Olympia's Look Assignment

The Tale of Suzanne Manet

The tale of Suzanne Manet’s struggles with confidence and sense of worth are predominant in the story Olympia’s Look by Susan Vreeland. Suzanne goes through the story as a woman who is always trying to live up to what is expected of her. She learns French, becomes accustomed to the Parisian way of life, and even disguises her own son as a “brother” so that the disapproving father of her love, Edouard, will not be upset. Her entire world was devoted to the happiness of Edouard, until that is, that world no longer existed.

As Edouard wasted away from the effects of syphilis, the devotion that Suzanne had for him still persisted. She held him in his nightmares, held him during the amputation of his leg, and she held him as his last moments faded away. Only when forced by the loss of her love did Suzanne begin to realize she would have to “do things that satisfied her, not anyone else.” This first step towards confidence and self assurance came as she left the side of Edouard. She opened the doors of the church that his funeral service was being held at and stepped into the “different life” that would lead her to the realization and acceptance of her true worth. This is the first time Suzanne stops living a reactionary life and begins living her own life. Only when the reins were thrust into her hands was she willing to take them. As she is consoled by the mass of people who attended the funeral just “to be seen”, her first experience living a non-reactionary life, one of confidence and self-reliance, is realized. Edouard’s most recent “collaborator”, Isabelle Lemonnier expresses her condolences and is curtly brought back to the shame of her ways by Suzanne. This moment seems to be a breakthrough for the normally in her place woman. This instant is a catalyst for the final confrontation between Suzanne and the woman who can either be pictured as a symbol of ill repute, or as playing a pivotal role in the revolution of Suzanne’s character.

Victorine Meurent “started it”. This dying quote by Edouard is used shrewdly by Vreeland. The focus of the first half of the story was Edouard’s painting Olympia that was a depiction of Victorine. Suzanne seems to yearn for the brazen certainty that Victorine conveys in her eyes through the painting as her naked body lies unashamed on the canvas. Suzanne finds what she so previously wanted in a visit to the real Olympia. She confronts the cool Victorine and finds her nerve in a flash. The person who is expected is nowhere to be found; instead an assertive, convicted woman who has a fierce loyalty for the man she loved is at hand. She speaks of the years that Edouard and her had together, through happiness and through despondency. As Suzanne goes on with her diatribe directed towards the arrogant air of Victorine, she has an awakening. The intimacy Suzanne so greatly craved with Edouard is only satisfied through the realization that she was the only who supported him over the years, the only one who witnessed his illness and cared for him, the only one who saw him “frightened and powerless”, the only one who he loved “for herself”. As the story finishes, Vreeland allows Suzanne to develop a sense of acceptance. She accepts the past transgressions by Edouard, she accepts the life she will lead without him, and most importantly she accepts her new spirit, the spirit that will allow her to carry on independently, confidently, freely.

Annotated Bibliography-Answers to "Who is that Person" assignment
MLA


Chilvers , Ian. "Piero di Cosimo." Encyclopedia.com. 2003. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists. 2 Feb 2009 .

Piero di Cosimo lived from approximately 1461 to 1521 and was a Florentine painter. He was adopted by Cosimo Rosselli, hence the name Cosimo. Little is known about Piero di Cosimo because none of his works were signed or dated. The only way that most of his paintings are accredited to him is through the biography that Vasari’s wrote about Piero di Cosimo. Apparently Piero di Cosimo was a very eccentric man who lived off of hard boiled eggs that he boiled along with his glue. He distanced himself from society and had a vast imagination. Many of his paintings contain mythological and fanciful creatures and images such as nymphs and fawns. These paralleled his remarkable ability to create scenes in his mind that were reflected in his paintings. His imagination carried into the world of portraiture, as seen in the depiction of Simonetta Vespucci as Cleopatra, but somehow did not affect his religious paintings.

Harness, Brenda. "Simonetta Vespucci." Fine Art Touch. 2007. 3 Feb 2009 .

“La Bella Simonetta” as she was called after her arrival in Flourance, was considered the most beautiful woman of the time. Botticelli seemed to worship Simonetta Vespucci as she was nearly the only female he featured in his artwork. Even after her untimely death, Botticelli still painted her face and even requested to be buried at her feet. Simonetta Vespucci was the model for the famous The Birth of Venus and there is debate as to whether she was born in Genoa, or Portovenere which is the same town that is believed to be the birth place of the goddess Venus. With a beauty such as Venus’s, Simonetta was married very young at the age of fifteen and died by the age of twenty two from tuberculosis. Within this short amount of time, she had been awarded the title “The Queen of Beauty” at a local jousting tournament and was called “The Unparalleled One” by Botticelli. Simonetta embodied the essence of what Florentines felt was beauty at the time. This perfection by their standards lead to Simonetta Vespucci being one of the most recognizable woman in the world of art.

Schneider, Norbert . " Piero di Cosimo." The Triumph of the City The High Renaissance & Mannerism. 3 Feb 2009 .

This site looked deeper into the symbolism rich painting that some misinterpret. The image of Simonetta Vespucci was a posthumous painting that revered her for her beauty but also had many representations of her early death. The black clouds that lay behind her in the landscape are thought to bring a “gloomy” mood to the painting; maybe it is representing death coming towards the young beauty. The withered tree on the left side of the painting is apparently another symbol for death in the Italian Renaissance. The snake is perhaps the most obvious, and according to this source misconstrued symbol in the portrait. The snake is very often thought to be representative of an asp as a reference to Cleopatra and her suicide. Schneider reveals that Vasari, who came up with this allusion, was not familiar with the symbolism of a snake biting its own tail which represents eternity and “time’s rejuvenating cycle”. "Ianuensis" is inscribed under the portrait of Simonetta, meaning belonging to Janus, the god of the New Year, ever living on in the paintings of great artists even though she is no long of this world.