TMA 04 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

TMA 04 - Essay Example This provides a visual reinforcement of her miserable plight which in Ovid is done through the account of her tears and words. In Titian’s painting, Andromeda’s royal parents are left out entirely. The dialogue that takes place between Perseus and Andromeda’s parents, wherein he extracts the promise of their daughter’s hand in marriage from them before attempting to save her, is an important point of note; especially in the present literary milieu which encourages such gendered readings of myth. This possible source of feminist contention is done away with entirely in Titian’s work. Ovid’s account of Perseus slaying the monster is an amazingly descriptive, rapid piece of verse. Almost like cinematic action, Ovid’s account unfolds the event in blow-by-blow descriptions. This wonderful tactile and immediate quality of Ovid’s writing is transformed in Titian into the unrealistic, expressive postures of the characters painted. Titia n’s Perseus is depicted almost entirely upside down and his face is enraged, alive. The monster too looks poised, tightly coiled as if in fear and with a similar, intense look on its face. The effect of the colourful textual description is adapted and encapsulated into the painting by way of intense expressions, visual contrasts and exaggerated body postures. Even Andromeda’s physique in the painting looks robust and strong, even though feminine; unlike the more helpless Andromeda in Ovid. Titian’s painting allows a reader of Ovid’s mythical story of Perseus and Andromeda to visualise the most intensely alive moment of the narrative. The action-packed description in verse is aided by the vivid colours and extravagant detail in Titian. The foregrounding of Andromeda, her voluptuous and robust physique, and the absence of the mourning parents serve to create an alternative version of Andromeda. Andromeda is given a more liberated and central position in Tit ian as opposed to the meek Andromeda, helpless and largely without agency that we see in Ovid. To compare it with another famous painting of Perseus and Andromeda, one by Peter Paul Rubens, it is interesting to note the differences. Rubens selects a different moment in the myth to represent. The moment shown here is after Perseus has slain the monster and depicts his victorious conquest of both monster and Andromeda. The picture is busy and crowded with minor characters. There is the head of the monster in Perseus’s hand; there are cherubs and angels and even a flying horse in the picture. Rubens, having studied Titian, must have been aware of his version of the painting and yet chooses a much more tranquil moment to paint. [497 Words] Part II In what ways does Ovid manipulate myth in order to highlight his theme of metamorphosis? Do you consider that this technique can lessen the myth’s impact and coherence at times? Answer with reference to specific mythic narrative in Metamorphoses. Answer: In Metamorphoses, in a bid to highlight his chosen theme of metamorphosis, Ovid uses myth to substantiate his claims. Sometimes this is done at the cost of authenticity of myth; of course, authenticity of myth is in itself a rather problematic issue. Unlike in Amores, where Ovid claims to have been misled by Cupid into writing about love, in Metamorphoses Ovid invokes the gods to make him able to write about the history of transformation in the world: In noua fert animus mutatas dicere formas corpora: di coeptis (nam