![]() ![]() ![]() During the baroque period women had still been hovering on the outskirts of social life, but in the age of rococo they moved into its very center. This cult of charm and beauty is inextricably bound up with the general increase of importance acquired by woman in the 18th century. Much like the Muses, in rococo tradition women’s beauty and charms are emphasized in order to “enhance brilliance and elevate it to the ideal of human perfection. This powerful idea would have been in keeping with the then-popular rococo style of which Nattier was considered a master (7). Both of these paintings of Terpsichore and Thalia are allegorical references to the ancient Greek legends of artistic Muses and imply (in an almost proto-feminist fashion) that these women are not only creators themselves, but also that women are a major source of inspiration in all forms of art. “Allegory in art is when the subject of the artwork, or the various elements that form the composition, are used to symbolize a deeper moral or spiritual meaning such as life, death, love, virtue, justice etc.,” (9) to the viewers. “The word allegory is derived from the Greek words meaning ‘other’ and ‘to speak in public.’ The meaning of the allegory is sometimes communicated through the use of symbolic figures or other symbols convey a meaning beyond the literal representation,” (6). There was perhaps no better way to portray oneself as beautiful and powerful than by sitting for a painting, particularly an allegorical painting of a Greek goddess, which was a highly-regarded sub-genre of academic history painting in those days. Much of the courtly status of women in eighteenth-century France relied upon the image of themselves that they conveyed to their peers. ![]()
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