Sexual and Gender Entities
04 september 2005
Ganymede
Ganymede riding the Eagle (1540–1550)
Bronze by Niccolo Tribolo (1500-1550)
Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence.
A term for the youthful lover of an older man derived from the Latin name Catamus, a latinized form of the Greek "Ganymede." In Greek mythology, Ganymede, a mortal shepherd boy so beautiful that the god Zeus spirited him away to Olympus, served as the god's cupbearer and lover. In 17th and 18th Century France and England, "Ganymede" came to be used for the boyish lovers of older men, and eventually for any male willing to be penetrated during anal intercourse.
In 17th Century England, men who buggered Ganymedes were not stigmatized as effeminate, but an adultman who played the Ganymede was despised as weak and womanly, even in the most libertine society.
In France, "pederast" replaced the words Ganymede and sodomite during the 18th Century, while in England the word fell into disuse when all sex between males came to signify whorish effeminacy, no matter who was on top.
Posted by willy at 12:44 pm to 82 - the Catamite | Sexual and Gender Entities | Comments (0)
MainSexual and Gender Entities
Mme. Moitessier
Madame Moitessier 1856
Oil on canvas, 120 x 92 cm
National Gallery, London
Signed and dated: J. Jngres 1856 / AET LXXVI. Inscribed: Me, INÈS MOITESSIER / NÉE DE FOUCAULD
Marie-Clotilde-Inès de Foucauld was born in 1821 and married Sigisbert Moitessier, a wealthy banker, in 1842. The portrait is influenced by the art of antiquity and the Renaissance. The pose, with the hand touching the cheek, is derived from an ancient Roman fresco of a goddess, from Herculaneum. This may suggest that for Ingres Madam Moitessier represented the ideal of classical beauty.
When first asked by Moitessier in 1844 to paint his wife, Ingres refused. On meeting her he was struck by her beauty and agreed. The picture was left unfinished and after seven years the sitter complained. In 1851, Ingres painted a standing portrait (National Gallery of Art, Washington) before returning to the seated portrait which he finally completed in 1856. The original intention had been to include the sitter's daughter Catherine, but she had grown up by the time Ingres came to complete the portrait.
Posted by willy at 12:20 pm to 68 - the Wife | Sexual and Gender Entities | Comments (0)
MainSexual and Gender Entities
30 januari 2005
Jean Fouquet - Madonna and Child
Jean Fouquet - Madonna and Child (ca. 1450) Tempera on wood, 93 x 85 cm, right panel of the diptych of Melun, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp, Belgium
The left panel of the diptych de Melun depicted Etienne Chavalier Presented by St. Stephen. It founds its way to the Gemaldegalerie, Berlin in Germany.
Estienne Chevalier, who came from Melun, was French Ambassador to England in 1445 and six years later became Treasurer to Charles VII of France. He presented the diptych to his native town; on the left panel he had himself painted next to his patron saint, Stephen.
According to a description of the paintings by Denis Godefroy in 1661, the original frames were covered in blue velvet. Round each picture were strands of gold and silver thread, in which the donor's initials were woven in pearls. There were also gilded medallions on which stories of the saints were represented.
Tradition has it - and there is considerable supporting evidence - that the Madonna's features are those of Agnes Sorel, the beautiful and influential mistress of Charles VII.
Known portraits of her certainly do not conflict with this hypothesis. Her relationship with Estienne Chevalier was not entirely political, and an eighteenth-century inscription on the back of the Antwerp panel tells us that the diptych of Melun was endowed by Estienne following a vow he made on her death in 1450. The diptych stayed in the chancel of the Church of Notre-Dame at Melun, south of Paris, from 1461 until about 1775, when the two halves became separated. The two parts, having been separated, were never reunited except for a short time at Paris during the Exposition of the French "Primitives" in 1904.
Posted by willy at 03:01 pm to 73 - the Mistress | Sexual and Gender Entities | Comments (0)