La Grande Odalisque

Critics at the 1819 Paris Salon counted the vertebrae in her back — two or three more than anatomy allows. Ingres did this on purpose. He privileged the visual line of her spine over biological truth; the pelvis is also rotated impossibly relative to the shoulders. The painting became Ingres's most attacked work and his most celebrated. X-ray studies confirm: it isn't an illusion. Now at Louvre Museum, Paris @museelouvre