The Grande Odalisqe :: Art Analysis

The Grande OdalisqeThe Grande Odalisque painted in 1884, drew many criticisms.thither were complaints about the lifelessness of the subject, the fact that she has three vertebrae too many. It illustrates the rather odd mixture of Ingress artistic allegiances.His subject, the reclining nude figure, is traditional, going back to Giorgione and Titian tho by converting her into an odalisque, an inhabitant of a Turkish harem, he makes a real concession to the contemporary Romantic taste for the exotic. Ingres treats the figure in his feature sculpturesque style polished surfaces and simple rounded volumes controlled by rhythmically flowing contours. The smoothness of the planes of the body is complemented by the broken, busy shapes of the drapery. His admiration for Raphael is shown in the borrowing of that masters type of female head and headdress, and an inclination of the head, as it can bee seen in Raphaels Madonna of the Chair. But Ingres is displace not only from the H igh Renaissance, for his figures languid pose and her proportions (small head, elongated limbs) let out his debt to such Mannerists as Parmigianino, as does the generally cool colorize scheme. frequently Criticized for not being a colourist, Ingres in fact, had a superb colour sense. It is true that he did not seem to think of his paintings primarily in terms of colour, as did Delacroix, but he did far more than evidently tint his drawings for emphasis. In this painting Ingres creates colour and tonal relationships so tasty and subtle as to render them unforgettable. Never insisting on similitude for its own sake, Ingres rarly fails to produce a striking characterization and, analogously to the smooth, chunk treatment he gives his nudes, never fails to impart to both characterization and aspect an air of suave elegance.