Blog Post #4

   

    This is a painting called "The Three Graces" by William Etty. This painting is representational. The three daughters of Zeus have been illustrated naked in countless pieces of art. Just as most nude paintings, these women are shown in elegant poses, comfortable in the skin they are given. Since we truly don't know how any of these gods or goddesses looked, this work of art is idealized. This is not only an interpreted idea of what these specific girls looked like, but also the dream girl of an average man. In these times many naked women were depicted in the same manner; they were drawn or painted with curves, hips, descent sized breasts, beautiful hair. Most of these pieces weren't actually based on a real woman in front of the artist, but just what their idea of what a woman should look like. These women were idolized in a sense because of this idea of beauty within a woman. The Three Graces symbolized charm, beauty, nature, human creativity, and fertility. This idea of these women connects to what Berger stated in Ways Of Seeing, "She is not naked as she is. She is naked as the spectator sees her." The people of that time labeled these women as examples for all other females to follow, and then they were put into forms of how men wanted a woman to look.The irony of these women of beauty being painted in the same way the average woman was painted in every other nude painting in that century.