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Manet - Olympia - Analysis - Stage 6 HSC
Manet - Olympia - Analysis - Stage 6 HSC
black ribbon
The classical composition, of ‘Olympia’ follows tradition; it is the ‘HERE and NOW’
contemporary setting in conjunction with replacing the Goddess subject with a
common woman that makes the work REVOLUTIONARY and CONTROVERSIAL.
Formerly, the MODEL’S PERSONA was mostly irrelevant, she merely played a subservient
role as bodily reference for a Goddess. In Manet’s ‘Olympia’ it is the MODEL HERSELF
whom is REVERED.
My name is
Victorine
Louise
Meurent
Allegedly, Maurent was Manet’s favourite model, posing for‘The Street Singer’,
’Luncheon on the Grass’ and ’Olympia’, among others. Mauret also modelled for many other
artists of the time including DEGAS and TOULOUSE-LAUTREC.
THE MAIDS IN MANET’S ‘OLYMPIA’ AND TITIAN’S ‘SLEEPING VENUS’
Artwork precedents that present a NUDE being attended by a BLACK SERVANT from this time
include INGRE’S ‘Odalisque with a Slave’ and JALABERT’S ’,Odalisque’.
In Manet’s ‘Olympia’, the courtesan CARES NOT TO ACKNOWLEDGE either her MAID or the
FLOWERS she presents, it is speculated that the flowers are an OFFERING are from an
OVERLY EAGER CLIENT.
Two maids can be identified in Titian’s ‘Sleeping Venus’ and are thought to be DELVING for
CLOTHING to adorn Venus, unlike the maid in ‘Olympia’ their eyes are NOT expecting a
RESPONDING gaze.
‘Manet's Olympia’ poem by Margaret Atwood
She reclines, more or less,
Try that posture, it's hardly languor.
Her right arm sharp angles.
With her left she conceals her ambush.
Shoes but not stockings,
how sinister. The flower
behind her ear is naturally
not real, of a piece
with the sofa's drapery.
The windows (if any) are shut.
This is indoor sin.
Above the head of the (clothed) maid
is an invisible voice balloon: Slut.
This is no morsel.
Put clothes on her and you'd have a schoolteacher,
the kind with the brittle whiphand.
Q. Consider the GAZE of the Subject – Is the subject AWARE of the VIEWER’S presence?
Where is the subject LOOKING? Do you think the subject would APPROVE or OBJECT to
being the SPECTACLE of the gaze? WHO is in a POSITION OF POWER – the SUBJECT? Or the
VIEWER?
Q. COMPARE and CONTRAST Manet’s ‘Olympia’ and Titians ‘Sleeping Venus’ using a Venn
diagram
Yasumasa Morimura. Olympia. 1999. Photography Kate Barry, Victorine Meurent, 2009, Performance