Introduction
The painting The Turkish Bath by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres is famous for the combination of eastern and western styles with the mythological issue. In 1863, Ingres changed the standard form of the original painting to tondo. The art is rich in different motifs and elements from the earlier paintings of the artist. Being erotic, The Turkish Bath did not make a lot of noise because it remained to be in exclusive selections. While painting Ingres was inspired by the fashion for Orientalists, popular at that time. He tried to depict women from harem who get ready to attend Sultan in the bath, fulfill all the requests and take a desirable rest. The painting is sometimes seen as a reaction to writers such as Olympe de Gouges and Mary Wollstonecraft, proving that everything is connected in the world of art.
Olympe de Gouges
Olympe de Gouges was a French dramatist and advocate of women’s rights. Being a playwright, she showed great involvement in political issues. Olympe de Gouges is famous for political pamphlets and the work Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen (1791) where she makes an accent that men and women should be equal. The work was written shortly after the French Constitution (1791) that gave suffrage only to men. French Constitution highlighted the inequality in marriage and the impossibility to divorce in case of abuse. Everything, which according to Olympe de Gouges was missing in the French Constitution she wrote in the Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen.
Mary Wollstonecraft
Mary Wollstonecraft was the English philosopher, writer, and active defender of women’s rights, as Olympe de Gouges. The ideas and beliefs of these two writers are very similar. The most famous work written by Mary Wollstonecraft is A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792). The central issue for Wollstonecraft was to point out the fact that women are not less important than men, and they are not the additional part of men. However, the reason for everyone to think so is the lack of education. Education appeared to be the main motif of Wollstonecraft’s works. According to A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, well-educated women can be not only good mothers or wives but, also, contribute substantially to the community in general.
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman is considered to be one of the most significant and archetypal works of feminist ideology. Wollstonecraft states that women are an essential part of society, they deserve to have fundamental rights; by raising a child, women contribute to the nation. Women should not be seen only as an ornament, because of gender. Education can bring them to a new level of development. According to Wollstonecraft, denying education for women means the limitation of their rights.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it should be stated that literature can have a significant influence on painters. Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres was guided by the idea of creating a painting with different motifs addressed to the works of Olympe de Gouges and Mary Wollstonecraft. The combination of eastern and western cultures in the painting reflects the ongoing changes in the society, where women’s rights should turn from harem dependent to European and modern.