History Main / RecliningVenus

-> ''"A nude never descends the stairs - a nude reclines."''

[[folder:Art]]

* ''Art/{{Venus and Cupid|Gentileschi}}'' by Creator/ArtemisiaGentileschi has Venus is portrayed asleep on her ultramarine bed.

* ''Art/{{Olympia}}'' by Impressionist Creator/EdouardManet depicts a nude woman lying on a bed being brought flowers by a servant. Olympia was modeled by Victorine Meurent and Olympia's servant by the art model Laure.
** ''I Like Olympia in Blackface'' by new realist and pop-artist Creator/LarryRivers is an ArtImitatesArt reimagining of Manet's ''Olympia'' involving both a three-dimensional depiction of Victorine Meurent and Laurie's characters from the original painting behind a black woman in a similar nude position and a red-skinned woman acting as her maid.

** ''Art/RecliningNude'' by Creator/AmedeoModigliani presents its nude reclining woman in bed with plainly visible underarm hair.

**
* ''Art/{{Venus and Cupid|Gentileschi}}'' by Artemisia Gentileschi has Venus is portrayed asleep on her ultramarine bed.
* ''Art/{{Venus and Cupid|Lotto}}'' by Lorenzo Lotto has the titular Venus is depicted reclining on a blue blanket on the grass.

* ''[[Art/SleepingVenusGiorgione Sleeping Venus]]'', alternatively known as ''Dresden Venus'', was painted by Italian Renaissance painter Giorgio Barbarelli da Castelfranco, and has [[TropeCodifier inspired a number of copycats]] from paintings by Girolamo da Treviso to Titian, Valesquez and Cabanel. It is the first known reclining nude in Western painting, and together with the Pastoral Concert (Louvre), another painting disputed between Giorgione and fellow painter Tiziano Vecelli, it established "the genre of erotic mythological pastoral", with female nudes in a landscape, accompanied in that case by clothed males. A single nude woman in any position was an unusual subject for a large painting at the time, although it was to become popular for centuries afterwards, as "the reclining female nude" became a distinctive feature of Venetian painting.
* ''[[Art/TheNudeMaja La Maja Desnuda]]'' (translated to English as ''The Nude Maja'') is an oil on canvas painting by the Spanish artist Francisco Goya. It portrays a nude woman reclining on a bed of pillows, and was probably commissioned by Manuel de Godoy, to hang in his private collection in a separate cabinet reserved for nude paintings. While the identity of the model is not known, it is often theorized that she is Josefa de Tudo, 1st Countess of Castillo Fiel, whom many believed to have been her mistress.
** ''La maja vestida'' (translated to English as ''The Clothed Maja'') is an imitation of ''La Maja Desnuda'', also made by Goya, but with the model fully dressed.
* ''[[Art/Odalisque1874 Odalisque]]'' by French painter Jules Joseph Lefebvre is a painting of an unnamed female model painted by behind.
* ''Art/GrandeOdalisque'' (alternatively referred to as ''Une Odalisque'' or ''La Grande Odalisque'') by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres depicts a nude female model looking toward the viewer over her shoulder wearing a bonnet and holding a peacock feather-duster in her hand.
* ''Odalisque with a Slave'' by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres was a painting commissioned by Charles Marcott. It depicts a nude odalisque, a musician, and a eunuch in a harem interior, and is considered a classic example of French Orientalist art.
* ''Art/{{Olympia}}'' by Impressionist Edouard Manet depicts a nude woman lying on a bed being brought flowers by a servant. Olympia was modeled by Victorine Meurent and Olympia's servant by the art model Laure.
* ''I Like Olympia in Blackface'' by new realist and pop-artist Larry Rivers is an ArtImitatesArt reimagining of Manet's ''Olympia'' involving both a three-dimensional depiction of Victorine Meurent and Laurie's characters from the original painting behind a black woman in a similar nude position and a red-skinned woman acting as her maid.

* ''Grande Odalisque'' (alternatively referred to as ''Une Odalisque'' or ''La Grande Odalisque'') by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres depicts a nude female model looking toward the viewer over her shoulder wearing a bonnet and holding a peacock feather-duster in her hand.

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The implications of what is occurring in the image differs. Since admiration and idealization for the human form was common place in UsefulNotes/AncientGreece and AncientRome, Classicists and their post-Renaissance successors preferred showing off the human body as a means of capturing the human form and all of its anatomical splendor. However, since much of history's remembered artists are men, MaleGaze is most definitely involved, the staging either implying the women are ReadyForLovemaking or are simply [[EverybodyHasLotsOfSex intimate enough with the artist that this would not be the first time they have been seen naked so causally]]. But make no mistake; ItsNotPornItsArt.

[[folder:Arts]]

* "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS8E10TheSpringfieldFiles The Springfield Files]]" of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': When Agent Mulder flashes his FBI badge, there is a picture of him posing as a Reclining Venus (half-sitting, half-lying) wearing only black underwear. As most male examples, it's played for laughs.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/odalisque_tvtropes_01.jpeg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''[[Art/SleepingVenusGiorgione Sleeping Venus]]'' by Giorgione, ''Art/TheNudeMaja'' by Goya, and ''[[Art/Odalisque1874 Odalisque]]'' by Lefebvre]]

[[caption-width-right:350:''[[Art/SleepingVenusGiorgione Sleeping Venus]]'' by Giorgione, ''La Maja Desnuda'' by Goya, and ''[[Art/Odalisque1874 Odalisque]]'' by Lefebvre]]

* ''La Maja Desnuda'' (translated to English as ''The Nude Maja'') is an oil on canvas painting by the Spanish artist Francisco Goya. It portrays a nude woman reclining on a bed of pillows, and was probably commissioned by Manuel de Godoy, to hang in his private collection in a separate cabinet reserved for nude paintings. While the identity of the model is not known, it is often theorized that she is Josefa de Tudo, 1st Countess of Castillo Fiel, whom many believed to have been her mistress.

[[caption-width-right:350:''Sleeping Venus'' by Giorgione, ''La Maja Desnuda'' by Goya, and ''[[Art/Odalisque1874 Odalisque]]'' by Lefebvre]]

* ''Sleeping Venus'', alternatively known as ''Dresden Venus'', was painted by Italian Renaissance painter Giorgio Barbarelli da Castelfranco, and has [[TropeCodifier inspired a number of copycats]] from paintings by Girolamo da Treviso to Titian, Valesquez and Cabanel. It is the first known reclining nude in Western painting, and together with the Pastoral Concert (Louvre), another painting disputed between Giorgione and fellow painter Tiziano Vecelli, it established "the genre of erotic mythological pastoral", with female nudes in a landscape, accompanied in that case by clothed males. A single nude woman in any position was an unusual subject for a large painting at the time, although it was to become popular for centuries afterwards, as "the reclining female nude" became a distinctive feature of Venetian painting.

[[caption-width-right:350:''Sleeping Venus'' by Giorgione, ''La Maja Desnuda'' by Goya, and ''Odalisque'' by Lefebvre]]

* ''Odalisque'' by French painter Jules Joseph Lefebvre is a painting of an unnamed female model painted by behind.

The implications of what is occurring in the image differs. Since admiration and idealization for the human form was common place in AncientGreece and AncientRome, Classicists and their post-Renaissance successors preferred showing off the human body as a means of capturing the human form and all of its anatomical splendor. However, since much of history's remembered artists are men, MaleGaze is most definitely involved, the staging either implying the women are ReadyForLovemaking or are simply [[EverybodyHasLotsOfSex intimate enough with the artist that this would not be the first time they have been seen naked so causally]]. But make no mistake; ItsNotPornItsArt.

The Reclining Venus -- alternatively known as ''odalisque''[[note]]a Frenchified form of the Turkish word ''odalik'', "chambermaid"[[/note]] or simply the ''Reclining Nude'' -- would eventually become the official term for a recurring StockPose in Western Art depicting a woman reclining against a bed or couch, often in [[PublicExposure differing states of undress]].

The Reclining Venus -- alternatively known as ''odalisque''[[note]]the French version of the Turkish word for "harem girl"; ''odalik''[[/note]] or simply the ''Reclining Nude'' -- would eventually become the official term for a recurring StockPose in Western Art depicting a woman reclining against a bed or couch, often in [[PublicExposure differing states of undress]].

* Parodied in [[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/98/This_Year_Venuses_Again_%28Daumier%29.jpg 1864 cartoon]] where the viewers are being fed up with that year's oversaturation of nude women at the Salon de Paris.

-->'''Man:''' That's my momma! As nude as the day she was born!\\
'''Woman:''' Stop looking at my husband's buttocks!\\
'''Man:''' Stop looking at my ''momma!''

The Reclining Venus - alternatively known as ''odalisque''[[note]]the French version of the Turkish word for "harem girl"; ''odalik''[[/note]] or simply the ''Reclining Nude'' - would eventually become the official term for a recurring StockPose in Western Art depicting a woman reclining against a bed or couch, often in [[PublicExposure differing states of undress]].

[[folder:Art]]

[[folder:Comic Strip]]

* In the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'', this is discussed and taken UpToEleven as a comment on the foibles of the art and cultural world. The Royal Art Gallery has an impressive collection of female nudes, for instance, both in art and statuary, and it is noted that the carpet in front of them is worn down to the underlay by the sheer pressure of visiting crowds, who are unaccountably disinterested in landscapes or still lives that don't feature female nudes. A SnarkKnight notes that if it doesn't have a strategically placed urn or a length of gauze in the picture, it is therefore Pornography but if it does, it is elevated to Art. There is also an amateur art group, the Ankh-Morpork Fine Art Appreciation Society, who regularly attend classes to appreciate the female nude; some members even remember to sharpen their pencils or to dip the brush into the paint occassionally.

* ''Series/StepByStep'', "What's Wrong with this Picture?": Dana is asked to pose for feminist abstract artist Jayne [=McNeil=]. Feeling honoured, Dana accepts. Jayne then asks her to pose nude. Convinced that the painting will be abstract and she won't be recognizable, Dana agrees. She later invites her family to the charity auction where the painting will be unveiled. Unbeknown to Dana, Jayne decided to switch to photo-realism. Dana, portrayed half sitting, half lying nude on a sofa, is ''very'' recognizable. The painting itself is only shown in an UnrevealAngle. See [[https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BZDlkZWQ2MjMtMmRjZi00ZDk0LWE5YjUtODNkMWJlMTlmZWU4XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNjI1MDAxMzI@._V1_.jpg here]].

-->'''Man:''' That's my momma! As nude as the day she was born!
-->'''Woman:''' Stop looking at my husband's buttocks!
-->'''Man:''' Stop looking at my ''momma!''

* ''Webcomic/{{Freefall}}'': {{Parodied|Trope}} with Helix's ([[TakeOurWordForIt mercifully offscreen]]) [[http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff1300/fc01274.htm topiary sculpture]] "Sam As A Reclining Nude". The Sam in question is a tentacular {{Starfish Alien|s}} whose body is practically a BrownNote to look at, and there's not enough BrainBleach on the planet to spare the viewers.

* ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfSonicTheHedgehog'': Dr. Robotnik does this a few times - [[FanDisservice it goes about as well as you think!]]