French - Birth of Venus

• Artist

  Alexandre Cabanel
• Form & Style

  Oil on canvas, academic, classical
• Date

  1863
• Purpose

  Depicts the birth of the mythical figure Venus – the Greek goddess of love, beauty, passion and fertility - in which she was born of the sea foam after Zeus had castrated Uranus, chucking his testicles into the waves.
• Similar to & depiction

  Similar to Botticelli’s version

  
  

  The mythical figure (reminiscent of the Neoclassical style) has been depicted in a very passive and posed manner, most likely for the gratification of the male gaze.
• Give point about her positioning overall

  Point: Specifically placed into recumbent, ‘Venus Pudica’ position, allowing enlarged figure spread across width of the canvas in immediate foreground.

  
  

  Effect 1: Bring more attention to her - engaging the viewer from first glance.

  
  

  Effect 2: Establish her as the focal point of the piece.

  
• Give point about positioning of body VS head & forehead/eye

  Point: Front of body also rotated to face viewer. However, juxtaposed with situation of head, which placed further back into canvas, with back of right hand covering forehead and one eye, which appears to not engage viewer, and instead rolls back.

  
  

  Effect: Waking up from having just been born, intensifying Cabanel’s success in conforming to mythical story of the figure.

  
  

  Effect 2: However, also give effect that body protruding towards viewer, subtly attempting to break picture plane, conveying Cabanel’s other intension to satisfy male gaze.

  
• Give point about curvilinear lines & forward movement & pyramidal composition & conch shells

  Point overall: Idea of following mythical story & satisfy male gaze furthered.

  
  

  Point 1: Repeats curvilinear lines throughout (producing sense of harmony), such as through island in very distant background on left-hand side of the central axis.

  
  

  Effect 1: intensify the sensuality of the female form to his male viewers.

  
  

  Reasoning/Effect 2: Also highlight a sense of forward movement, in which continues to follow mythical story through representing Venus washing onto island of Cyprus, with five frolicking puttis above (creating pyramidal composition commonly seen in academic paintings), for which two blow into conch shells – a mythical symbol of fertility.

  
• MTPs pt 1 - lighting & colour

  Point: Exemplifies a traditional approach to the technique of oil painting, contrasting to other French avant-garde artists (like Manet).

  
  

  Reasoning 1: Use of naturally diffused lighting.

  
  

  Reasoning 2: Use of pastel shades of light pink and blue.

  
  

  Effect 1: Increase mythical figure’s sense of femininity.

  
  

  Effect 2: Increases seductiveness, further emphasising Cabanel’s intension to generate an artwork for the male gaze (which resembles the Rococo Style of French artists like Boucher from 1700s).
• MTPs pt 2 - Studied nude forms & brushwork & low horizon

  Point: To continue to successfully idealise the mythical figure he:

  
  

  Reasoning 1: Studied nude forms from life models

  
  

  Reasoning 2: Used highly smooth brushwork

  
  

  Reasoning 3: Incorporated a low horizon line to bring more attention to her body
• Conclusion + additionals + CT

  The success of this artwork in depicting a flawless mythical figure for the male gaze can be underlined through that fact that the piece’s “childlike, charming grace” (Theophile Gaughier) attracted Napoleon III (the Emperor at the time) to buy the piece after it was exhibited in the Salon on 1863.

  
  

  However, this could also bring attention to the sinister prejudice of the age, in which Cabanel (through the mythical figure of Venus) has rendered the role of women to objects that should forever appear simultaneously youthful and sexual.

  
  

  Thus, it can be argued that Cabanel has unfairly treated the mythical figure, choosing to not celebrate the mythical story of Venus’s birth, but manipulate it to create an image for the satisfaction of men.