While the painting drew
acid criticism when first shown in 1814
("She has three vertebre too many," "No bone, no muscle, no life"), Ingres's
Grande Odalisque seems to sum up the painter's
artistic intentions. Ingres treats the figure in his own
"sculpturesque stlye" -- 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
subject, the reclining nude figure, is
traditional enough and goes back to
Giogione and
Titian but by converting the figure to an
odalisque (a member of a
Turkish harem), Ingres made a strong concession to the comtemporary
Romantic taste for the
exotic. The work also shows his admiration for
Raphael in his borrowing of that master's type of female head ,
(Madonna of the Chair) but
Ingres did not only draw from the period of
High Renaissance. His figure's
languid pose, her proportions (small head and elongated limbs), and the generally cool color scheme also reveal his debt to such
Mannerists, as
Parmagianino. Often criticized for not being a
colorist, Ingres in fact had a
superb color sense. It is true that he did not seem to think of his paintings primarily in the terms of their color as did
Delacroix, but he did far more than simply
tint his drawings for emphasis, as recommended by the
Academy. In his best paintings, Ingres created
color and tonal relationships so
tasteful and
subtle as to render them unforgettable.
Bibliography
Lometa. "Artists and Art in the Classroom" Tucson, Arizona.
1994. (Lecture presented at St Joseph's Catholic School.)
Justus, Kevin. "Art and Culture II." Tucson , Arizona.
1992. (Lecture presented at Pima Community College.)
De La Croix, Horst, Richard D. Tansey, and Diane Kirkpatrick.
Art Through the Ages. University of Michigan: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
1991.
For future reference the image may viewed at
Mark Harden:
http://www.artchive.com/artchive/I/ingres/ingres_grand_odalisque.jpg.html