examine what

it is about them. Without fail, the viewer’s eyes will always be drawn to the women’s faces; the

faces that are so consumed by their own thought.