What if Venus had "modeled" for Victoria's Secret instead of Botticelli? Italian artist Anna Utopia Giordano took a Photoshop scalpel to 12 famous nude Venuses to see what art history class would've been like "if the aesthetic standard of our society had belonged to the collective unconscious of the great artists of the past." As a result, rounded bellies become concave, modest bosoms are augmented, and thighs are minimized.
At first, the slideshow is jarring: these "classic" nudes are suddenly, uh, NSFW. But it's worth remembering that all but one of the "great artists" Giordano included are male, and that their paintings are not photographs of real women but rather their own conceptions of how the ideal female form should be shaped. We're used to thinking of airbrushed women with Barbie doll-dimensions as over-sexualized, but it's not like their Renaissance/Baroque/etc counterparts weren't objectified as well.
Startling Photoshop Makeovers of Classic Nudes in Art [Flavorwire]
Venus [Anna Utopia Giordano]
William-Aldolphe Bouguereau, The Birth of Venus
Alexandre Cabanel, The Birth of Venus
Sandro Botticelli, La Nascita di Venere
Angelo Bronzino, Venus, Cupid, Folly, and Time
Francesco Hayez, Venus
6. J.A.D. Ingres, Venus Anadyomene
Tiziano Vecellio, Venere di Urbino, before
Tiziano Vecellio, Venere di Urbino, after
Diego Velázquez, Venere e Cupido, before
Diego Velázquez, Venere e Cupido, after
Artemisia Gentileschi, The Sleeping Venus, before
Artemisia Gentileschi, The Sleeping Venus, after
DISCUSSION
This comment might strike some as bizarre, but I actually really enjoyed viewing these Photoshops. Just a few small alterations and the 'shopper was able to "translate" seminal stylized depictions of the female form into the prevailing stylized female aesthetic. I feel like I've gotten to look at the paintings with fresh eyes and really see them the way they were meant to be viewed - as iconic and sexy.
Say what you will about the prevailing female ideal aesthetic, but I enjoyed the trip.