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Instead, the conception of this nude reveals a fully naturalist view of the female body, with a corporeal definition that may be linked to that periodâs wide use of photography as an element for studying and analyzing the human body in the context of artistic disciplines. Here, JimĂ©nez Aranda imbues the young womanâs chaste posture with a suggestive sensuality that stems from an immediate and vibrant interpretation of her nudity in an absolutely naturalist vein. This is especially notable in his treatment and definition of her limbs and, even more so, her abundant tresses, which drape across her shoulders as she tries to hide her shadowed face in a gesture that strengthens the temptingly sensual character of this presentation.
The artist justifies this splendid academic depiction of a nude woman by placing her in an Oriental setting reminiscent of the scenes of slaves and odalisques that had become fashionable in France thanks to the works of great masters of Orientalist painting such as Jean-Léon Gérome (1824-1904). The enormous success of those works on the international market a few decades earlier consolidated a pictorial language that Jiménez Aranda employed until his death, although he reinterpreted it with a new and fully naturalist conception in his treatment of the subject matter.
In that sense, he models the nude here with the absolutely finished technique and refined drawing that are so characteristic of his work. There is a sensual morbidity to his interpretation of the young womanâs pallid white body against the contrasting roughness of the colorful carpet. Also striking is the modernity of the steeply downward angle of vision, which places the viewer considerably higher than the young woman, perfectly suggesting the viewpoint of the ring of men who have lecherously surrounded the humiliated youth. By painting only their feet, without broadening the field of vision, he focuses on the degrading and shameful sensation produced by the gazes of possible buyers around a slave, thus bringing great narrative effect to this compositional resource.
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"A Slave for Sale" by José Jiménez Aranda
A young, completely nude slave sits on a carpet. The sign hanging from her neck bears a Greek inscription (Rose, 18 years old, on sale for 800 coins) that offers her as merchandise at an Oriental market. She chastely hangs her head to hide her shame. The feet of her possible purchasers are visible behind her as they crown around to contemplate her defenseless nudity. This is one of JimĂ©nez Arandaâs most emblematic paintings, as well as one of the most interesting female nudes in 19th-century Spanish painting. It is also a truly unique work in this Sevilian artistâs oeuvre, which includes a surprisingly scant selection of female nudes and very few Oriental settings, despite the fact that such works had become very fashionable some decades earlier on the international market where he worked primarily as a painter of anecdotal military scenes.
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Depiction of Hygeia, Greed goddess of health and hygiene, as a figure of life and death turning her back to humanity.
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In recent years a recolorisation project was done on "Medicine" and is displayed to day as large scale reconstruction on the façade of the newly extended Anna Spiegel research building on the MedUni Vienna General Hospital campus
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"Jurisprudence", "Medicine", "Philosophy" by Gustav Klimt.
In 1894, Klimt was commissioned by the Imperial and Royal Ministry of Education to decorate the Great Hall of the new University of Vienna. He worked on the series of ceiling paintings between 1900 and 1907. Having made many studies, sketches, compositions. The paintings were unveiled one by one during the seven years of work. Drawing inspiration from mythology each painting had depictions of Greek gods to emphasize symbolism. Mired in scandal and controversy due to Klimt's cynical representation of science. However, critics also deemed the paintings to be "pornographic" and an excess of perversion. The works of Klimt didn't reach their final destination and he had to buy back the paintings. Sold to private collectors the paintings were eventually destroyed in 1945 during World War II by retreating Nazi soldiers. With only photographs of black and white surviving, "Medicine" was put on display in the University of Vienna in 2005.
