Over the centuries, the standards of beauty and attitudes towards full women have changed, which was inevitably reflected in painting. Charming fat women were painted not only by Rubens and Kustodiev, but also by many other artists, even Raphael Santi himself. We will talk about why they did it and how the attitude to full women in art changed in this article.
Boris Kustodiev. Merchant woman drinking tea
One of the first statuettes in the history of mankind was the Venus of Willendorf, whose age is about 30 thousand years. And as it turned out, Mesolithic people greatly appreciated wide hips and large breasts - the main signs indicating that a woman could give birth and nurture healthy children.
Venus of Willendorf
In Ancient Greece, the attitude towards fatness changed radically - it was considered to represent viciousness, inappropriate behavior, weakness and disease. It is no coincidence that fat people in ancient Greek comedies are drunkards, gluttons and bums. But the gods and goddesses have an impeccable physique, which has become a standard of beauty up to our days. However, today's models are still often thinner, although this is more a requirement of the fashion industry, when the viewer should look at the clothes, not at the mannequin herself.
Venus of Milos
During the Renaissance, artists more actively began to paint secular portraits, taking into account all the peculiarities of the appearance of the person depicted on them.
Raphael Santi. Portrait of Maddalena Doni
But they especially liked to depict the goddess of love and beauty Venus, characterized by clearly pronounced feminine forms - wide hips and large breasts. And for greater harmony artists proportionately increased and the whole body, but so everything is only more natural and beautiful, Venus really resembles a real woman, capable of love and giving birth to strong children, and not a toy for men, like some girls, too keen on plastic surgery.
Giovanni da Udine. Venus, Ceres and Juno
In the Middle Ages, however, the majority of the population often suffered from malnutrition, so the Dutch artists, who were among the first to depict commoners, portrayed them as thin, but by no means of perfect physique.
Therefore, fullness became associated with wealth, a well-fed life and position in society. Not surprisingly, artists were eager to depict nude full-figured women and girls, emphasizing their high social status.
Artemisia Gentileschi. Cleopatra
But especially images of full women were famous Rubens and it was again because of the desire to show their belonging to the privileged strata of society, to separate them from the usual "niggers". In Holland at that time began to eat much better, Amsterdam was the largest port and the main banking center in Europe, and even commoners did not need to hope only for a meager harvest of their land plots - it was possible to earn money in the port or at manufactories. So Rubens' fullness is partly an indicator of the quality of life.
Peter Paul Rubens. Toilet of Venus
The image of Silenus, the ancient Greek god of merriment and drunkenness, who raised the patron saint of winemakers, Dionysus, is quite consistent with this. Silenus has always been depicted as eternally drunk and very merry, with a large belly, surrounded by a pack of satyrs and fallen women. But how can anyone say that he has a bad life and needs something?
Antonis van Dyck. Drunken Silenus, supported by satyrs
Full women were also in the paintings of the French Impressionists, although at that time fullness was no longer a symbol of wealth, and the artists considered it as part of the representation of reality, which was quite consistent with their worldview and creative approach. The flawless figures of gods and goddesses in the paintings of salon academists were replaced by real characters that can be seen in ordinary life.
Pierre Auguste Renoir. After bathing
Even in the Art Deco era, artists were eager to depict full women, as in the painting by Tamara Lempicki, but thin models were initially puzzling.
Tamara Lempicki. Pink tunic
But gradually the standards changed, fullness began to be seen as something painful, as opposed to a healthy diet and lifestyle, and therefore ugly. But the growing phenomenon of body positivity in the XXI century is gradually changing these concepts, and who said that beauty can be put into a strict formula 90:60:90?
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