Master of the perfect line of Neoclassicism
David’s pupil and the emblem of late Neoclassicism, who defended all his life the creed of "the primacy of line," set head-on against the Romantics who prized color and passion. He painted the body smooth and perfect as marble, even lengthening proportions for the sake of elegance — the back of La Grande Odalisque, said to carry a few extra vertebrae, is his famous instance of "distorting" truth for beauty. His portraits are precise and noble, the summit of academic skill.
The back of Ingres’s Grande Odalisque is anatomically impossible: critics counted what looked like two or three extra vertebrae. But Ingres wanted not anatomical correctness but the flowing beauty of the line. He would rather "get the body wrong" than sacrifice that perfect curve — for him, beauty stood above truth.
Below are how modern works borrow or reinterpret this name or story — not the original material. The two differ, so keep them apart.