History Main / RecliningVenus

The implications of what is occurring in the image differs. Since admiration and idealization for the human form was common place in UsefulNotes/AncientGreece and AncientRome, Classicists and their post-Renaissance successors preferred showing off the human body as a means of capturing the human form and all of its anatomical splendor. However, since much of history's remembered artists are men, MaleGaze is most definitely involved, the staging either implying the women are ReadyForLovemaking or are simply [[EverybodyHasLotsOfSex intimate enough with the artist that this would not be the first time they have been seen naked so casually]]. But make no mistake; ItsNotPornItsArt.

While male depictions of the Reclining Venus do exist, since the paintings are universally recognized as AlwaysFemale, pop-culture usually plays gender-inversions of the trope [[PlayedForLaughs as comedy]].

Often times, the Reclining Venus position is associated, if not interchangeable, with "the Sleeping Nymph", a motif that began during UsefulNotes/TheRenaissance involving a depiction of a woman (the eponymous "nymph") sleeping in a similar reclining position.

* ''Art/MediciChapels'': "Dawn" and "Night", while not inspired by the LoveGoddess Venus, are still naked figures of attractive young women in reclining positions; albeit a tense one in the latter's case. "Dawn" is putting her weight on one arm while "Night" is cradling her head between her arms, therefore evoking different elements of the typical odalisque. Furthermore, the former is evocative of beginnings and birth; matching the fact that the original reclining Venus was depicted just being born.
* ''Art/SleepingVenusGiorgione'': The TropeCodifier. The model is lying on the grass in a casual pose, using her arm as a headrest while she peacefully sleeps.
* ''Art/TheNudeMaja'' (Spanish: ''La maja Ddsnuda''): It portrays a nude woman reclining on a bed of pillows (also known as a fainting couch). Amusingly (or to highlight the model's sexuality), she is using her arms as headrests instead of, you know, the pillows.
* ''La maja vestida'' (translated to English as ''The Clothed Maja'') is an imitation of ''La Maja Desnuda'', also made by [[Creator/FranciscoDeGoya Goya]], but with the model fully dressed.

* ''Art/NueCouchee'': PlayedForHorror. I'ss a piece deliberately made to be a surrealist depiction of the universal artistic pose. Even its name — "Reclining Nude" — is a reference to this.

** ''Art/ILikeOlympiaInBlackface'' by new realist and pop-artist Creator/LarryRivers is an ArtImitatesArt reimagining of [[Creator/EdouardManet Manet]]'s painting, involving both a three-dimensional depiction of Victorine Meurent and Laurie's characters from the original painting behind a black woman in a similar nude position and a red-skinned woman acting as her maid.

* ''The Big Halatea'' and ''The Small Galatea'' by Creator/GabrielGrun both feature female nudes reclining against a pastoral backdrop [[ArtImitatesArt in a manner similar]] to ''Art/{{Sleeping Venus|Giorgione}}'' and Cabanel's ''[[Art/TheBirthOfVenusCabanel The Birth of Venus]]''.

* ''Art/MediciChapels'': "Dawn" and "Night", while not inspired by the LoveGoddess Venus, are still naked figures of attractive young women in reclining positions. Albeit tense ones. "Dawn" is putting her weight on one arm while "Night" is cradling her head between her arms, therefore evoking different elements of the typical odalisque.

* ''[[Art/TheNudeMaja La Maja Desnuda]]'' (translated to English as ''The Nude Maja'') is an oil on canvas painting by the Spanish artist Creator/FranciscoDeGoya. It portrays a nude woman reclining on a bed of pillows, and was probably commissioned by Manuel de Godoy, to hang in his private collection in a separate cabinet reserved for nude paintings. While the identity of the model is not known, it is often theorized that she is Josefa de Tudo, 1st Countess of Castillo Fiel, whom many believed to have been her mistress.
** ''La maja vestida'' (translated to English as ''The Clothed Maja'') is an imitation of ''La Maja Desnuda'', also made by [[Creator/FranciscoDeGoya Goya]], but with the model fully dressed.

* ''Art/{{SleepingVenus|Giorgione}}'', alternatively known as ''Dresden Venus'', was painted by Italian Renaissance painter Creator/{{Giorgione}}, and has [[TropeCodifier inspired a number of copycats]] from paintings by Creator/GirolamoDaTreviso to Creator/{{Titian}}, Creator/DiegoVelazquez and Creator/AlexandreCabanel. It is the first known reclining nude in Western painting, and together with the ''Art/PastoralConcert'' (Louvre), another painting disputed between Creator/{{Giorgione}} and Creator/{{Titian}}, it established "the genre of erotic mythological pastoral", with female nudes in a landscape, accompanied in that case by clothed males. A single nude woman in any position was an unusual subject for a large painting at the time, although it was to become popular for centuries afterwards, as "the reclining female nude" became a distinctive feature of Venetian painting.

* ''Art/GrandeOdalisque'' (alternatively referred to as ''Une Odalisque'' or ''La Grande Odalisque'') by Creator/JeanAugusteDominiqueIngres depicts a nude female model looking toward the viewer over her shoulder wearing a bonnet and holding a peacock feather-duster in her hand.

* ''Art/NueCouchee'' is a piece was deliberately made to be a surrealist depiction of the universal artistic pose. Even its name — "Reclining Nude" — is a reference to this.

* ''Art/MediciChapels'': "Dawn" and "Night", while not inspired by the LoveGoddess Venus, are still figures of attractive young women in reclining positions. Albeit tense ones. "Dawn" is putting her weight on one arm while "Night" is cradling her head between her arms, therefore evoking different elements of the typical odalisque.

* ''[[Art/SleepingVenusGiorgione Sleeping Venus]]'', alternatively known as ''Dresden Venus'', was painted by Italian Renaissance painter Creator/{{Giorgione}}, and has [[TropeCodifier inspired a number of copycats]] from paintings by Creator/GirolamoDaTreviso to Creator/{{Titian}}, Creator/DiegoVelazquez and Creator/AlexandreCabanel. It is the first known reclining nude in Western painting, and together with the ''Art/PastoralConcert'' (Louvre), another painting disputed between Creator/{{Giorgione}} and Creator/{{Titian}}, it established "the genre of erotic mythological pastoral", with female nudes in a landscape, accompanied in that case by clothed males. A single nude woman in any position was an unusual subject for a large painting at the time, although it was to become popular for centuries afterwards, as "the reclining female nude" became a distinctive feature of Venetian painting.

[[caption-width-right:342:''[[Art/SleepingVenusGiorgione Sleeping Venus]]'' by Giorgione, ''Art/TheNudeMaja'' by Creator/FranciscoDeGoya, and ''Art/{{Odalisque|1874}}'' by Lefebvre]]

[[caption-width-right:342:''[[Art/SleepingVenusGiorgione Sleeping Venus]]'' by Giorgione, ''Art/TheNudeMaja'' by Creator/FranciscoDeGoya, and ''[[Art/Odalisque1874 Odalisque]]'' by Lefebvre]]

** ''La maja vestida'' (translated to English as ''The Clothed Maja'') is an imitation of ''La Maja Desnuda'', also made by [[Creator/FranciscoGoya Goya]], but with the model fully dressed.

[[caption-width-right:342:''[[Art/SleepingVenusGiorgione Sleeping Venus]]'' by Giorgione, ''Art/TheNudeMaja'' by Goya, and ''[[Art/Odalisque1874 Odalisque]]'' by Lefebvre]]

* ''[[Art/TheNudeMaja La Maja Desnuda]]'' (translated to English as ''The Nude Maja'') is an oil on canvas painting by the Spanish artist Creator/FranciscoGoya. It portrays a nude woman reclining on a bed of pillows, and was probably commissioned by Manuel de Godoy, to hang in his private collection in a separate cabinet reserved for nude paintings. While the identity of the model is not known, it is often theorized that she is Josefa de Tudo, 1st Countess of Castillo Fiel, whom many believed to have been her mistress.

* In the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'', this is discussed and taken UpToEleven as a comment on the foibles of the art and cultural world. The Royal Art Gallery has an impressive collection of female nudes, for instance, both in art and statuary, and it is noted that the carpet in front of them is worn down to the underlay by the sheer pressure of visiting crowds, who are unaccountably disinterested in landscapes or still lives that don't feature female nudes. A SnarkKnight notes that if it doesn't have a strategically placed urn or a length of gauze in the picture, it is therefore Pornography but if it does, it is elevated to Art. There is also an amateur art group, the Ankh-Morpork Fine Art Appreciation Society, who regularly attend classes to appreciate the female nude; some members even remember to sharpen their pencils or to dip the brush into the paint occasionally.

Can be considered a sister trope to RecliningReigner and SittingSexyOnAPiano. See other ArtSubjects such as DeathAndTheMaiden, CrucifiedHeroShot and NudeNatureDance. Related to ArtImitatesArt and LifeImitatesArt.

* ''Art/{{Venus and Cupid|Gentileschi}}'' by Creator/ArtemisiaGentileschi has Venus portrayed asleep on her ultramarine bed.

* ''Webcomic/{{Freefall}}'': {{Parodied|Trope}} with Helix's ([[TakeOurWordForIt mercifully offscreen]]) [[http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff1300/fc01274.htm topiary sculpture]] "Sam as a Reclining Nude". The Sam in question is a tentacular {{Starfish Alien|s}} whose body is practically a BrownNote to look at, and there's not enough BrainBleach on the planet to spare the viewers.