EMULATION AND REPETITION IN 19TH CENTURY ART
 

Aside from ethnicity, Ingres takes "anatomical liberties" (Jover 87) to translate the image of this woman from how she appears in his eyes onto the canvas. He describes in this painting how he wishes to see her, rather than how she actually looks. This idea of a "perceived form" of beauty (ibid), rather than an accurate one, plays a huge role in The Grand Odalisque (Fig. 1) because it influences Ingres in his decision to abandon the constraints of realism. He unnaturally lengthens the figure's back, as well as her extremities. He gives her skin an impeccable yet unattainable complexion. He illustrates her in a harsh position of contrapposto, in order to emphasize her sinuous [hyperlink to Michelle Ahern's essay] curves, but this pose would have been unimaginable for a model to hold for any amount of time.

In taking these liberties with the form and function of the body, Ingres is able to accomplish his goal of rendering a purely ideal female nude. Ingres wanted to show an adult, a prostitute for that matter, untainted, with smooth skin, impossibly perfect contours, and exaggerated proportions. These attributes were simply not a realistic option for a woman of this caliber, but Ingres did not care because he was more than willing to desert the limitations of nature in favor of perceived perfection.

Ingres exhibited the piece at the Salon of 1819 and received jeers from critics that attacked the composition and lighting, as well as his overall skill as a painter. Ingres frequently attempted to emulate the old masters, which inspired a critique of his skill in comparison to the infamous artists that were before him. Some critics believed that the flatness of the composition is due to his misinterpretation of the masters' primal technique, of which they thought he poorly executed. However, upon closer observation the viewer realizes that Ingres is not misinterpreting the effects of realism, he instead is simply rejecting the limitations of it in order to deliver a truly idealistic image of a concubine.

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Figure 1. Figure 2. Figure 3.
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, detail of The Grand Odalisque, 1814, oil on canvas, Paris, Musée de Louvre.