Sayre woa ch23_lecture-243788

1. WORLD OF ARTWORLD OF ART
CHAPTER
EIGHTH EDITION
World of Art, Eighth Edition
Henry M. Sayre
Copyright © 2016, 2013, 2010
by Pearson Education, Inc. or its affiliates.
All rights reserved.
Love and Sex
23

2. Learning ObjectivesLearning Objectives
1. Describe how the tension between
physical and spiritual love manifests
itself in different cultures.
2. Explain some of the different ways in
which desire has been imaged.
3. Discuss the kiss as an image of desire.

3. IntroductionIntroduction
• Sculptor Auguste Rodin had been
haunted by Dante's Divine Comedy,
and by the Inferno in particular.
• In The Kiss (Le Baiser), Rodin
transforms the couple into every man
and every woman—love personified.
• There is no more enduring theme in art
than the coupling of love and sex.

4. Auguste Rodin, The Kiss (Le Baiser).
1888–89. Marble, 5' 11-1/2" × 44-1/4" × 46". Musée Rodin, Paris.
Inv. S.1002. © Vanni Archive/Art Resource, New York. [Fig. 23-1]

5. Physical and Spiritual LovePhysical and Spiritual Love
• The Greek philosopher Plato argued
that sex should be permitted only for
purposes of procreation.
• Various forms of this attitude have
survived in Western culture today.
• In other cultures, sex and physical
passion are something to be
celebrated.

6. Sexuality in the Hindu WorldSexuality in the Hindu World
1 of 21 of 2
• One of the most important figures in
the Hindu pantheon of gods is Shiva,
the destroyer.
• One of the most popular
representations of him shows him
seated with his wife, Uma.

7. Shiva Seated with Uma (Uma-Maheshvara).
11th century. Copper alloy, height 11-1/8". Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Samuel Eilenberg Collection, Ex Coll.: Columbia University, Purchase, Rogers Fund,
1987.218.1. © 2015. Image copyright Metropolitan Museum of Art/Art Resource/Scala,
Florence. Photo: Maggie Nimkin. [Fig. 23-2]

8. Sexuality in the Hindu WorldSexuality in the Hindu World
2 of 22 of 2
• A wall of even more erotic sculptures
rises alongside the garbhagriha at
Kandariya Mahadeva Temple in
Khajuraho.
• These sculptures probably represent
the idea of kama—meaning "desire" or
"longing."
• Sex, in this tradition, is a process of
enjoyment.

9. Erotic couples on wall of Kandariya Mahadeva Temple, Khajuraho, India.
ca. 1000 CE. Height of sculptures approx. 39".
© Fotofeeling/Westend61/Corbis. [Fig. 23-3]

10. ErosEros and the Idea of Love in Ancientand the Idea of Love in Ancient
GreeceGreece
1 of 31 of 3
• For the ancient Greeks, the idea of eros
embodies the same conjoining of
physical and spiritual love that the
Hindus represented with Shiva and
Uma.
• They believe love is ennobling; the
loved one becomes virtuous by being
loved.

11. ErosEros and the Idea of Love in Ancientand the Idea of Love in Ancient
GreeceGreece
2 of 32 of 3
• They also distinguished between
Common Love (simply physical) and
Heavenly Love, which is physical but is
also only in those who are capable of
rational and ethical development.

12. ErosEros and the Idea of Love in Ancientand the Idea of Love in Ancient
GreeceGreece
3 of 33 of 3
• The Greeks understood that love and
sex were intertwined in complex ways
and that the two were in some sense
compatriots.
 This can be seen in the sculpture of
Dionysus and Eros.

13. Dionysus and Eros, Roman copy of a statue attributed to Praxiteles
2nd century CE. Marble. National Archaeological Museum, Naples.
© 2015. Photo Scala, Florence, courtesy the Ministero Beni e Att. Culturali. [Fig. 23-4]

14. A Persian TaleA Persian Tale
1 of 21 of 2
• The tales of love between man and
woman as a cosmic force for harmony
and justice had taken hold in Persia.
• In many of these tales, the woman
plays a role similar to the Greek god
Eros.

15. A Persian TaleA Persian Tale
2 of 22 of 2
• One of the most popular of these tales
was the "Seduction of Yusuf and
Zulaykha," a retelling of the biblical
story of Joseph and the wife of
Potiphar.
 The illustration by Bihzad of Zulaykha
depicts the palace as almost a labyrinth,
which is probably meant to reflect the
war of feelings and emotions that each
of the story's protagonists faces.

16. Bihzad, The Seduction of Yusuf, from a copy of Sadi's Bustan ("Orchard"), prepared for
Sultan Husayn Mirza at Herat, Persia (present-day Afghanistan).
1488. Ink and color on paper, 11-7/8 × 8-2⁄3". National Library, Cairo.
akg-image/Erich Lessing. [Fig. 23-5]

17. The Medieval Courtly Love TraditionThe Medieval Courtly Love Tradition
1 of 41 of 4
• Love, as something purely spiritual and
ennobling, would make its way to
Europe particularly in the tradition of
"courtly love" through the poetry of
troubadours.
 The primary feeling is one of desire or
longing, of a knight or nobleman for a
woman.

18. The Medieval Courtly Love TraditionThe Medieval Courtly Love Tradition
2 of 42 of 4
• Love, as something purely spiritual and
ennobling, would make its way to
Europe particularly in the tradition of
"courtly love" through the poetry of
troubadours.
 To love is to suffer, to wander aimlessly,
unable to concentrate on anything but
the mental image of the beloved.

19. The Medieval Courtly Love TraditionThe Medieval Courtly Love Tradition
3 of 43 of 4
• Love, as something purely spiritual and
ennobling, would make its way to
Europe particularly in the tradition of
"courtly love" through the poetry of
troubadours.
 Also in the courtly love tradition, the
smitten knight or nobleman must be
willing to perform any deed to win his
lady's favor.

20. The Medieval Courtly Love TraditionThe Medieval Courtly Love Tradition
4 of 44 of 4
• Love, as something purely spiritual and
ennobling, would make its way to
Europe particularly in the tradition of
"courtly love" through the poetry of
troubadours.
 This can be seen in the scenes on a
jeweled twelfth-century casket.

21. Casket with scenes of courtly love, from Limoges.
ca. 1180. Champlevé enamel, 3-5/8 × 8-1/2 × 6-3/8". The British Museum, London.
1859,0110.1. © Trustees of British Museum. [Fig. 23-6]

22. The Privatization of Sex in the WestThe Privatization of Sex in the West
1 of 21 of 2
• It could be argued that the Church
forced sex in the Western world to go
underground—it became a private
matter.
• Bronzino's An Allegory with Venus and
Cupid was intended to appeal to the
king's taste and demonstrate Florentine
intellectual cleverness through an
allegory that required unraveling.

23. The Privatization of Sex in the WestThe Privatization of Sex in the West
2 of 22 of 2
• This painting seems to offer an
admonition about the short-lived
rewards of erotic love.
• It also celebrates erotic love even as it
warns against it.

24. Bronzino, An Allegory with Venus and Cupid.
ca. 1540–50. Oil on wood, approx. 5' 1" × 4' 8-3/4". National Gallery, London.
© National Gallery, London/Scala, Florence. [Fig. 23-7]

25. Imaging DesireImaging Desire
1 of 31 of 3
• Eugène Delacroix's Odalisque was
painted to be looked at and enjoyed for
its visual and erotic impact.
 The figure in the painting is not a
person; she is an object of desire.
 She remains, forever, an image and a
fantasy.
 The painting is structured as if it were a
private space into which the viewer has
been admitted.

26. Eugène Delacroix, Odalisque.
1845–50. Oil on canvas, 14-7/8 × 18-1/4". Fitzwilliam Museum, University of
Cambridge, England.
Bridgeman Images. [Fig. 23-8]

27. Imaging DesireImaging Desire
3 of 33 of 3
• Picasso's painting Les Demoiselles
d'Avignon has much in common with
the Delacroix.
 Both paintings cover the nudes'
genitalia.
 Picasso's image of desire is more
ambivalent that Delacroix's.
 Les Demoiselles both attracts and
repulses the viewer.

28. Pablo Picasso, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon.
1907. Oil on canvas. 8' × 7' 8". Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Digital image, Museum of Modern Art, New York/Scala, Florence. © 2015 Estate of Pablo
Picasso/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. [Fig. 23-9]

29. Line analysis of Pablo Picasso, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon.
1907. Oil on canvas. 8' × 7' 8". Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Digital image, Museum of Modern Art, New York/Scala, Florence. © 2015 Estate of Pablo
Picasso/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. [Fig. 23-10]

30. The VoyeurThe Voyeur
1 of 31 of 3
• The gaze of the voyeur is the subject of
Jean-Honoré Fragonard's famous
painting The Swing.
• It suggests an erotic intrigue between
two lovers, a conspiracy emphasized by
the sculpture of Cupid with his fingers
to his lip.

31. The VoyeurThe Voyeur
2 of 32 of 3
• The entire image has erotic symbolism
that would have been commonly
understood at the time.
• It echoes the central panel of
Michelangelo's Sistine Ceiling, The
Creation of Adam.

32. Jean-Honoré Fragonard, The Swing.
1767. Oil on canvas, 32-5/8 x 26". Wallace Collection, London.
© Wallace Collection, London/Bridgeman Images. [Fig. 23-11]

33. The VoyeurThe Voyeur
3 of 33 of 3
• A very similar image of a beautiful
woman on a swing was created by Sin
Yunbok in Korea not long after
Fragonard's.

34. Sin Yunbok, Women on Tano Day, Joseon dynasty, Korea.
Late 18th–early 19th century. Ink and colors on paper, 11-1⁄8 x 13-7⁄8 in. Gansong
Museum of Art, Seoul.
akg-images/VISIOARS. [Fig. 23-12]

35. An African FestivalAn African Festival
1 of 31 of 3
• In Africa, the Fulani of southern Niger
annually celebrate a week-long gerewol
festival at the end of the rainy season.
• The Wodaabe men paint their faces and
decorate themselves with feathers,
jewelry, and elaborate embroidered
panels.

36. An African FestivalAn African Festival
2 of 32 of 3
• They engage in a competitive line
dance to show off their physical
strength and endurance.
• The women are adorned in multicolored
wires, beads, and brass.
 They act as judges, pretending to avert
their gaze.

37. An African FestivalAn African Festival
3 of 33 of 3
• The object of the ritual is for each
woman to choose a champion and take
him as her lover.
• Both men and women are free to set
aside their marriage vows.
• It is a celebration of male and female
beauty and an acceptance of sexual
attraction.

38. Fulani (Wodaabe) men at a gerewol, southern Niger.
1980s.
© Robert Estall photo agency/Alamy. [Fig. 23-13]

39. Fulani (Wodaabe) women at a gerewol, southern Niger.
1980s.
© Robert Estall photo agency/Alamy. [Fig. 23-14]

40. KissesKisses
1 of 41 of 4
• The kiss is one of the most powerfully
suggestive of all types of touch.
• Brancusi's The Kiss is an image of two
becoming one, a solid stone born of
their embrace.
• Francis Picabia's "kiss," in the Dada
painting Machine Tournez Vite (Machine
Turn Quickly), is completely different as
it's between two cogs.

41. Constantin Brancusi, The Kiss.
1916. Limestone, 23 x 13-1⁄4 x 10 in. Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Louise and Walter Arensberg Collection, 1950. © 2015. Photo Philadelphia Museum of
Art/Art Resource/Scala, Florence. © 2015 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP,
Paris. [Fig. 23-15]

42. KissesKisses
2 of 42 of 4
• In Picabia's painting, sexual encounter
is reduced to a mere mechanical
interaction and it devoid of emotion.
• Andy Warhol's Kiss is a 54-minute
silent film consisting of a series of
shorter films of different couples
kissing, both hetero- and homosexual
couples.
• Warhol desexualizes the event by
making it go on and on.

43. Francis Picabia, Machine Tournez Vite (Machine Turn Quickly).
1916. Tempera on paper, 19-1/4 × 12-5/8". Private collection.
Bridgeman Images. © 2015 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris. [Fig.
23-16]

44. Andy Warhol, Kiss.
1963. Still. 16 mm film, black-and-white, silent, approx. 54 min. Museum of Modern Art,
New York. The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts Film Preservation Program.
F553.
© 2015 Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, PA, a museum of Carnegie Institute. All rights
reserved. Film still courtesy of Andy Warhol Museum. [Fig. 23-17]

45. KissesKisses
3 of 43 of 4
• Warhol's film is not about kissing, but
about monotony, boredom, and time.
• Banksy's Kissing Coppers challenged
macho stereotypes and humanized the
very authority figures charged with
enforcing laws prohibiting graffiti.

46. Banksy, Kissing Coppers.
ca. 2005. Spray paint on wall, various sites, Brighton and London, U.K.
© Michael Shuttleworth/Alamy. [Fig. 23-18]

47. KissesKisses
4 of 44 of 4
• Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle's Le Baiser/The
Kiss is about estrangement.
• The piece may also be about visiting a
shrine of modern architecture, and
about the relationship between the
window-washer and the girl inside—
separated by the modernist glass wall.

48. Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle, Le Baiser/The Kiss
2000. Video still, video installation and projection, aluminum structure, dimensions
variable.
Courtesy of Galerie Thomas Schulte. [Fig. 23-19]

49. The Critical ProcessThe Critical Process
Thinking about Love and SexThinking about Love and Sex
1 of 21 of 2
• Western culture has cultivated the idea
of desire most thoroughly in
advertising.
• It is consumer culture itself that
provokes advertising's sexual
strategies.
• Barbara Kruger's work reminds us just
how we are defined by how we look,
what we wear, and what we buy.

50. The Critical ProcessThe Critical Process
Thinking about Love and SexThinking about Love and Sex
2 of 22 of 2
• Jan Toorop's salad-oil poster shows one
of the most prominent ways in which
sex sells.
• The two women in it are engaged in a
traditional female task, yet their
flowing gowns and abundant hair
suggest a kind of self-indulgent
narcissism.

51. Barbara Kruger, Untitled (I shop therefore I am).
1987. Photographic silkscreen/vinyl, 9' 3" × 9' 5".
Courtesy of Mary Boone Gallery, New York. [Fig. 23-20]

52. Jan Toorop, Poster for Delftsche Slaolie (Delft Salad Oil).
1894. Dutch advertising poster.
Digital image, Museum of Modern Art, New York/Scala, Florence. [Fig. 23-21]

53. Thinking BackThinking Back
1. Describe how the tension between
physical and spiritual love manifests
itself in different cultures.
2. Explain some of the different ways in
which desire has been imaged.
3. Discuss the kiss as an image of desire.