Direct gaze of the nude Symbolism

Challenges passive, idealized classical nudity and forces a modern, confrontational exchange with the viewer.

Common Themes

Class distinction & status displayMimesis vs. abstraction (truth vs. artifice)Everyday life as art (the ordinary)The pastoral/ArcadiaMedium reflexivity (art about art)The gaze & being looked atSexuality & desireOriginality, authorship, and appropriation

Artworks Featuring This Symbol

Luncheon on the Grass by Édouard Manet

Luncheon on the Grass

Édouard Manet (1863)

Luncheon on the Grass stages a confrontation between <strong>modern Parisian leisure</strong> and <strong>classical precedent</strong>. A nude woman meets our gaze beside two clothed men, while a distant bather and an overturned picnic puncture naturalistic illusion. Manet’s scale and flat, studio-like light convert a park picnic into a manifesto of <strong>modern painting</strong> <sup>[1]</sup><sup>[2]</sup>.