The main subject being that of male hypocrisy, painting a naked woman for the enjoyment of looking at her, putting a mirror in front of her, then repeating the same example as the story of Adam and Eve, blaming the woman. Using a work by Tinoretto as an example, Berger elaborates the fact that the nude woman looks at herself in the mirror, mirrors being the symbolic sign of vanity, just as the spectator looks at her in the painting, reminding us that women are considered, and consider themselves, sights to be looked at.
The scene most depicted is the moment of shame, the shame is not in relation to one another, it’s the spectator who shames them. Berger dissects the story of Adam and Eve in the book Genesis, the first case in the difference between men and woman, Berger points out two things in the biblical story, first after eating the apple humans first become aware and ashamed of their own nakedness, concluding that nakedness is in the eye of the beholder, second, the woman is blamed and thus is made subservient to the man, in relation to the woman, the man becomes the agent of God.
This relationship is deeply correlated with European oil paintings depicting nude women. Leading Berger to state “Men act, Women appear” Men look, while women watch themselves being looked at. Paintings preserve things as they once were, just as how the painter once viewed, thus understood the world.īoth men and women are perceived differently in the world, a man’s display revolves around power and possession, whereas woman’s display tends to gravitate towards her physical appearance, therefore bring about the need to constantly examine herself image, knowing full heartedly that her looks, tastes, values, and personality are being observed by her male counterparts, judging solely on her exterior aesthetics. By taking the paintings out of their surface, replaces how the artist viewed the world. Building upon the German philosopher, Walter Benjamins’ works, he theorizes, with the invention of the camera, the reproduction of images, concentrating on European oil paintings, changed not what we see but how we see them. John Berger begins his book “Ways of Seeing” by putting across the idea that words are inadequate when it comes to conveying the way we perceive the world, seeing is habit plus convention.
0 kommentar(er)
