Ingres Portrait
The portrait of the Comtesse d'Haussonville by Jean August Ingres displays inconspicuous but significant anatomical absurdity. The right arm is far too lower on her body and her right shoulder is completely neglected. It almost seems like Louise’s right arm comes from her chest rather than her shoulder. In the portrait, Louise looks slim and slender with a small head and skinny torso, which make her upper body long and feminine. Moreover, the mirror behind her reflects her finger that is crooked backward and unbalanced shoulders. Despite of the fact that her pose is stationary, folding her arm is felt to be active and expressive due to the physical flexibility. Her unique body structure makes her beauty distinctive from the normal one, making her a mysterious and even inviolable creature.
A photograph portrait would describe Louise more accurately and precisely than the Ingres’ portrait does, but it would not make the strong impact. It would also be easier for viewers to understand her pose since the photograph makes the sitter physically graspable. However, the power of the photograph is limited, not being able to give artistic changes to the picture, but only reflecting exactly what the object or person looks like. The photograph cannot express the body of a sitter rhythmically and vividly, because it strictly follows the physical anatomy. A normal photograph cannot make Louise more mysterious and charming than her real self. It would be hard to attract viewers’ attention since it cannot beatify the sitter and simply reflects the person’s bone structure, muscle structure regardless of whether the body is flawed or unappealing. As a conclusion, a photograph would depict Louise in a realistic and banal way, which is easy to apprehend, but it would fail to be an alluring art.