Notes

Clesinger's Femme Piquee par un Serpent was a groundbreaking sculpture because prior to this sculpture, women were never sculpted nude without having a historical reason or story. This sculpture caused shock amongst the community. Clesinger's sculpture gave the artistical community the openness to not feel obligated to only sculpt nude women if it had to do with history. Overall, Clesinger's sculpture says that a women's sex and gender are nothing to be afraid of in art, and should not be treated differently than a man. In my opinion, this sculpture genuinely massively attributed to the feminist movement we have today, and that is great, even if it wasn't appreciated immediately. 

Kehinde Wiley's Femme Piquee par un Serpent is beautiful, and I love the comparison to Clesinger's sculpture. Wiley's piece of artwork says that gender and sexuality are not defined by the way one looks or their physical attributes, contrary to Clesinger's sculpture. Wiley's piece also conveys contrarian beliefs that a man must always look "manly". Wiley's piece says that gender and sexuality are not limited to strictly females, and that sex and gender can be portrayed by all types of humans. 

These images demonstrate the value of art history through showing the evolution and transformation of art. Clesinger's sculpture theoretically opened the doors for sexually based artwork, and challenged the climate of art at that time. Just by creating that nude sculpture, Clesinger changed art history forever. This is demonstrated by Wiley's artwork, showcasing how significantly gender identity and sexual identity have changed over hundreds of years. That being said, not only did these pieces of artwork affect art history, but they affected actual sex and gender views of the current times. Without the history of art, many lessons, including the evolution of male, female, and LGBTQ+ could have quite possibly significantly regressed. Also, without Clesinger's sculpture, Wiley most likely would not have made that piece of artwork, changing not only art history, but gender equality, sexual equality, and overall views on gender and sex. That is the true value of these images, and I'm happy they will live on forever.