FREE ESSAY ON THE NUDE IN WEATERN TRADITION

THE NUDE IN WEATERN TRADITION

Allison Boon 
Art History 10F
Elizabeth Towers
12/07/99
Third Essay: Topic #1
The depiction of the nude female model by a male artist in oil painting has played a
significant role in the western tradition over the last 500 years. The oil painting of
the female nude is subject to the artist's interpretation of her form. She is affected by
the artist's desire for his model, as well as his art and she is torn between the
artist's inability to be both lover and painter. Hubert Damisch's "The Underneaths of
Painting" helps the reader understand the importance of the male painter's imaging of the
female form. By analyzing Balzac's Unknown Masterpiece, Damisch uncovers several tangents
to the unique relationship between artist's and the women they create on canvas.
Balzac tells a tale of the truth behind the creative process of an artist and the way he
perceives his vision when finally completed in oil. Poussin is a young painter who
doesn't quite understand how the concepts of desire and love will affect the perception
of his model, and lover, Gilette. He soon embarks on a journey that takes him underneath
the paint:
"Under the paint and as its 'truth', instead and in the place of the so-called picture,
the exchange assuming its last true face: a woman for a picture and a woman for what
forms (or ought to) its subject. It is at this point in the picture where the
subterranean, archaeological presence of the woman reveals itself, that something is
given to see, something that can be spoken, that can be named, something moreover alive,
delectable, a foothold for desire; in a word, something that looks at us unlike the
inexpressible wall of paint that holds it captive," (Damisch 202).
There are many layers of paint put on to one canvas, but the image isn't visible right
away, she must grow through the brushstrokes. When the last brush of paint touches the
canvas, her beauty is revealed to the eye. The artist has created his masterpiece and she
can be discussed like a real woman now; she has a name, she has the personality the
artist has given her which makes her come alive, she is so real that observers feel the
need to touch her and she looks right back. The paint from which she came is an
afterthought and because Poussin is hungry for a piece that can accomplish all this, he
chooses his work over his love.
Damisch utilizes Balzac's tale to define the position of the artist's heart. It is
inevitable that every painter that is dedicated to his work cannot be capable of loving
anything so much as the act of expressing one's self through paint. He falls in love with
his creation and there can be no room for a tangible love. Here is Damisch:
"...one has to choose between being a lover and a painter. Poussin will be assailed by
doubt at the thought that another person could look at Gilette, and look at her as only
he was allowed to see her: naked. But this doubt will soon vanish: the young man will
forget his mistress, he will desire only to be a painter, he will see his art and nothing
else," (Damisch 200).
Poussin has not fully recognized the intensity of the connection that an artist has with
his work and doesn't realize that Gilette is what's holding him back. Since he shares his
love with her and his work, Poussin cannot capture true realism in the females he
depicts. Although he loves her at this point and couldn't possibly think of letting
anyone see Gilette, Poussin will discover that to let her pose for other artists isn't as
shattering a suggestion when he creates the nude that will lend his heart solely to the
act of expression. The artist will then transfer his feelings of obsession for Gilette to
his work and he will be able to love no other with the same intensity that he enjoys his
work.
Damisch questions the role of desire in the conversion of the female model into the
artist's Venus. He asks:
"What of the working of desire in its relation to the desire of the other?"
and then goes on to report that:
"...we are amongst painters who only have eyes for painting. As far as Gilette is
concerned she has no part in their commerce: she doesn't look at the painting, but sees
only the painters...Poussin, while drawing her, was no doubt looking at her, but was not
thinking about her...She does not say: without desiring her. For it was his desire that
she should model for him, yet a desire which did not necessarily pass without
explanation, at least for the one who was, as it were its passing object. Gilette might
have added...when it begs for a look: 'You never look at me from the place which I see
you.'...it is only in painting that such a request had meaning, and one may at one and
the same time...find a woman beautiful and desire her, at the place from where she is
looking at us, on the canvas," (Damisch 200).
The artist has desired to attain a beautiful, inspirational model to develop his
masterpiece- he doesn't desire the physical form of his muse. Gilette may argue that
Poussin doesn't want her for the same reasons that she wants him, but she does not
understand that this complaint can only be made by the female nude on the canvas: the
test of true desire on the artist's part is if he can look into his painting and he feels
the need to caress the canvas- then he has perfected his image. Poussin mistakes the
desire he has for Gilette to model for him for an emotional desire and when she does she
can see he isn't looking on her with a lustful gaze- his eye is clinical in nature.
To comprehend the importance of the relationship among artists and their oil paintings of
the female nude, one must understand the significance of each one of these factors. For
centuries artists have tried to master the conception of the artist and his work, but
this task seems fleeting: How can one artist represent the situation of every painter?
Because this feat is impossible, we arrive at a variety of works that all try to express
the same topic, but end up drastically different. What is true to all of the
representations of the female nude by the male painter is that she is always subject to
the desire and love of her creator.