The Doctrine of Pure Aesthetic

The meaning which we receive from a painting may be considerable though it cannot always be stated. Leonardo's Mona Lisa is supposed to conceal in the vagaries of her smile the sense and meaning of all Renaissance learning. It may be this compression which makes the smile ambiguous. But the Olympia of Edouard Manet states a discovery of the Nineteenth Century so clearly that in its own day it was unacceptable.Reclining upon her couch in the Venetian and Goyesque tradition, but posed stiffly in a harsh light, she seems to be saying, “I may not be the Duchess of Alba, but I'm sure naked. It was something of a treat for people to look at her. I'm going her one better. I'm looking at you.”