Part 2 Cézanne

Compare and contrast Cézanne’s Bathers (Plate 1.3.4) with Correggio’s Leda with the Swan (Plate1.3.8).

The first painting I will examine is one piece of a long series of paintings by the artists’ artist Paul Cézanne. The collection is known as Bathers, which hangs in The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Said paintings have been produced over a long period of time, from 1894 to 1905 – a year before Cézanne’s death. The painting in question displays an array of six naked females in an outdoor setting. Other than this the narrative seems to be missing. The figures in the painting seem strangely distanced from each other as the landscape dominates the front of the image where the bathers are backwards in the painting. The faces of the females are devoid and lack expression and their bodies seem to merge with the landscape. The figures are not defined, uneven and appear unpersuasive. It is as if the painter had finished painting the figures and returned to the finer details of the landscape. The dense space between the figures caused to become a difficult image to read to the average spectator. To the left of the image we see parts that do not seem to make sense, due to their ambiguity of form. Even though Cézanne did not conform to the century’s norm, the formal way of the painting – i.e. how the artist lays the painting, the way the painting is composed and the colours the artist chooses, is constructed in a very traditional manner. He depicted the human body in nature and left us with the abstract of nude females rendering in the lake. Many of Cézanne’s spectators may contribute the flaws to a deliberant act of refinements that demonstrate skills and enormous capability, whereas some criticised his work heavily.

The second painting I will examine is Correggio’s Leda with the Swan. The painting shows Leda and her children bathing in an outdoor setting. The landscape consists of mountains far ahead and many trees. There are two swans in the image. A large one between Leda’s legs erotically stroking her chin with its beak and another smaller one playfully swimming with the two females on the right. On the left we see Leda’s children and a young boy playing music. Compared to the first painting this is a more refined and graceful image that demonstrates a relaxed ambiance. It is painted with clarity and gentleness. Every detail flows like a beautiful mosaic. Even though, there’s much movement in the background: music played by the children on the left, spirited laughter by the females and their handmaidens on the right and Leda’s playfulness with the swan in the centre, however, the effect represented is peaceful and calming. The mythological subject matter expressed brings about a very telling narrative. In the Greek methodology, the god Zeus takes the form of a swan and mate with Leda. Causing her to bare his children and her husband’s children at the same time. (Princeton.edu, 2014) The delineation of these bathers is much clearer and elegant compared to Cézanne’s Bathers. The modelling appears to be more of a three-dimensional definition as opposed to the first painting with two-dimensional construction. The shading technique used covey’s vast talent and skill. The tone ranges from lightest to darkest in beautiful colours. The painting is spectacular compared to the dishevelled mess that is Cézanne’s Bathers.