In our society, an obsession with the human body is commonly interpreted to signify a perversion. To neoclassical painters, such a cynical view is understandable. Not because the person himself (let us be honest about the popularly accused gender) is perverted per se, but because etiquette and morality has trumped understanding and reason. This signifies a different sort of societal perversion; a different sort of decadence. Neoclassical painters explicitly created their works to reverse this decadence, to return to the days when proper virtue and culture reigned supreme. The classical Greek and Roman civilizations, for example, affirmed their existence and embodied all that was good and possible for humanity. Society has often gone astray from this ideal, but painting was capable of helping restore and immortalize perfection. Neoclassical painters built neoclassicism on this possibility to restore perfection. Among the most prominent figures in this neoclassical movement was Jean-August Dominique Ingres.
The French neoclassical movement had become the popular style during the French revolution, as the style was used as a means to express the romantic side of the concepts of freedom, liberty, and brotherhood that were in the genes of the Revolution. Jean-August Dominique Ingres was born in 1780. During his studies, Dominique Ingres was under the tutelage of French neoclassicist, Jacques Louise. As a result, Ingres became enveloped into the neoclassical style of painting. What neoclassical style sought to portray was keen sensitivity to body language of subject matters, its use of varying colors, a degree of symmetry in the painting to reflect order, and a powerful theme to drive home its message. What neoclassical paintings largely limited themselves to was to imitate the classical antiquity. To these neoclassical artists, only historical subjects, particularly from classical Greek and Roman societies, were worthy to be elevated into art. That is a generalization, but that was the popular trend in neoclassical artists.
Initially, Jean-August Dominique Ingres followed through with the trend of neoclassicism. In 1801, he won his first Prix de Rome – the highest honor for painters – for his piece, Achilles receiving the messengers of Agamemnon. Another painting, The Apotheosis of Homer portrays the epic Greek poet, Homer sitting in a throne surrounded by figures of historical importance, from Shakespeare to Ingres’ personal idol Rafael. However, Dominique Ingres started moving away from the neoclassical clichés later on because of its increasing reliance on other movements, such as romanticism. Romanticism was as also a dominant style of French painting as well as neoclassicism in this period. Neoclassical paintings relied on historical figures, sceneries, and themes to be powerful. To Jean-August Dominique Ingres, that did not fulfill the definition of what art truly was. Ingres did not look to external themes for his artistic salvation, such as Revolutionary themes of equality, patriotism, or self-sacrifice. Patriotism was popularized especially by his teacher Jacques Louise David. On the contrary, he turned more inward. His portraits, particularly involving female nudes, became his ultimate calling card.
At age 82, he produced one of his more famous works: Turkish Women at the Bath. To a degree, it acts as the culmination of his depiction of art and his role in the neoclassical movement. Female nudes had been a popular subject for him through his life, but this exotic painting Turkish Women at the Bath features females of all forms, positions, and expressions, including some imitated from his other portraits such as Le bain turc (The Turkish Bath). His accuracy in observation and his vivid attention to the body was fresh. Its eccentricity made it unique. Dominique Ingres was inspired by the letters of Lady Montague who had visited Istanbul and seen Turkish bath. The painting is full of female nudes dancing, drinking tea and playing music. Long after his deat, when The Turkish Bath was revealed to the public, Pablo Picasso was one of those excited by this oriental painting.
Le bain turc (The Turkish Bath)