User:Jahsonic/AHE/Renaissance/Biblical eroticism
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| The story of Susanna and the elders provides us with a voyeuristic scene in the style of Bathsheba. Like Bathsheba, Susanna takes a bath, unaware that two men are spying on her. The men try to seduce her, and Susanna naturally declines to respond. In revenge, the men falsely accuse her of adultery. The Flemish painter [[Jan Matsys]] (ca. 1510-1575) has a beautiful stylized version of the theme ([[Susanna and the Elders (Jan Matsys)|image]]). The Italian artist Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1652) also has it in her oeuvre ([[Susanna and the Elders (Artemisia Gentileschi)|image]]). | The story of Susanna and the elders provides us with a voyeuristic scene in the style of Bathsheba. Like Bathsheba, Susanna takes a bath, unaware that two men are spying on her. The men try to seduce her, and Susanna naturally declines to respond. In revenge, the men falsely accuse her of adultery. The Flemish painter [[Jan Matsys]] (ca. 1510-1575) has a beautiful stylized version of the theme ([[Susanna and the Elders (Jan Matsys)|image]]). The Italian artist Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1652) also has it in her oeuvre ([[Susanna and the Elders (Artemisia Gentileschi)|image]]). | ||
| - | Also part of biblical eroticism is that classical incest story of [[Lot and his daughters]]. Lot lives with his wife and daughters in Sodom, along with Gomorrah notorious for the 'depravity' of the inhabitants. The only righteous ones are Lot and his family. They are summoned by two angels to leave Sodom and not to look back. Lot's wife (we are never told her name) cannot resist the temptation, she turns her head around to glance at her native village one more time and is immediately turned into a [[pillar of salt]]. With his two daughters Lot withdraws in a cave. His girls are childless and have no husband, so one day they decide to get their father drunk and seduce him. Both become pregnant and give birth to a son. The German artist Albrecht Altdorfer (ca. 1480-1538) paints the picture of Lot with one of his daughters, the other is visible in the distance ([[image]]). | + | Also part of biblical eroticism is that classical incest story of [[Lot and his daughters]]. Lot lives with his wife and daughters in Sodom, along with Gomorrah notorious for the 'depravity' of the inhabitants. The only righteous ones are Lot and his family. They are summoned by two angels to leave Sodom and not to look back. Lot's wife (we are never told her name) cannot resist the temptation, she turns her head around to glance at her native village one more time and is immediately turned into a [[pillar of salt]]. With his two daughters Lot withdraws in a cave. His girls are childless and have no husband, so one day they decide to get their father drunk and seduce him. Both become pregnant and give birth to a son. The German artist [[Albrecht Altdorfer]] (ca. 1480-1538) paints the picture of Lot with one of his daughters, the other is visible in the distance ([[image]]). |
| The name Sodom has led to the term "sodomy" is a term for unnatural and therefore sinful, forbidden sexual contact, most often used to refer to homosexuality, as in sodomite and sodomize. In the Netherlands, the words 'opsodemieteren' and 'besodemieteren' still in use. | The name Sodom has led to the term "sodomy" is a term for unnatural and therefore sinful, forbidden sexual contact, most often used to refer to homosexuality, as in sodomite and sodomize. In the Netherlands, the words 'opsodemieteren' and 'besodemieteren' still in use. | ||
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I already mentioned that the depiction of biblical eroticism during the Middle Ages is scarce and consists of Adam and Eve's expulsion from the Garden of Eden, the Song of Songs, the story of Bathsheba in her bath, the temptations of the holy St. Anthony , the depictions of Susanna and the elders and Lot and his daughters. We could add to this list the fallen and penitent woman Mary Magdalene and the theme of Potiphar's wife, but then I'm finished and I would even have to add that Saint Anthony was not even a biblical figure, and neither was Susanna.
Starting in the Renaissance, these stories can for the first time be freely depicted. The story of Bathsheba appears to be particularly useful. Bathsheba, a married woman, is spotted by King David from a roof top while she is bathing. The story has a fatal outcome, but the most frequently painted scene puts the viewer as voyeur on the strategic location of King David, where he has ample view of her feminine beauty. There is a very beautiful and moving Bathsheba (image) by Memling.
Machine translation
One of the most famous Christian stories is that of the Holy St. Anthony, who sets off for the desert to live as an ascetic, where he is beseeched by certain temptations. There, demons appear to him who seek to distract him from the righteous path. Painters usually depict the monsters who scare him to death, but an occasional painter also depicts the lure of the beautiful maidens who challenge his virtue. We already saw a very strange 'woman as landscape' in the Brussels version of Bosch's Temptation of St. Anthony. Flaubert would eroticize the story in the 19th century, and in that same century, Félicien Rops gives us the definite visual version.
The story of Susanna and the elders provides us with a voyeuristic scene in the style of Bathsheba. Like Bathsheba, Susanna takes a bath, unaware that two men are spying on her. The men try to seduce her, and Susanna naturally declines to respond. In revenge, the men falsely accuse her of adultery. The Flemish painter Jan Matsys (ca. 1510-1575) has a beautiful stylized version of the theme (image). The Italian artist Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1652) also has it in her oeuvre (image).
Also part of biblical eroticism is that classical incest story of Lot and his daughters. Lot lives with his wife and daughters in Sodom, along with Gomorrah notorious for the 'depravity' of the inhabitants. The only righteous ones are Lot and his family. They are summoned by two angels to leave Sodom and not to look back. Lot's wife (we are never told her name) cannot resist the temptation, she turns her head around to glance at her native village one more time and is immediately turned into a pillar of salt. With his two daughters Lot withdraws in a cave. His girls are childless and have no husband, so one day they decide to get their father drunk and seduce him. Both become pregnant and give birth to a son. The German artist Albrecht Altdorfer (ca. 1480-1538) paints the picture of Lot with one of his daughters, the other is visible in the distance (image).
The name Sodom has led to the term "sodomy" is a term for unnatural and therefore sinful, forbidden sexual contact, most often used to refer to homosexuality, as in sodomite and sodomize. In the Netherlands, the words 'opsodemieteren' and 'besodemieteren' still in use.
And then there's the story of Joseph and Potiphar's wife. You will only falsely accused of rape. It happens to Joseph, the unnamed Potiphar's wife tries to seduce him, but if that fails, she becomes furious and accuses him of having raped her. As evidence she gives a lot from the clothing of Joseph. That this is arrested, goes to jail for ten years and then still be acquitted. Potiphar's wife of the Italian Tintoretto brings in this beautiful image. [Image]]
Already in the ancient Biblical tradition, Mary Magdalene is equated to the "penitent sinner". What exactly is her sin? Nobody knows the ins. 'Sinner' here must be read as "fallen woman" or "woman of loose morals', which in turn is a euphemism for a whore, if the word 'prostitute' as leaves. In that capacity, she is often depicted in legend and art, really wrong, because it belongs to an interpretation of one's leg out 6th-century pope.
Mary Magdalene is not only sinful, but penitent. At the end of her life she sees the light and wants to atone for her sins. In that pleading, penitent way as from the Renaissance sculptures and paintings painted by Titian, which include two canvases devoted to. Our preference is for tthe version in the Pitti Palace in Florence [image] is particularly striking, a plump Magdalene ecstatic fainted her eyes to heaven returns in a Venus pudica-pose yet expansive view gives on her rather small breasts, hair so long that they reach down to her feet and that she tries to cover her entire body. The same hairs that she has Our Lord showed his feet after she has anointed them.
But the beautiful Magdalene is a sculpture from later time, by Antonio Canova (1757-1822) [picture]. It shows a kneeling Magdalen, her buttocks on her feet, her arms outstretched, palms of hands resting on her knees. Her head is bent forward, humble and docile. But also: the right upper half of her dress dunnige is pushed down, causing a chest is half visible. The skull at her side is a reference to the vanitas. Magdelena is to this day the patron saint of prostitutes and the prototype of the whore-with-the-golden-heart.
In the depiction of Adam and Eve, there is an evolution can be observed. In the Middle Ages the expulsion from the Garden of Eden shown as a narrative sequence of images, in the Renaissance remains the only shame scene: frivolous and morbid at the same time shown in a print by Jost Amman (1539-1591) [picture].
Original text
De naam Sodom heeft geleid tot de term ‘sodomie’, een uitdrukking voor tegennatuurlijke en dus zondige, verboden seksuele contacten, die het vaakst gebruikt wordt om homoseksualiteit aan te duiden, zoals in sodomiet en sodomiseren. In Nederland zijn de woorden ‘opsodemieteren’ en ‘besodemieteren’ nog steeds in gebruik.
En dan heb je het verhaal van Jozef en de vrouw van Potifar. Je zal maar valselijk van verkrachting beschuldigd worden. Het overkomt Jozef: de niet nader genoemde vrouw van Potifar probeert hem te verleiden, maar als dat mislukt, wordt ze woedend en beschuldigt hem ervan haar te hebben verkracht. Als bewijs geeft ze een stuk uit de kleding van Jozef. Die wordt hierop gearresteerd, gaat voor tien jaar de cel in en wordt dan alsnog vrijgesproken. Potifars vrouw van de Italiaan Tintoretto brengt dit mooi in beeld. [beeld]]
Al in de oudste Bijbelse tradities wordt Maria Magdalena gelijkgesteld aan de ‘boetvaardige zondares’. Wat is precies haar zonde? Niemand weet er het fijne van. ‘Zondares’ moet hier gelezen worden als ‘gevallen vrouw’ of ‘vrouw van lichte zeden’, wat dan weer een eufemisme is voor een hoer, als men het woord ‘prostituee’ even overslaat. In die hoedanigheid is zij vaak voorgesteld in legendes en kunstwerken, eigenlijk ten onrechte, want het behoort tot een interpretatie van een op het verkeerde been gezette 6de eeuwse paus.
Maria Magdalena is niet alleen zondig, maar ook boetvaardig. Op het einde van haar leven ziet ze het licht en wil ze boeten voor haar zonden. Op die smekende, boetvaardige manier wordt zij vanaf de renaissance in beeldhouwwerken en schilderijen vereeuwigd door onder andere Titiaan die er twee doeken aan wijdt. Onze voorkeur gaat uit naar dDe versie in het Palazzo Pitti in Firenze [beeld] is bijzonder treffend, een mollige Magdalena die extatisch bezwijmd haar ogen ten hemel keert, in een Venus pudica-pose die toch ruim zicht geeft op haar eerder kleine borsten, met haren die zo lang zijn dat ze tot aan haar voeten reiken en waarmee ze probeert haar hele lichaam te bedekken. Diezelfde haren waarmee ze Onze Heer zijn voeten heeft afgedroogd nadat ze ze gezalfd heeft.
Maar de mooiste Magdalena is een beeldhouwwerk uit latere tijd, van Antonio Canova (1757-1822) [beeld]. Het toont een knielende Magdalena, haar billen op haar voeten, haar armen gestrekt, opgeheven handpalmen rustend op haar knieën. Haar hoofd is deemoedig en dociel naar voren gebogen. Maar ook: de rechterbovenhelft van haar dunnige kleedje is naar beneden geschoven, waardoor één borst half zichtbaar wordt. De schedel aan haar zij is een verwijzing naar de vanitas. Magdelena is tot op de dag van vandaag de patroonheilige van de prostituees en het typevoorbeeld van de hoer-met-het-gouden-hart.
In de uitbeelding van Adam en Eva is er ook een evolutie waar te nemen. Wordt in de middeleeuwen de verdrijving uit de Tuin van Eden getoond als een verhalende sequentie van beelden, in de renaissance blijft alleen de schaamtescène over: frivool en tegelijkertijd morbide afgebeeld in een prent door Jost Amman (1539-1591) [beeld].
