The Female Body in Art

Art historian Dempsey (Styles, Schools & Movements) explores in this thought-provoking survey how women have been portrayed in art over the past 500 years. In 80 short essays—one for each work—she explores how renderings of the female body have shaped and been shaped by societal values. Titian and Alexandre Cabanel’s paintings of Venus, for example, depict an idealized nude figure whose “mythical assignment” allowed her to be viewed without scandal, while Édouard Manet’s Olympia shocked audiences with its subject’s “confrontational gaze” and helped to “modernize the tradition of the female nude.” Dempsey also considers how these works responded to their political contexts. For example, Lee Miller’s 1944 photograph FFIWorker, Paris, France, depicts a Resistance fighter whose striking hairstyle and bright lipstick served as an implicit rebuke of Nazi ideals of femininity. British sculptor John Bell’s 1853 work A Daughter of Eve—A Scene on the Shore of the Atlantic, which portrays a shackled African woman, communicated a pointed anti-slavery message during the American Civil War. Also discussed are Australian sculptor Julie Rrap’s SOMOS (Standing on My Own Shoulders), which features two life-size casts of the 73-year-old artist’s body, and Mexican photographer Graciela Iturbide’s Nuestra senora de las iguanas (Our Lady of the Iguanas), which documents the everyday lives of the Zapotec people. Comprehensive and lucidly written, this is a worthy addition to any art lover’s library. (Feb.)