The Birth of Venus (Bouguereau)
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| La naissance de Vénus ("The Birth of Venus") |
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| William Adolphe Bouguereau , 1879 |
| Oil on canvas |
| 300 × 215 cm |
| Musée d'Orsay |
The Birth of Venus ( La Naissance de Vénus ) is the name of an oil painting by William Adolphe Bouguereau from 1879. The 3 × 2.15 meter picture shows the birth of the goddess Venus , which according to a variant in Greek mythology from the Foam before the island of Cyprus was born.
Bouguereau's The Birth of Venus was recorded at the Paris Salon of 1879 and won the Prix de Rome . In the same year it was bought by the Musée du Luxembourg in Paris , where it was exhibited until 1920. It was then kept in the depot of the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nantes before it returned to Paris in 1979 and has since been exhibited in the Musée d'Orsay .
The painting is a typical example of the academic art of its time, performed in a perfected naturalistic painting technique. Bouguereau relied on classic models, but always tried to bring the "original images" to life. During his “Birth of Venus” he increased the movements of the body and emphasized the curve of the hips a little more than was the case with the model - Aphrodite of Cyrene (Rome, thermal bath museum). The result of these small changes, which increased the erotic charisma of “Venus”, was well received by the audience. At the same time, thanks to the ancient model, he was above any moralizing criticism.
literature
- Friedrich Gross : Herald of Beauty. In: Werner Hofmann (Ed.): Eva and the future. The image of women since the French Revolution. (On the occasion of the exhibition Eva and the future in the Hamburger Kunsthalle from July 11 to September 14, 1986). Prestel, Munich 1986, ISBN 3-7913-0754-1 , pp. 97-98.
