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ever wonder why so many Greek statues
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are naked is it about beauty desire or
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something else entirely bodies are a
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subject of Fascination in art whether
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decked out in status symbols or wearing
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nothing at all and there's a good reason
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why all Through the Ages many of our
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most famous artworks have featured the
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human form despite our many differences
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we all have a body but we don't all
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experience it the same way
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and there are competing ideas about what
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makes a Body Beautiful on top of that
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our Notions of beauty and difference
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have changed and continue to change over
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time and all of that makes for some
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fascinating art hi I'm Sarah Urus screen
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and this is Crash Course art
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[Music]
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history when you think about bodies and
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art one of the first things that comes
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to mind might be the portrait from the
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Mona Lisa to that selfie from your
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recent trip portraits are a record of a
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body at a particular moment in time but
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portraits can show us a lot more about a
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person than just what they looked like
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they can tell us about a person's class
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status values character and social
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influence these details aren't always
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obvious though like with any artistic
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representation it helps to know what
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symbols to look out for for example a
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subject's clothes can tell us a lot like
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these ancestor portraits created during
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China's Ching Dynasty in the 18th
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century were commissioned by wealthy
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families to Showcase their lineage and
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Status hung on the walls of homes the
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portraits honored departed loved ones
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allowing them to be remembered by family
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friends and guests shaen ying and Lady
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guan's style of dress shows the viewer
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where they sit on the social ladder
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shaen Ying was a lieutenant general in
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the military which the artist
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communicates with the peacock feather
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and fur coat these are symbols that
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people of the Ching Dynasty who valued
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military service wealth and power would
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have respected in lady guan's portrait
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she Dons a fulllength courtly dress
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which was only worn by high-ranking
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officials and Nobles and note the three
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earrings they identify Guan as a Manchu
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woman part of the lineage that
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established the Ching Dynasty though
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they didn't have filters or photoshop
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like we do now portraits have always
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contained some embellishments on the
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truth for example the artist never
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actually saw lady Guan in person it
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wasn't considered proper for women of
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the time to keep company with unfamiliar
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men the artist relied on other people's
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verbal descriptions of her face so the
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portrait is an idealized version of her
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based more on imagination than
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observation but portraits are never
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really real or truthful anyway that's
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because they free freeze a body's
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appearance at a moment in time when in
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reality we're always changing both
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because we age and also because we're
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always being seen from different
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perspectives by others and by ourselves
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American Artist Cindy Sherman has
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captured the fluidity of identity in her
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work over the last several decades
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including in her 1970s series Untitled
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film Stills in it she dressed and posed
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herself in a variety of portraits that
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reference stereotypical female
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characters in films in one she's a
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housewife standing over the kitchen sink
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in another she's Tangled in the sheets
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gazing wistfully off camera next she's a
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student reaching for a library book or a
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fashionable woman walking down a city
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street each image could be read in
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numerous ways depending on your
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background generation or just which
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movies you've seen in this way Sherman
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turns her body into a blank canvas
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reflecting societ I's many and often
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contradictory expectations of women her
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work reminds us that how we see
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ourselves and how Society sees us is
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always changing of course not all bodies
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in art are clothed some of the most
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famous ones are decidedly not this goes
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way back to classical Greek and Roman
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sculpture which celebrated the nude
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figure as the Pinnacle of beauty and
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because art students during the
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Renaissance and Beyond studied these
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Classics European art from the 15th to
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the 20th century has no shortage of nude
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bodies who can be found reclining on
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beds clouds and even on Sat classical
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male nudes exhibited perfect athletic
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forms embodying strength Beauty and
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determination the ideal masculine figure
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of course most ancient Greeks didn't
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actually look like this in general this
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look was about aspiration and admiration
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not reality and men in these cultures
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weren't just valued for their physical
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prowess their chiseled bods were also
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considered to be a sign of moral
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superiority male nudes were typically
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shown confidently with weapons and you
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know tough guy stuff female Nudes on the
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other hand were usually representations
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of sensuality and fertility at the same
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time they had to demonstrate modesty
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here you can see how Aphrodite covers
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herself and averts her gaze so while the
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male nude could be loud and proud the
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feale melne generally exhibited some
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shame an age-old Trope that we're
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totally over now right in any case the
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way we look at and interpret a subject
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in art especially a human subject
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changes based on the power dynamics
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between the viewer and the thing being
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viewed in art history we refer to this
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dynamic as the gays so since pretty much
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all artists in classical Greek and Roman
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cultures were men they were often
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imagined as the default audience for art
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men were the ones looking or gazing at
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Art and women were the objects to be
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gazed at you can see this perspective in
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how nudes are typically posed female
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nudes tend to lie helpless and passive
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inviting the viewer to look at and maybe
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lust after them whereas male nudes are
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given a place of equal or often higher
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footing relative to the viewer we gaze
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up at their greatness and watch them mid
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action while female nudes are more
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static and generally below the level of
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male figures sadly this is not a relic
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of the past which is why you might hear
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the phrase the male Gaye being thrown
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about in cultural conversation and it's
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also why Captain America poses like this
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and black widow poses like this of
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course in art history as in life males
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don't always desire females and females
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don't always want to be desired by males
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there's an entire spectrum of gender and
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sexuality that is occasionally if
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infrequently Ed in art like we know that
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there were lots of Greek and Roman
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sculptures featuring The intersect
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figure of hermaphroditus child of the
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Gods Aphrodite and Hermes but these
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sculptures have frequently been left out
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of the conversation because they don't
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conform to traditional ideas about
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gender and heterosexual desire
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thankfully artists have been challenging
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these Dynamics for
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decades for example American Artist
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cassils is transgender and uses their
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body to critique narrow ideas of gender
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and the complicated dynamics of the Gaze
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in their 2012 performance piece becoming
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an image a nearly nude cassils kicks
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punches and attacks a 2,000lb block of
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clay performed in almost total darkness
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the only time the audience or cassils
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can see is when a photographer lights
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the room with their cameras Flash the
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artist's body is as much a part of the
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performance as the clay and the fight
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between the two can be seen as rep
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representing the ongoing struggle of
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trans communities to Simply exist the
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audience is given no choice but to gaze
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upon cil's body but their view is
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Thoroughly incomplete captured only
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during these fractured moments of
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intense violence in this powerful work
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cils reclaims power over their body by
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both revealing it and taking it away we
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the audience are left with an
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unforgettable reminder of the frequent
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violence that occurs against trans
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people people around the world and we're
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also left with many questions about our
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own participation in this continuing
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brutality whether it's in the artist
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words as victims or instigators as
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bystanders as Witnesses and as consumers
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of these
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stories but social critique isn't unique
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to 21st century art like check out
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eduward man's Olympia from
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1863 Manet paints a female nude who may
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be reclining but is not merely a passive
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victim victim of our gaze Olympia stares
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directly at us and rests her hand
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casually over her lap controlling what
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we can and can't see the portrait
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shocked the French public when it
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debuted mayon's painting references a
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famous nude in art history tian's Venus
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of urbino but it also strayed away from
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tradition tian's reclining nude is named
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after the Roman goddess of love and
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beauty she's in a wealthy Italian home
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gazing flirtatiously up at us as her
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servants in the background prepare her
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clothing for the day but man's model
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victorine [ __ ] portrays a sex worker
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and perhaps was a sex worker in real
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life though the historical record is
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unclear in any case she's a workingclass
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woman who shown displaying ownership
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over her body by to some degree
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preventing us from looking instead of
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painting a delicate modest Aristocrat
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Manet presents us with an ordinary woman
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who recognizes the power of her body and
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gazes right back but victorine isn't the
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only woman in this painting a black
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woman named lur is also shown though she
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didn't get fully credited as a model
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until 1999 mayon's painting was
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completed only about 15 years after the
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abolition of slavery in France in 1848
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and it was still fairly commonplace for
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European Aristocrats to include black
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people in their portraits in positions
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of servitude they were often portrayed
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as submissive visibly impoverished or
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hypersexualized like peacock feathers
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and fur coats were a symbol of power in
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Ching Dynasty China in European
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paintings servants or enslaved people
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were often included to reflect the
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status of the wealthier white folks that
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were featured as with lore these black
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individuals though often real people
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were rarely if ever named but some
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Scholars have argued mané was pushing
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that envelope he shows lore neither
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sexualized nor impoverished as a work
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working class woman alongside another
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workingclass woman and when we think
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about the reality of the painting's
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creation real life victorin and lore
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were quite literally doing the same
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thing being paid to model still lur is
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placed in a traditional Act of service
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she's an attendant to the more empowered
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seeming victorine so when we look at
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this portrait through the lens of both
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gender and race it begs the question of
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not only who gets power over their body
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but who gets to
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and who has to
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serve the Japanese artist yasumasa
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morimura pushes these questions even
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closer to the surface in his 1988
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Recreation of this work in it he dresses
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in Drag and takes victorine's place on
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the bed this urges viewers to consider
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how changing both the gender and the
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ethnicity of the subject changes its
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meaning
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entirely bodies in art are so much more
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than sculpted abs and fleshy figures
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they serve a key role in reflecting and
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critiquing the complicated relationships
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we have with other people society and
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ourselves analyzing these artworks can
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help us better understand and perhaps
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disrupt our biases toward or against
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certain bodies both of the past and
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today looking at art together might even
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help make this Universal experience of
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having a body one that's more Equitable
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for everybody next time we'll look at
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how the global exchange of goods and
00:12:32
ideas has influenced art throughout
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history I'll see you there thanks for
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watching this episode of Crash Course
00:12:39
art history which was filmed at the
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Indianapolis Museum of Art in newfields
00:12:43
and was made with the help of all these
00:12:45
resourceful people if you want to help
00:12:48
keep crash course free for everyone
00:12:50
forever you can join our community on
00:12:52
patreon
00:12:54
[Music]
