|
The most striking images of female beauty in the history of fine art
Tom Grant
United States
Washington
DC
-
No photography, please. And no knee-jerk Busen Memo postings. The point of the list is to identify some of the best or most interesting representations of women in fine art (not limited to the West).
To avoid offending people on BGG, if you post anything with nudity, please crop or pixelate as needed.
-
Tom Grant
United States
Washington
DC
-
The couple of times I've been to the Louvre, I've been disappointed to see people race past this painting in the rush to see the Mona Lisa. Maybe not da Vinci's most famous work, but I like it way more than the Mona Lisa.
-
-
Tom Grant
United States
Washington
DC
-
Again, the most famous work by an artist--in this case, Vermeer--isn't my favorite. Pieces like this lute player highlight different qualities than The Girl With The Pearl Earring. Can't say why I like them better, honestly, but I do.
-
-
Tom Grant
United States
Washington
DC
-
This detail from Botticelli's Young Woman Receives Gifts From Venus is amazing.
-
-
4.
Board Game: Madam X
[Average Rating:6.39 Unranked]
Tom Grant
United States
Washington
DC
-
John Singer Sargent had an amazing, evocative talent for portraiture, making you feel as though you knew the people in his paintings. His Madame X is just one of many examples.
-
-
5.
Board Game: Shogun
[Average Rating:7.69 Overall Rank:45]
Tom Grant
United States
Washington
DC
-
I'd be a fool to leave out the extremely striking approach of Japanese artists in depicting women.
-
-
Tom Grant
United States
Washington
DC
-
The Winged Victory deserves the attention it gets, since it's one of the most vibrant sculptures from the classical era.
-
-
Tom Grant
United States
Washington
DC
-
Monet's The Stroll implies a particular feeling, but it's hard to say what it is. One of those paintings that can mesmerize you.
-
-
Bruce Padget
United States
Pomona
California [CA]
-
The Three Graces from Boticelli's Primavera. *sigh*
-
-
Jay Volk
United States
Richfield
Ohio
-
Sometimes, the best art comes from wanting someone that you can't have - like your best friend's girl. Such was the case for Dante Gabriel Rossetti and his muse Jane Morris (nee Burden). Jane was everything Dante wanted in a woman with one flaw - she just happened to be married to Rossetti's friend and fellow member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, William Morris. Still, the results of the artistic collaboration between Jane and Dante are stunning.
-
-
Daniel Danzer
Germany
Stuttgart
southwest
-
Assuming you mean frontal nudity (I mean, if people find THIS offending, I don`t know ...):
Venus with Mirror, Diego Velázquez, 1649 - 1651.
This is - even more if you look at it at the National Gallery in London - the most relaxed, natural, "un-erotic" but strikingly beuaty woman in art of all times.
-
-
Bruce Padget
United States
Pomona
California [CA]
-
I had to think hard about this one. Tom, it's your List, so if you think this not in the spirit, do what ya gotta.
I've always liked the various depictions of Venus Kallipygos for obvious reasons, but I've come to see that there's more -- what I now see is a young woman appreciating her own beauty, simply and without guile. (Actually, I realized that's not quite correct. I'm not seeing more in the sculpture now, I'm seeing less in it.)
Like any folk tradition, there are other interpretations. Some have interpreted the raised skirt as part of initiation into the cult of Aphrodite. Another line of stories about Venus Kallipygos centers on vanity.
-
-
12.
Board Game: Picasso
[Average Rating:5.50 Unranked]
Zé Mário
Portugal
Senhora da Hora
Matosinhos
-
Woman ironing. Gorgeous
-
-
Zé Mário
Portugal
Senhora da Hora
Matosinhos
-
-
-
Judit Szepessy
Canada
London
Canada
-
John Waterhouse:Ophelia
I always liked this Preraffaelita painting along with other Ophelia paintings from that period.
-
-
 -
I fing this woman in particular and the situation in general to be extremely beautiful.
-
-
John W
United States
Sacramento
California
-
Botticelli's Birth of Venus
kinda one of the most famous images of beauty in art history.....
-
-
Matt Davis
United States
Upland
California
-
I visited New York when I was 18 and we went to the Metropolitan Museum, where this painting just floored me. It's Springtime (actually Le Printemps), by Pierre-Auguste Cot.
(The pixellation I did is a little rough. For a better, unedited version, check here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Auguste_Cot )
-
-
John W
United States
Sacramento
California
-
Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema was a master of female beauty.
It's hard to only post one image, so here's a few.
A Kiss:
The_Women_of_Amphissa
An Earthly Paradise
The Baths of Caracalla
-
-
19.
Board Game: Max
[Average Rating:6.79 Overall Rank:2090]
John W
United States
Sacramento
California
-
Maxfield Parrish painted a few females during his time.
-
-
Alexander Meyer
Germany
Hamburg
-
Oh Mama!
Unkown artist. The statuette is dated around 22,000 BC and is commonly known as the 'Venus of Willendorf'.
-
-
 -
Edvard Munch's Puberty, censored for your viewing pleasure.
-
-
The Galactic Attic
United States
Tennessee
-
This is one of my favorites and a beautiful painting of the female form by Howard Pyle. This quote is from the Delaware Art Museum:
"Beneath the deepening sky and rising moon, the juncture of opposing forces anchors this work: land vs. water—human vs. mermaid—strong vs. weak. The mythic mermaid rises from the briny foam and rescues a shipwrecked man who was descending into the deep. When Howard Pyle set off on his extended European travels in November 1910, The Mermaid was still on the easel in his studio, unfinished. Despite the later addition of fish and a crab by Pyle’s student Frank Schoonover, what we see today is incomplete, and Pyle’s intentions for this work remain unknown."
-
-
Nico Solitander
Finland
Helsinki
HEL
-
Marcel Duchamp - Nude Descending a Staircase -
One of the most fascinating body portrayals.
-
-
24.
Board Game: Behind the Veil
[Average Rating:6.25 Unranked]
[Average Rating:6.25 Unranked]
Sean Todd
United States
Bloomington
Minnesota
-
Obviously this tiny image doesn't do the original justice. Here's a link to a page on the Minneapolis Institute of Arts website that allows you to zoom in and see greater detail:
http://www.artsmia.org/viewer/detail.php?v=12&id=12092
Seeing it in person is astonishing. The way the eyes appear to be barely hidden behind translucent material has to be seen to be properly disbelieved.
-
-
Insane Kobold of Doom
United States
Kentucky
-
Pretty much any woman drawn by Arthur Rackham. This one's an illustration for Wagner's Ring Cycle.
edit: link here http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ring49.jpg since the picture won't show up.
-
-
|
|
