Have you ever wondered what makes a woman perfect? If you have, perhaps you should not continue reading..
Beauty in the eye of the oligarch
While searching for artwork for a previous post I stumbled upon the “The Delphic Oracle” by John William Godward. His paintings immediately caught my attention as they feature many of the things I cherish in art. Godward spent his career painting almost exclusively decadent Greco-Roman women. His art was about idealizing what the perfect ancient woman would had looked like.
His attention to detail is fascinating. At the background beautiful scenery or vegetation. Sandals drawn with such precision. The historicity of the dresses or the settings meticulously researched. One would be wrong to assume that the lightness of the fabrics was an element of the painters creative license, while in reality such fabrics were preferred by wealthy woman. The muse on many of his paintings was actually his Italian girlfriend. They eventually moved to Italy where he did some of his best work.
I’ve alluded to it before, artistic excellence is something I hold dear, it too is something that has become rarer as art has democratized over the last century. Beauty being in the eye of the beholder becoming an almost universally accepted norm has undoubtedly been the last nail on the coffin of artistic merit, and in place commonalities like creativity and expressiveness have become desirable by the masses.
The history of women
Besides execution, historicity is naturally something that I value greatly because of my passion for history. There are those who get excited about the future, I get excited about the past. Thus those artists that devote their work to illustrating the past, with as much accuracy as possible, will naturally peak my interest, particularly if it is from an era or a geography I’m invested in, or from a place that receives seldom attention.
Undoubtedly the Greco-Roman world has been overrepresented in art, that’s what neoclassicism is all about. While not my favorite, Neoclassicism is, by nature of it’s subject, one of my preferred schools of art. After all you might had already noticed I mostly write about the Hellenic world. What is Neoclassism but the final time Europeans obsessed with the Greeks.
When reading ancient sources I pay close attention to depictions of women, as they are often rare. This should not come as a surprise, for the longest time history has been used to record the deeds of powerful men often relegating women to a secondary position. Either because society would not allow women to hold prominent positions or because male writers would chose to ignore the deeds of women, the history of humanity preserves mostly the deeds of men. It is while reading between lines that occasionally the life of women will emerge.
The world is not big enough for both myself and Picasso
Who does not love indulging in some decadence? Art has often served to illustrate the lavish lifestyles of the wealthy and powerful, that is true today as well as thousands of years ago. Perhaps decadence is one of the most desirable things in life, but that is a whole different topic. Or perhaps, one could also argue that as art has democratized decadence has taken a backseat to the mundane.
An artist like Godward who focuses on painting women in a historical setting with as much accuracy as possible is of great interest to me. He was the last of a dying breed. A neoclassic painter during a time when such art had largely fallen out of favor. It is so that in life Godward never received the recognition his masterful art deserved. Falling into obscurity and ending his life abruptly as he could not fit into a society that was not appreciative of his contribution to it. He famously said “the world is not big enough for both myself and Picasso”. Such was the life of the last of the neoclassic artists.
If by now, you are still wondering what makes a woman perfect, you must remember not only that I am no philosopher, but that I also told you not too keep reading as you would not find that answer here.
As a parting thought I’ll appeal to one thing: don’t forget to indulge in a healthy dose of decadence every time the mundane peaks through your life.