Show Me the Tummies

April 28, 2020 12:53 PM

I would like to see paintings and sculptures of women whose lower bellies protrude a little or a lot. Would prefer art created prior to the early 1900s. Please help me view this part of my own body in a different light.
posted by Kitchen Witch to Grab Bag (14 answers total)

The Union of Earth and Water
posted by pinochiette at 1:03 PM on April 28, 2020

Rubenesque Images
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 1:10 PM on April 28, 2020 [2 favorites]

The Instagram account fatarthistory [nsfw] has featured a lot of the kind of art you’re looking for
posted by horizons at 1:11 PM on April 28, 2020 [1 favorite]

How about the good old (very old -- 30,000BCE) Venus of Willendorf.
posted by BlahLaLa at 1:13 PM on April 28, 2020 [3 favorites]

Titan: Venus of Urbino (aka Reclining Venus), Venus with a Mirror, Venus and Cupid, etc.
Kustodiev's Russian Venus (1926)
Canova’s Paolina Borghese as Venus Victorious sculpture
Some versions of Venus Anadyomene
posted by Iris Gambol at 1:29 PM on April 28, 2020

Falero's Vision of Faust (1878)
a very silly painting, straight-up soft-core erotica, and the very definition of the male gaze. but he liked the bellies.
posted by queenofbithynia at 2:16 PM on April 28, 2020 [6 favorites]

Nude with a Dove and Perspective by Tamara de Lempicka.
posted by missmobtown at 2:32 PM on April 28, 2020 [4 favorites]

The nude ladies painted by Lucas Cranach the Elder have exactly this! Check out his painting Adam and Eve, and The Judgement of Paris.
posted by Otter_Handler at 4:15 PM on April 28, 2020

Fat Art History is an Instagram account chock full of these examples (although recently they’ve been on a bit of a contemporary kick.)
posted by Grandysaur at 5:01 PM on April 28, 2020

Ma man Edwin Holgate
posted by St. Peepsburg at 6:09 PM on April 28, 2020 [2 favorites]

This is not exactly a right answer, but Danae by Klimt is a painting I go back to when I'm thinking along these lines. It doesn't show much of a belly, but it's a big female body in a painting and she's gorgeous.
posted by hought20 at 6:23 PM on April 28, 2020

These look like they're all mostly white women so far. So I tried to find a bit of diversity, but I was working with Wikipedia and art isn't my thing. Here's what I found at a brief search:

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utamaro#/media/File:Kitagawa_One_Hundred_Stories_of_Demons_and_Spirits.jpg
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khajuraho_Group_of_Monuments#/media/File:India-5692_-_Flickr_-_archer10_(Dennis).jpg
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khajuraho_Group_of_Monuments#/media/File:Brown_bodies.JPG
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_sculpture#/media/File:Brooklyn_Museum_2002.31.3_Fragment_of_a_Female_Figure.jpg
posted by aniola at 7:58 PM on April 28, 2020 [1 favorite]

Botticelli's the Birth of Venus and Primavera both show the ideal Renaissance female figure - supple but soft and round-bellied.
posted by I claim sanctuary at 12:04 AM on April 29, 2020

Response by poster: So many beautiful tummies, thank you for bringing me and my body image so much joy
posted by Kitchen Witch at 11:46 AM on April 29, 2020 [2 favorites]