MUSEE ORSAY, Manet Olympia_Room 14

When this work by Manet was first exhibited in 1865 at the Paris Salon, it provoked very mixed reactions. Several spectators considered the painting obscene and vulgar because it clearly depicted a prostitute, an absolutely scandalous subject for the respectable bourgeoisie of the 19th century.

You should know that the painter was inspired by a very famous painting by Titian, the Venus of Urbino, now exhibited in the Uffizi in Florence, where the goddess of beauty is depicted as a young woman, elegantly lying on a bed, with a small dog at her feet, a symbol of marital fidelity. But Olympia deviates enormously from the subject matter that inspired it and from the canons of beauty idealized by Manet's predecessors.

If you look carefully at the work, you can discover all the clues to the protagonist's profession, starting with the name Olympia, at the time widely used as a stage name by dancers and prostitutes. Then there are the bouquet of flowers, probably a gift from an admirer; the black cat at the girl's feet, an erotic symbol linked to female sexuality; the orchid in the girl's hair, the jewelry and the heeled sandal representing sensuality. If you look closely at the bed, moreover, you will notice that it is clearly unmade, and Olympia is portrayed in a pose reminiscent of some of the risqué postcards that circulated illegally at the time.

Manet was not only criticized on the subject of the painting, but also on the painting technique. According to its detractors, the protagonist's body was flat because the colors and dark highlights did not emphasize the three-dimensionality of body shapes....