A concubine reclines with her back to us and looks over her shoulder, surrounded by silks, a peacock-feather fan and a pipe. Caroline Murat, Napoleon's sister and Queen of Naples, commissioned it. Critics mocked its anatomy, but Ingres lengthened the back and limbs on purpose, choosing smooth, sinuous line and cool, even light over literal accuracy.
Look closer
Her back was said to have "two or three vertebrae too many". A modern study found that her left arm is also shorter than her right.
Looks like this
Compared by a vision model
