Our exploration into bizarre artworks will continue with a portrait of two men. Right? Try again! The Bearded Woman of Abruzzi is the person in the front. Most people today view gender as a fluid term. Even though we might believe this is a novel concept, Jusepe de Ribera's painting might show us otherwise. Magdalena, our lady, wasn't a big lover of the ideal beauty of the Renaissance. She, therefore, went against those norms and established her own. Interestingly, this gave her a lot of notoriety. She captivated the Viceroy of Naples, who hired Ribera to paint a portrait of her.
Although her breast seems a little out of place, Ribera purposefully portrayed her nursing her son to demonstrate that she is anatomically a woman. Her skeletal build, goatee, and facial characteristics contrast the womanly task with a macho image. Ironically, even her beautifully hued clothes suggest a male physique as though recalling a picture of a Biblical prophet. Behind her, in the shadows, Magdalena's husband can be seen looking more older and weaker. Their posture and physical characteristics suggest that Magdalena's notoriety eclipses her husband's, upending the traditional marital equilibrium.
With such an odd picture, it's impossible to avoid giving it a second look. For many years, academics thought this artwork and its companion, Old Man, were satirical allegories. The woman in front of us is clothed in the garb of an old temptress. She is holding a rosebud, which has sexual overtones, in her right hand. Her low-cut bodice furthers Massys' allusion to the temptations of the flesh by revealing her wrinkly chest.
Her heart-shaped headgear, which curiously resembles demonic horns, is another hint. In terms of attire, the artist chose to show her wearing an elaborate dress and jewellery that are typical of the upper class. But by the time she was painted, the outfits had been out of fashion for about a century. Overall, it appears that this pair of strikingly similar paintings makes fun of the ugly and aged for their reckless youth.
Science has taught us that this isn't the complete story. According to a recent investigation of the picture, the woman truly had advanced Paget's illness, which causes bony deformities. Her unusually arched nostrils, pushed-up nose, elongated upper lip, expanded collar bones, and enlarged forehead are examples of this.
Before we continue, another amusing fact worth mentioning is that Quentin Massys and none other than Leonardo da Vinci both had a fascination with the grotesque and bizarre. Leonardo frequently produced grotesque head sketches, which he probably traded with Massys. Due to similarities to two of Leonardo's works, it was originally thought that The Ugly Duchess was a lost work by the artist. But it's most likely that Massys sent Leonardo a copy of this portrait, which his students then duplicated and altered.
Gods and goddesses are frequently portrayed as being the pinnacle of beauty, even in their most unfavourable circumstances. Introducing Francisco Goya! With this interpretation of Saturn, he departed with convention. Before we get started, let's look at the background of this particular painting. The tale claims that the titan Saturn was foretold through a prophecy that one of his sons would replace him and take control. Saturn was not a fan of the concept. He wanted to preserve his power because he liked it. So one of Saturn's sons was eaten. Good parenting decision, no? Saturn was unaware that his wife, Rei, had kept her youngest son, Zeus, a secret. Zeus ultimately succeeded in subduing the titans.
Goya probably painted this mural and others on the walls of his house, the Quinta del Sordo, during the period he was thinking about the effects of power on people. Ironically, the walls of the dining room were painted with this one. Here, Goya has produced a startlingly ominous image that illustrates the impact of our behaviour—here represented as daddy's snack time—on what is essentially the ego. He has portrayed Saturn as a goblin-like creature, something most would consider sub-human as if to imply that power also impacts our looks. While Saturn appears towering, his limbs appear somewhat weak and damaged. Saturn does not appear to be strong or god-like at all. His anxious eyes and dishevelled demeanour reveal his desperate attempt to preserve his last vestiges of honour in contrast to the cruel act of eating one's offspring. The moral of the story is: don't eat your kids and don't be power-hungry.
I'm not sure what better captures the particular nuances that make art so peculiar than this most recent painting. Even if we know that some work is just odd and bizarre, we must take it at face value. But understanding ancient visual languages can give many works of art an extra oddity.
Kabir Jhala | 16:57 PM
Sat, 08 Oct, 2022
London, United Kingdom
Artpendix Press
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