[pure-silver] Venus After School

Even within this group there are those who do not make the connections that you do. For example, I had never seen - or heard of - "the Ingres odalisque painting" to which you refer. (No, no art history courses.) I just looked at it on the Internet, and I fail to see the slightest resemblance to any of the Mann photos I've seen (admittedly, not all of them). The open, inviting sexuality of the Ingres is not even slightly evident in Mann's photos. Sexuality, perhaps; an offertory - not at all.
Upon further reflection I've decided that Sally Mann probably meant to refer more to Manet's Olympia than to the Ingres paintings. But Manet and Ingres were both referring to an old trope in western art: the prostitute reclining on a couch, sometimes covering her vulva with her hand. Mann may also have been referring to the Botticelli painting commonly called Venus on the Half Shell, as she calls her own photograph Venus After School. In both the painting and the photograph the female figure covers her vulva with her hand.
I can't find Venus After School on the internet, but both the Botticelli painting and Manet's Olympia are easy to find. 

--shannon
=============================================================================================================
To unsubscribe from this list, go to www.freelists.org and logon to your 
account (the same e-mail address and password you set-up when you subscribed,) 
and unsubscribe from there.

Other related posts: