The Nude: History and Theory of Titian's Venus and the Lute Player

You are free to choose your own topic for the second paper assignment. You are encouraged, however, to select works for discussion that you can examine firsthand in New York museums. You should also consult me if you are uncertain whether your topic is appropriate.
The following are suggestions:
1. Choose one or more depictions of the nude that give you particular aesthetic pleasure. Explain why you enjoy the work or find it compelling and compare it to other nudes that we have discussed in class.
2. Titian’s Venus and the Lute Player, 1565-70, (Gallery 608) and Gustave Courbet’s, Woman with a Parrot, 1866, (Gallery 811) are on display in the European Paintings and Sculpture galleries on the 2nd floor of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Both artists have depicted reclining female nudes but have treated them in different ways. You should compare and contrast these works based on issues such as the figure’s pose, the objects surrounding her, the presence or absence of a male viewer within the painting, the relationship between the figure and the background, the artist’s palette, and his paint handling.
3. Discuss the series of nude figures by Auguste Rodin in the “Rodin at the Met” exhibition in the 19th- and Early 20th-Century European Painting and Sculpture hallway gallery (Gallery 800) on the 2nd floor of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. You may want to focus in particular on Rodin’s sculptures of Adam and Eve and compare them to the various Adam and Eves by Masaccio, Michelangelo and others that you have seen in class or in Clark’s text.
4. Pastels of women bathing and drying themselves by Edgar Degas are on display in Gallery 817 in the 19th- and Early 20th-Century European Paintings and Sculpture galleries on the 2nd floor of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Some art historians have seen these works as misogynistic images of women in awkward and animalistic poses. Others have argued that they defy the conventions of presenting the female nude as a beautiful object for the male viewer’s delectation. In addition to discussing these figures in the context of the history of the nude, you should enter into the debate about their implicit attitude toward women.
5. Discuss Picasso’s depictions of the female nude on exhibit in the Museum of Modern Art. These include works that extend from his early Rose period to his later Cubist and Surrealist phases. Among the most famous of these paintings displayed on the 5th Floor in Gallery 503 are Two Nudes, 1906, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, 1907, and Girl with a Mandolin. Girl Before a Mirror, 1932 is on display on the 5th Floor in Gallery 517. You should describe your reactions to Picasso’s distortions of the female figure. Do his nudes disturb you, amuse you, give you aesthetic pleasure or provoke some combination of all of these responses.
6. An exhibition called Charles Ray: Figure Ground is currently on display in Gallery 999 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ray is a contemporary sculptor who depicts male and female nudes in works such as Family Romance, 1993, Boy with Frog, 2009, Huck and Jim, 2014, and Reclining Woman, 2018. Discuss the role of nudity in Ray’s work and focus specifically on scale and materials. Ray frequently uses large scale and unusual materials such as stainless steel.
You can view the works mentioned in the suggested topics by going to the Assignments section of the course’s Canvas site and clicking on the power point presentation titled 2nd Paper Images.
Although your paper will require research, this does not justify stringing togetherquotations from your sources. Use your own words to express your ideas and when you do quote directly make sure that your source is properly footnoted (see Definition of Plagiarism and
Guidelines for Citations below). Organize your thoughts and support generalizations with specific observations. Proofread for errors of spelling, unclear organization, wrong choice of words, mistakes in subject-verb agreement, and run-on or incomplete sentences. Papers must be typed and double-spaced. The suggested length is 3-5 pages. If you need assistance writing your paper, you should take advantage of the New School Writing Center.
DEFINITION OF PLAGIARISM
If the student is attempting to represent as original the work of another person, published or unpublished, without acknowledgement of the source, this constitutes plagiarism.
GUIDELINES FOR CITATIONS
1. A directly quoted sentence or paragraph must be enclosed in quotation marks and the source given either in parentheses or a footnote.
2. If an idea or information from a published source is used but transposed into the writer’s own words, the origin must be given in a footnote or indicated in some way, such as “according to.”
3. A bibliography listing the sources consulted should be appended to your paper.