A lesson of Doctor Charcot at the Salpetriere

Une Leçon du Docteur Charcot à la Salpêtrière

“Une Leçon du Docteur Charcot à la Salpêtrière” is the title of a painting by Pierre Aristide André Brouillet (1857-1914). It depicts a lesson of Doctor Charcot, at the Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris, France, and was first shown at the Paris salon of 1888′

The painting is a rather large work, painted in bright, highly contrasting colors, measuring 430 cm x 290 cm. Today it hangs, unframed, in a corridor of the Descartes University in Paris, near the entrance of the Museum of the History of Medicine, which houses one of the oldest collections of surgical, diagnostic, and physiological instrumentation in Europe.

To the left of Charcot is the patient Blanche Wittmann, one of the star hysterical patients and hypnotic subjects at the Salpêtrière. She resided at the hospital for 17 years, from 1878 to 1895.

Jean-Martin Charcot

Jean-Martin Charcot

Jean-Martin Charcot had been among the first to treat hysteria as a knowable neurological disorder, despite its vague symptoms that seemed to have no discernible physiological source.

He was born in Paris on November 29, 1825, to Simon-Pierre Charcot, a 27 year-old carriage builder and artisan. The young Charcot first came to the Salpêtrière in 1849 as a medical student. He returned in 1862 in the position of hospital “medecin en chef” and remained there until his death in 1893.

While most medical practitioners saw the Salpêtrière as a place to be avoided, a “Versailles of misery” rather than a site of scientific innovation, Charcot saw its large and diverse patient population as providing an excellent opportunity for the comparative study of disease. It was nothing less, he declared, than an immense “living pathological museum”.

Each week at the Salpêtrière, Charcot presented for study his ailing patients, who these days were most often hysterical women. He discussed their symptoms – for example irrational ramblings and convulsive spasms – before a rapt and eclectic audience of curious scientists, skeptical journalists, and chic socialites.

Charcot considered hysteria a physical ailment. He believed that hysterical symptoms were caused by an unknown internal injury affecting the nervous system. Until Freud hysteria was considered an exclusively female disease.

01A6AYP5; PHOTOGRAPHING THE PATIENT At La Salpetriere hospital, Paris, doctors working with Charcot obtain photographic documentation of hysteria patients in various states. Engraving by L Poyet in ‘La Nature’ 1 September 1883 page 216

Hysteria

Hysteria is derived from the Greek hystera, meaning “uterus,” and reflects the ancient notion that hysteria was a specifically female disorder resulting from disturbances in uterine functions.

Hippocrates (5th century BC) is the first to use the term hysteria. Indeed he also believes that the cause of this disease lies in the movement of the uterus (“hysteron”). The Greek physician provides a good description of hysteria, which is clearly distinguished from epilepsy. He emphasizes the difference between the compulsive movements of epilepsy, caused by a disorder of the brain, and those of hysteria due to the abnormal movements of the uterus in the body.  

A hysterical female patient at the Salpêtrière sticking out her tongue in a supposedly automatic response to the tuning fork used by the physician. Source: Paul Richer, Nouvelle iconographie de la Salpêtrière (Paris, 1889), plate 34.

While hysteria is no longer recognized and started to “fall out of fashion” in the 20th century, this was actually a long and unsteady process.

The first Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-I) of the American Psychiatric Association (APA) — published in 1952 — did not list hysteria as a mental health condition.

Yet it reappeared in the DSM-II in 1968, before the APA dropped it again in the DSM-III, in 1980.

Time and again, researchers of medical history point to evidence that hysteria was little more than a way to describe and pathologize “everything that men found mysterious or unmanageable in women.”

Today the term is no longer used in a formal way. It has been replaced by “conversion disorder”, a type of mental disorder in which a wide variety of sensory, motor, or psychic disturbances may occur. It is traditionally classified as one of the psychoneuroses and is not dependent upon any known organic or structural pathology. 

In simple words, conversion disorder is when a person experiences temporary physical symptoms, such as blindness or paralysis, that do not have a physical cause. (6)

Salpêtrière Hospital, Paris. c. 1881.

The Salpêtrière

The hospital was founded by the royal government in 1656 under the guidance of Cardinal Mazarin. It is located in the 13th arrondissement of Paris, on ground called “Le petit Arsenal”, the site of a gun factory – Salpetre of course means saltpeter, used for manufacturing gunpowder. A variety of sources for the 17th and 18th centuries cite between six and eight thousand inmates, making it the largest hospital in Paris and perhaps in all of Europe.

Part asylum, part prison, part old people’s home, this remarkable hybrid institution housed for over two centuries every imaginable form of social and medical “misfit” from the lowliest sectors of Parisian life.

The first resident doctor appeared in the Salpêtrière in the early 1780s, over 130 years after the institution had been in operation.

During Philippe Pinel’s long tenure at the hospital from 1795 to 1826, a string of reforms was begun including the prohibition of physical violence against patients, the termination of all bloodletting practices, the keeping of extensive case histories, and the making of daily clinical rounds.

By the close of the 19th century, the general asylum of Pinel’s day to which medical students had dreaded being assigned, had been transformed into a temple of science and an internationally renowned educational center.

The more salient features of the Salpêtrière as it evolved in the 19th century are the following:

  1. the application of Pinel’s psychiatric humanism
  2. the establishment of scientific and teaching facilities
  3. the declericalization of staff
  4. the differentiation of the patient population

The largest number of people at the hospital at the turn of the century were the elderly and convalescent women who ranged in number from 2,500 to 2,850and resided in some 32 multi-storied dormitories. To this figure must be added between 720 and 800 psychiatric patients.

Patients with progressive organic diseases of the brain or acute mental illness stayed at the Salpêtrière until death or transfer to another asylum.

In 1886, the hospital included a total of 45 major buildings and approximately 60 smaller ones, of all sorts, standing on 310,000 square meters.

A budgetary report for the institution in 1894 records for that year the cleaning of 273 chimneys, 1,641 gaslights, and 4,629 windows. The complex grew by adapting as medical structures a wide variety of buildings, originally intended as prisons, hospices, barracks, clerical quarters, etc.

By the end of the first world war, the hospital had pretty much emerged in the form it retains today of a general health care center specializing in geriatrics and neurology.

The Salpêtrière of today is very different from that of a century ago. The buildings and amphitheater of the Charcot Clinic have been torn down, and a single row of dilapidated cabins is the only remnant of the old psychiatric quarter.

On the 31st August 1997, Princess Diana died in the hospital after her car crashed in the Pont de l’Alma tunnel in Paris. The BBC reported:

The Princess was taken from the wreckage and rushed to the Pitie-Salpetriere Hospital in south-east Paris. First medical reports indicated that she was suffering from concussion, a broken arm and cuts to her thighs. It later emerged that the Princess had suffered massive chest injuries.At 4.53am it was announced that the Princess had died.
BBC: Princess Diana dies after her car crashes in Paris
Sigmund Freud at the age of 31

Freud in the Salpêtrière

Freud studied at the Salpêtrière from October 1885 to February 1886, using a travel grant he won from the University of Vienna.

In a letter to his fiancé Martha, Freud wrote: “Charcot, who is one of the greatest doctors and whose genius is only limited by his sanity, is quite simply in the process of demolishing my ideas and my plans. I leave his course as if I was leaving Notre-Dame, full of new ideas about perfection.”

It must be noted though that once Freud returned from Paris to Vienna he embarked on his own process of discovery that led him to psychoanalysis.

Charcot held that hysteria, along with the vast majority of neurological and mental diseases and many other chronic diseases, was essentially the result of familial inheritance.

While Freud had initially accepted the notion of “la famille neuropathique” and while he never abandoned a role for heredity in the etiology of the neuroses, by 1892 he was beginning to consider acquired factors, and in particular, disorders in sexuality as the crucial and necessary cause.

Freud believed that hysteria was a result not of a physical injury in the body, but of a ‘psychological scar produced through trauma or repression’. Specifically, this psychological damage was a result of removing male sexuality from females, an idea that stems from Freud’s famous ‘Oedipal moment of recognition’ in which a young female realizes she has no penis, and has been castrated.

Doctor Jean-Martin Charcot

Charcot presented a signed copy of this photograph to Sigmund Freud upon his departure from Paris. The two men never met again after 1886.

Reproductions of the painting

In the nineteenth century, a considerable number of different versions of the original painting were produced.

Lithograph by Eugène Pirodon (1824-1908) 

Freud had a small (38.5 cm x 54 cm) lithographic version of the painting, created by Eugène Pirodon (1824-1908), framed and hung on the wall of his Vienna rooms from 1889 to 1938.

Freud’s couch on London

Sources

  1. FREUD’S LITHOGRAPH OF CHARCOT: A HISTORICAL NOTE, Wesley G. Morgan, Bulletin of the History of Medicine
    Vol. 63, No. 2 (SUMMER 1989), pp. 268-272
  2. The Salpetriere in the Age of Charcot: An Institutional Perspective on Medical History in the Late Nineteenth Century, Mark S. Micale, Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 20, No. 4, Medicine, History and Society (Oct., 1985), pp. 703-731
  3. Freud in Paris, Kate Cambor; New England Review (1990-) Vol. 30, No. 2 (2009), pp. 177-189 (13 pages)
  4. The History of Hysteria, Ada McVean B.Sc. 31 Jul 2017
  5. The controversy of ‘female hysteria’; Written by Maria Cohut Ph.D. on October 13, 2020; Medical News Today
  6. Conversion disorder: What you need to know; Written by Bethany Cadman on January 11, 2018; Medical News Today

There was once a hot air balloon named “Argo”

It all began in a stormy summer night. The year was 1856. One hunderd years after the birth of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Ducks_in_the_Rain_1918_Frank_Weston_Benson
Ducks in the Rain, 1918, Frank Weston Benson

Salome Wheatblower had just escaped from her family’s summer Estate in Massachusetts, when she experienced the heavy showers of the storm by the lake nearby.

Isolde MacKenna, a close friend of the author of this totally unstructured report, had experienced a similar storm with white ducks in a lake some days ago in the year 2020.

It is quite obvious that I invented Salome in order to be able to talk about Isolde, who is of Irish decent and also has French Canadian blood in her.

Benson24
This woman could be Salome Wheatblower

Having weathered the storm, Salome was enjoying a retrospective vision of the ducks in the storm in the stormy date of her escape which was the result of her urge to join her best friend, Charlotte of Belgium (7 June 1840 – 19 January 1927, a Belgian princess who became Empress of Mexico), who was going to board a hot air balloon named “Argo”.

May I remind the reader that Jean-Pierre [François] Blanchard (4 July 1753 – 7 March 1809) was the French pioneer who conducted the first balloon flight in the Americas in January 1793. On 20 February 1808 Blanchard had a heart attack while in his balloon at the Hague. He fell from his balloon and died roughly a year later (7 March 1809) from his severe injuries.

Blessed are the ones who leave this world whilst enjoying their passion. This is my saying, and I challenge the reader to prove me wrong.

argo_baloon

I invented Charlotte because I wanted to bring Argo into the picture, as well as one of my absolute favorite poets, Andreas Empeirikos. So, in effect, the Argo of Empeirikos happened before the Argo of Salome, eventhough in physical time 1856 precedes 1944.

“Argo” is the hot air balloon that became the topic of a novella by the Greek poet Andreas Empeirikos (1901 – 1975) some years later. The circumstances of the epiphany that led Empeirikos to write this novella are not known. But he loved ships and “Argo” was originally a ship that travelled far, and is the symbol of boundless, adventurous travel.

We know that the novella was completed in 1944, but was not published until 1965. Due to the very strict morals of the time, the poet had to remove some of the “hottest” words, using spaces. It was an erotic novella.

verne_5_weeks_balloon
Jules Verne, Five weeks in a balloon, 1862

Empeirikos was influenced by ine of his favorite authors, Jules Verne, who in 1862 had written the novel “Five weeks in a balloon”,  about three Englishmen exploring Africa with the help of a hydrogen filled balloon.

However, in “Argo” Empeirikos describes the sexual adventures of Charlotte, the daughter of university professor in Bogota, Colombia. There are no Englishmen on board. My Charlotte comes from Belgium, Empeirikos’ Charlotte comes from Columbia.

Below the explicit sexual layer of many of his works though, Empeirikos worked on another theme. That “eros” happens when we love without any specific reason.

matsi
Matsi Hadjilazarou

Empeirikos had one great love in his life (may be more, but one for sure), the poet Matsi Hadjilazarou, who believed that in the heart of a woman in love there is a deeply rooted and inexplicable need to suffer.

Andreas and Matsi stayed together from 1940 to 1944.

Argo is about letting yourself enjoy eros, starting from the sexual level.

Eros is liberating, eros gave Salome and Charlotte the ability to see the world as boundless.

It is this excilarating sense of freedom that one feels when in love, floating and flying (“The fear of flying” by Erica Jong).

Welcome Isadora Zelda White Stollerman Wing, would you like to board “Argo”.

And, if having sex on the groung is nice, having sex on a ship is better, and having sex on a hot air baloon is even better.

Argo is ultimately a sex vessel, but it can become more. All you need to do, dear reader, is to explote the avenues that Argo can lead you to.

 

 

The Kitchen Maid in European painting: 17th – 18th century

Introduction

When I visited the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, I saw Chardin’s “The Kitchen Maid”. This painting became the trigger for this post. I have written in the past about Chardin’s food and kitchen paintings.
Today’s theme belongs to “genre painting”, which depicted scenes from everyday life, both high and low. The artist Samuel von Hoogstraten in his “Introduction to the elevated school of painting” (1678) defines three “grades” of painting: still ife painting at the lowest level, history  painting at the highest, and genre painting occupying the middle ground. The term “genre” painting itself was not used until the end of the 18th century by the French writer Quatremere de Quincy (Genre Painting in Northern Europe, Jennifer Meagher Department of European Paintings, The Metropolitan Museum of Art).
The period covered in the post ends at the beginning of the industrial revolution which changed the real and painted world.

Anthony Oberman – Kitchen Maid, detail

The Kitchen Maid in the Household

The kitchen maid was a domestic servant at the bottom of the social structure. As an example of social pre-industrial structure, in the 17th century the English society had four layers, descending from nobility and upper gentry down through the professional and merchant classes, the yeomanry and finally to the common people (labourers, husbandmen, artificers and servants) (quoted in Jane Holmes, Domestic Service in Yprkshire, 1650 – 1780. Ph. D. Thesis, University of York, 1989.).
In the hierarchy of domestic servants, the kitchen maid was an under cook. In the countryhousereader I found the following descriptions of the relevant jobs in England.
Kitchen maid/Cook maid. Often very skilled women or with the ambition to be so, they were part of the team of females overseeing everything in the kitchen department from cleanliness and efficiency to food preparation as well as answering to the demands of the dining table on a daily basis. (Wage: 18thcentury – £4; 19th century – £14; 20th century – £25)
 Dairy maid. The 18th century image of a buxom maiden flirting with stable boys or the tenant farmer’s son added to the romance of the dairy maid and her rural freedoms. In reality she stood to support the network of employees connected with country house self-sufficiency. A woman in this job knew how to churn butter, to recognise the perfect creams for eating and how best to use the milky by-products for a variety of ingredients in the kitchen. This role became less crucial to the country house structure by the 20th century due to the impact of large-scale dairy farming and the ease at which produce could be bought from the open market. (Wage: 18th century – £5; 19th century £12; 20th century – £15)

Scullery maid. A country house maid-of-all-work whose routine revolved around supporting the kitchen maids with fetching and carrying, scrubbing, washing and scouring pots, pans and the kitchen generally! Her duties consisted of whatever the other staff (mainly the kitchen maids) thought fit within that department. (Wage: 18th century – £2 10s; 19th century £6; 20th century – £12)

 Painting the Kitchen Maid – Themes

The post is structured along four themes:
  • Scenes with religious backgrounds
  • The kitchen scene
  • The beautiful maid
  • The solitary figure
 The use of a religious story in the background of a kitchen scene gos back to the 16th century.
Starting with a picture painted by Joachim Bueckelaer in the middle of the 16th century, I continue with an engraving by Jacob Matham which clearly features the kitchen maid / kitchen scene theme with a biblical scene in the background. The theme concludes with the three paintings by Velazquez that have a kitchen scene with a kitchen maid as their subject.
In the second section I present a kitchen scene painted by a Dutch painter and in the third two paintings that focus on the aesthetic, sensual, and sexual aspects of the subject

Finally, in the fourth section I present the maid painted as a solitary figure.

Scenes with religious backgrounds

“God is to be found amid pots.”

St. Teresa of Avila

(Read more: http://globalnation.inquirer.net/1301/the-god-of-small-things#ixzz4zYJ6yMUL
Follow us: @inquirerdotnet on Twitter | inquirerdotnet on Facebook)

Most common scenes from the New Testament is Jesus’ visit to the house of Martha and Mary, and the Supper at Emmaus.

Martha and Mary were the sisters of Lazarus, who was resurrected by Jesus. One day Jesus visits the house of the two sisters. Martha gets on with the preparation of a meal for the visitor, while Mary listens to Jesus talking and does nothing.  At some point Martha complains to Jesus that she has no help, and asks him to tell Mary to give her a hand. Jesus vindicates Mary in his response.

Martha is seen as the representative of “vita activa”, whereas Mary represents “vita contemplativa”.

Jesus’ visit highlights the conflict between Catholics and Protestants. Catholics believe that salvation is the result of good works, whereas Protestants view it as a matter of faith.

In any case, Martha is the “kitchen maid”, and the kitchen maid is “Martha”.

Joachim Bueckelaer 1569

Kitchen scene, with Jesus in the House of Martha and Mary in the background

Joachim Bueckelaer – Kitchen Piece, with Jesus in the House of Martha and Mary in the background

oil on canvas, 110 × 140.5 cm (43.3 × 55.3 in)

Rijksmuseum,Amsterdam, Holland

Jacob Matham, 1603

Kitchen_Scene_with_Kitchen_Maid_Preparing_Fish

Jacob Matham (Netherlandish, Haarlem 1571–1631 Haarlem)

Kitchen Scene with Kitchen Maid Preparing Fish, Christ at Emmaus in the Background, from Kitchen and Market Scenes with Biblical Scenes in the Background, 1603.

Engraving, sheet: 9 1/2 x 12 5/8 in. (24.2 x 32 cm)

Metropolitan Museum of New York.

Velazquez, 1618

Diego Velazquez, Christ in the House of Mary and Martha

Diego Velazquez,

Christ in the House of Mary and Martha

oil on canvas, 60 × 103.5 cm (23.6 × 40.7 in)

National Gallery of Art, London, England

The young maid in the foreground is obviously upset, almost crying, while she toils to prepare aioli to serve with the fish. The older woman next to her seems to be pointing to the picture in the background, where Jesus is preaching to both sisters.

Velazquez, 1617/18

Kitchen Maid with the Supper at Emmaus by Diego Velázquez

Kitchen Maid with the Supper at Emmaus by Diego Velázquez

Oil on canvas, 55 x 118 cm

National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin

“This painting is widely considered to be Velázquez’s earliest known work. The artist painted Christ appearing to his disciples at Emmaus in the left background. In the foreground he depicted a Moorish servant working in the kitchen. The inversion of the religious and the worldly subjects was inspired by Flemish painters, including Pieter Aertsen.”

There is an additional element in this picture compared to the previous one. The maid may be a slave. Some analysts claim that by including a Moorish maid whi apprently is a slave in this picture, Velazquez wanted to make a statement against slavery.

Velazquez, 1618/20

Diego Velazquez-La Cucinera, Art Institute of Chicago

Diego Velazquez

La Cucinera, La mulata, The Kitchen Maid

Oil on canvas, 21 7/8 x 41 1/8 in. (55.9 x 104.2 cm)

Art Institute of Chicago

Unlike its sister painting in Dublin, this one does not have the Emmaus Supper scene in the background. Velazquez erased the biblical scene in a move to “disengage” the topic from the biblical story and emphasize its contemporariness.

The kitchen scene

“Young men from the farm flirting with maids in kitchens or in the marketplace is a theme that descends from Pieter Aertsen (1507/8-1575) and his Antwerp pupil Joachim Beuckelaer to a fair number of Dutch and Flemish painters. The earlier works in this tradition convey religious and ethical ideas while entertaining the viewer with scenes of human comedy and abundant displays of naturalistic representation. Dutch authors such as Erasmus (1466?–1536) and Dirck Volkertsz Coornhert (1522–1590) compared food and sex as sensual pleasures and also condemned professions such as cookery, butchery, and fishmongering as serving the baser appetites.” (Kitchen Scene)

Peter Wtewael, 1620s

Working Title/Artist: Kitchen Scene Working Date: 1620s
photography by mma, Digital File DP146469.tif
retouched by film and media (jnc) 10_11_12

Peter Wtewael, Kitchen Scene, oil on canvas, 44 3/4 x 63 in. (113.7 x 160 cm)

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York, USA

Peter was the son of Joachim Wtewael. The painting was originally attributed to Jan Steen, and then to Joachim Wtewael.

‘In The Met’s picture, the kitchen maid’s skewering of a chicken, the young man’s offer of a bird (a duck, in this case), and his handling of an open jug with an extended middle finger are clear allusions to sexual intercourse. “Hunting the hare” was a euphemism for lovemaking, but here the dead hares probably stand for fertility, as does the basket of eggs (which were also considered an aphrodisiac). The various meats (vlees, or flesh) refer to carnal desire, and draw a parallel between gluttony and lust. The hanging cock and almost any form that appears phallic (especially the pestle in a mortar) amplify the humor, and also demonstrate the artist’s powers of invention and description.’ (Kitchen Scene)

The beautiful maid

The kitchen maid has been presented in a multitude of sexual contexts. Given the conditions of her employment, a kitchen maid did not have a solid ground on which to protect herself from unwanted gestures of the male members of the family and the guests. In a miraculous way, the sweaty, smelly young woman was transfromed into a sex object as if she had come out of her luxurious toilet. Totally hypocritical, totally unacceptable, but these were the times.

Sir Nathaniel Bacon,c. 1620 – 1625

Cookmaid with Still Life of Vegetables and Fruit c.1620-5 Sir Nathaniel Bacon 1585-1627 Purchased with assistance from the Art Fund 1995 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/work/T06995

Cookmaid with Still Life of Vegetables and Fruit c.1620-5 Sir Nathaniel Bacon 1585-1627

1510 x 2475 mm

Purchased with assistance from the Art Fund 1995 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/work/T0699

Tate Gallery, London, England

“Bacon, according to a letter dated 19 June [1626], was growing melons at his estate in East Anglia, and he was known to have a keen interest in horticulture. The subject would most likely have had erotic connotations. The abundance of ripe melons surrounding the cookmaid echo her voluptuous cleavage.”

Boucher, 1735

boucher_la_belle_cuisiniere

François Boucher (1703-1770)

La Belle cuisinière (The Beautiful Kitchen Maid)

Before 1735
Oil on wood / H. 55,5 cm L. 43,2 cm

Musee Cognacq-Jay, Paris, France.

The solitary figure

The artiifciality of the maid as a sex object is relinquished in the paintings where the maid is painted as a solitayr figure.

Anonymous, between 1631 and 1677

Anonymous, The Kitchen Maid, 31cm by 24 cm

Rijksmuseum,Amsterdam, Holland

This maid is a real person, there is no cleavage, no flirting with anyone, she just carries on with her job.

Vermeer, c. 1660

Johannes Vermeer, The Milk Maid (or The Kitchen Maid) oil on canvas, h 45.5 cm × w 41 cm

Johannes Vermeer, The Milk Maid (or The Kitchen Maid) oil on canvas, h 45.5 cm × w 41 cm

Rijksmuseum,Amsterdam, Holland

“…his “milkmaid” exudes a very earthy appeal, with her pushed-up sleeves (revealing pale skin normally covered), her ample form (similar to that of women in slightly earlier works by Rubens), and her faint smile. The box on the floor is a foot warmer with a pot of coals inside; foot warmers frequently suggest feminine desire in Dutch genre paintings  (because they would heat not only feet but everything under a woman’s long skirt). “

(Source:  Johannes Vermeer (1632–1675) and The Milkmaid, Walter Liedtke Department of European Paintings, The Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Chardin, 1738

Jean Siméon Chardin (French, 1699 – 1779 ), The Kitchen Maid, 1738, oil on canvas, Samuel H. Kress Collection 1952.5.38, National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Jean Siméon Chardin (French, 1699 – 1779 ), The Kitchen Maid, 1738,

oil on canvas, Samuel H. Kress Collection 1952.5.38,

National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, USA

Chardin in this picture is the king of understatement. The picture is stripped to the bare minimum of elements needed to illustrate the subject. Not even a line is superfluous. The maid is staring at empty space. Time has stopped.

Chardin, 1738

Jean-Siméon Chardin (French, 1699 – 1779 ), The Scullery Maid, c. 1738, oil on canvas, Corcoran Collection (William A. Clark Collection; Frame: Gift of the Women’s Committee of the Corcoran Gallery of Art) 2014.79.708

Chardin, The Scullery Maid, oil on canvas, 47 × 38.1 cm (18 1/2 × 15 in.)

National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, USA

The shiny pots tell us how well the mid is doing her job. She is looking away from the barrel, at something we cannot see. She is in the picture with her body, but outside the picture with her mind.

Chardin, 1739

CHARDIN, Jean-Baptiste-Siméon, Servant Returning from Market, 1739

CHARDIN, Jean-Baptiste-Siméon, Servant Returning from Market, 1739

Louvre, Paris, France

There is nothing like the abundance of the Dutch kitchen scenes in Chardin. Only the bread is clearly visible.

The maid has an enigmatic smile and looks away. As noticed in previous pictures, she is at the smae time inside the picture and out of it.

after Gerrit Dou, 1754

The Flemish kitchenmaid; a young girl seated in a kitchen and peeling carrots, surrounded by tubs and kitchen utensils, carrots and fish in foreground; after Gerrit Dou Etching and engraving

The Flemish kitchenmaid; a young girl seated in a kitchen and peeling carrots, surrounded by tubs and kitchen utensils, carrots and fish in foreground; after Gerrit Dou

Etching and engraving

British Museum, London

Henry Walton, 1776

Plucking the Turkey exhibited 1776 Henry Walton 1746-1813 Purchased 1912 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/work/N02870

Plucking the Turkey

Plucking the Turkey exhibited 1776 Henry Walton 1746-1813 Purchased 1912 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/work/N02870

Tate Gallery, London, England

“This painting was exhibited in London in 1776, during the early stages of the war with revolutionary America. Walton’s image of a cookmaid plucking a turkey is an example of the kind of lowly subject-matter denigrated by Sir Joshua Reynolds and the new Royal Academy.
 
But it may also make a coded political reference. The turkey was very closely associated with America: Benjamin Franklin even proposed that it should become the symbol of independent America, instead of the eagle. The painting may, therefore, be a pro-British comment on the anticipated fate of the rebellious colonists.”

 

Θυσιάζω αρνάκι άσπρο και παχύ, Μαρία Πενταγιώτισσα

arniexothema.grtselemedes

Executive Summary

Dear non-Greek speaking readers, I am honored to have you visiting my site.

This is to let you know that this post is written in Greek only. It describes an agonizing attempt to sacrifice a white lamb to an unfulfilled love. Similar to the sorry state of the love itself and the unfortunate love stricken author, the sacrifice fails miserably.

The  post is not translated because the whole story is built around cultural references that only a Greek speaking person can decode to an adequate level, and thus appreciate the level of genius that is required in order to write this post. I am a modest person by nature and thus do not want to elaborate this point further.

Εισαγωγή

Το Πάσχα ανάμεσα σε όλα τα άλλα είναι και η θυσία του αμνού. Ο αγνός και αθώος αμνός θυσιάζεται. Πληρώνει με τη ζωή του για κάποιον σκοπό κάποιων άλλων, εκτός από αυτόν.

Η θυσία σαν τελετουργία πάει χιλιετίες πίσω.

Αρχίζοντας από τον Όμηρο, διαβάζουμε στην Ιλιάδα για την εκατόμβη που προσφέρουν ο Οδυσσέας και ο Χρύσης στον Φοίβο Απόλλωνα για να ελεηθεί τους Δαναούς.

Ευκαιρία να δούμε μερικές σχετικές λέξεις στο Ομηρικό κείμενο, με τη βοήθεια του λεξικού Liddell $ Scott, ενώ οι αποδόσεις στα νέα ελληνικά είναι των Ι.Θ. Κακριδή και Ν. Καζαντζάκη.

  • αυερύω, αυέρυσα: έλκω το κεφάλι του θύματος προς τα πίσω, έτσι ώστε να κόψω το λαιμό του. Η απόδοση στα νέα ελληνικά είναι «αναλαιμίζω»
  • σφάζω, έσφαξα: σφαγιάζω τα ζώα που πρέπει να προσφερθούν ως θυσία. Η λέξη δεν έχει αλλάξει, είναι η ίδια στα νέα ελληνικά!
  • δέρω, έδειρα: αφαιρώ το δέρμα. Στη νέα ελληνική, η λέξη είναι γδέρνω.
  • σπλάγχνα: εντόσθια που φυλάσσονταν και τα έτρωγαν οι προσφέροντες την θυσία. Στη νεοελληνική έχουμε τη λέξη «σπλάχνα». Δηλαδή χάσαμε στη διαδρομή των χιλιετιών ένα «γάμμα».
  • οβελός, οβελοίσιν: σούβλα. Στη νεοελληνική χρησιμοποιούμε και την λέξη «οβελίας».

Ομήρου Ιλιάδα, Α’ 440 – 469 (απόδοση Ι.Θ. Κακριδής, Ν. Καζαντζάκης)

Τότε ο Οδυσσέας ό πολυκάτεχος μπρος στο βωμό τη φέρνει

και την παράδωσε στου κύρη της τα χέρια λέγοντας του:

«Χρύση, ο ρηγάρχης Αγαμέμνονας με στέλνει να σου δώσω

πίσω την κόρη, και να σφάξουμε περίσσια αρνιά στο Φοίβο,

να ελεηθεί, αν θελήσει η χάρη του, τους Δαναούς, τι αλήθεια

με πίκρες έχει πολυστέναχτες ποτίσει τους Αργίτες.»

Τούτα μιλώντας του την έδωκε, κι αυτός την κόρη εδέχτη

όλο χαρά᾿ κι εκείνοι γρήγορα τ᾿ αγιάτικα σφαχτάρια

στήσαν αράδα, στον καλόχτιστο βωμό του Φοίβου γύρω.

… (η ευχή του Χρύση)

Είπε, και την ευκή του επάκουσεν ο Απόλλωνας ο Φοίβος·

κι ως ευκηθήκαν και πασπάλισαν μετά τ᾿ αγιοκριθάρια,

αναλαιμίσαν τ᾿ αρνοκάτσικα, τα σφάξανε, τα γδάραν,

χώρισαν τα μεριά, τα τύλιξαν τρογύρα με τη σκέπη,

διπλώνοντας τη, κι από πάνω τους κομμάτια κρέας πιθώσαν.

Σε σκίζες πάνω ο γέρος τα ‘καιγε, και με κρασί φλογάτο

τα περεχούσε, και πεντόσουβλες στο πλάι του οι νιοί κρατούσαν.

Και σύντας τα μεριά αποκάηκαν και γεύτηκαν τα σπλάχνα,

λιανίσαν τ᾿ άλλα και περνώντας τα στις σούβλες να τα ψήνουν

επήραν γνοιαστικά, κι ως ψήθηκαν, τ᾿ αποτραβήξαν όλα.

Κι απ᾿ τις δουλειές αυτές σα σκόλασαν κι ετοίμασαν τις τάβλες,

έτρωγαν, κι είχαν ως εταίριαζε καθείς το μερτικό του.

και σύντας του πιοτού θαράπεψαν και του φαγιού τον πόθο…

murillo

Πάντα υπάρχει ένα άσπρο αρνάκι

Εμπνευσμένος από τους Δαναούς,  αλλά και τον Άγιο Ιωάννη, που απεικονίζεται ως παις με τον αμνό, αποφάσισα να θυσιάσω κι εγώ έναν αμνό.  Ο Κατακουζηνός δεν αναφέρει θυσίες, καθόσον το ποίημα είναι παιδικό. Όπως όμως όλοι γνωρίζουμε, τα αρνάκια μπορεί να πάθουνε πολλά χειρότερα από το να σπάσουν ένα ποδαράκι!

 Αλέξανδρος Κατακουζηνός, «Το αρνάκι»

 Αρνάκι άσπρο και παχύ

της μάνας του καμάρι

εβγήκε εις την εξοχή

και στο χλωρό χορτάρι.

Απ’ τη χαρά του την πολλή

απρόσεκτα πηδούσε

της μάνας του τη συμβουλή

καθόλου δέν ψηφούσε.

«Καθὼς παιδί μου προχωρείς

και σαν ελάφι τρέχης

να κακοπάθης ημπορείς

και πρέπει να προσέχεις».

Χαντάκι βρέθηκε βαθύ

ορμά σαν παλληκάρι

να το πηδήση προσπαθεί

και σπάει το ποδάρι!

maria-pentagiotissa

Μαρία η μοιραία γυναίκα

Ο αμνός θα θυσιασθεί στην ποδιά της Μαρίας της Πενταγιώτισσας. Μπας και σπάσει η γκίνια και ο έρωτας μου παύσει να είναι ανεκπλήρωτος.

«Μαρία Πενταγιώτισσα», Δημώδες Άσμα της Φωκίδας

Στα Σάλωνα σφάζουν αρνιά, Μαρία Πενταγιώτισσα

Αχ, και στο Χρυσό κριάρια, μωρή δασκαλοποόλα

Και στης Μαρίας την ποδιά, Μαρία Πενταγιώτισσα

Αχ, σφάζουνται παλικάρια, παιδιά σαν τα βλαστάρια

Μαρία, πού ‘ν’ τ’ αδέρφια σου; Μαρία Πενταγιώτισσα

Αχ, μωρή δασκαλοποόλα, που ‘σύ τα κάνεις ούλα

solomos

Διονύσιος ο αισιόδοξος

Το Πάσχα είναι η Άνοιξη.  Και είναι ο ξανθός ο Απρίλης που βρίσκεται πίσω από την θυσία του αμνού, αυτός φταίει για όλα, που έστησε χορό με τον έρωτα και μου πήραν τα μυαλά, και θυμήθηκα την Μαρία, και μόνο με μια θυσία θα ηρεμήσω.

Τώρα που το καλοσκέφτηκα, για τη θυσία φταίει και ο Σολωμός και όλοι οι ρομαντικοί ποιητές που με έκαναν τόσο ευαίσθητο και κάθομαι και ασχολούμαι με ανεκπλήρωτους έρωτες. Όχι ότι η Μαρία η Πενταγιώτισσα δεν το αξίζει, χαλάλι της όλα, αλλά η θυσία είναι θυσία.

Όπως έχετε καταλάβει ευρίσκομαι ενώπιον διλήμματος. Να θυσιάσω ή να μη θυσιάσω;

 Διονύσιος Σολωμός, «Ελεύθεροι Πολιορκημένοι»

ΣΧΕΔΙΑΣΜΑ Γ΄, Απόσπασμα 6, Ο ΠΕΙΡΑΣΜΟΣ

Έστησ’ ο Έρωτας χορό με τον ξανθόν Απρίλη,

Κι η φύσις ηύρε την καλή και τη γλυκιά της ώρα,

Και μες στη σκιά που φούντωσε και κλει δροσιές και μόσχους

Ανάκουστος κιλαϊδισμός και λιποθυμισμένος.

Νερά καθάρια και γλυκά, νερά χαριτωμένα,

Χύνονται μες την άβυσσο τη μοσχοβολισμένη,

Και παίρνουνε το μόσχο της, κι αφήνουν τη δροσιά τους,

Κι ούλα στον ήλιο δείχνοντας τα πλούτια της πηγής τους,

Τρέχουν εδώ, τρέχουν εκεί, και κάνουν σαν αηδόνια.

Έξ’ αναβρύζει κι η ζωή σ’ γη, σ’ ουρανό, σε κύμα.

Αλλά στης λίμνης το νερό, π’ ακίνητό ‘ναι κι άσπρο,

Ακίνητ’ όπου κι αν ιδής, και κάτασπρ’ ως τον πάτο,

Με μικρόν ίσκιον άγνωρον έπαιξ’ η πεταλούδα,

Που ‘χ’ ευωδίσει τς ύπνους της μέσα στον άγριο κρίνο.

Αλαφροίσκιωτε καλέ, για πες απόψε τι ‘δες;

Νύχτα γιομάτη θαύματα, νύχτα σπαρμένη μάγια!

Χωρίς ποσώς γης, ουρανός και θάλασσα να πνένε,

Ουδ’ όσο κάν’ η μέλισσα κοντά στο λουλουδάκι,

Γύρου σε κάτι ατάραχο π’ ασπρίζει μες στη λίμνη,

Μονάχο ανακατώθηκε το στρογγυλό φεγγάρι,

Κι όμορφη βγαίνει κορασιά ντυμένη με το φως του.

quartette

Μάρκος ο απαισιόδοξος

Ο Μάρκος ο Βαμβακάρης έπιασε αλλιώς το θέμα της Άνοιξης.  Βαθύτατα ερωτικός τύπος, ο Βαμβακάρης μάλλον περνούσε ερωτική απογοήτευση όταν έγραψε αυτό το ποίημα και το σχετικό τραγούδι.

Είναι όμως ακριβώς αυτή η ικανότητα να κρύβεις μέσα σου το ολόκληρο το βαθύ σχίσμα που χωρίζει τον ψεύτη ντουνιά από τα ματόκλαδα που λάμπουν, που σε κάνει μεγάλο (ή μεγάλη).

Κι έτσι ο Μάρκος που εδώ τα βλέπει όλα μαύρα ξαφνικά συνέρχεται και λίγο μετά τραγουδά για τα λαμπυρίζοντα ματόκλαδα.

Το αποφάσισα. Δεν την γλυτώνει τη θυσία ο αμνός.

Μάρκος Βαμβακάρης, «Τι μ’ ωφελούν οι άνοιξες»

Τι μ’ ωφελούν οι άνοιξες, τι οι ομορφιές του κόσμου,

αφού ο κόσμος χάνεται, ψεύτη ντουνιά κι έξαφνα ο εμπρός μου,

αφού ο κόσμος χάνεται, ψεύτη ντουνιά κι έξαφνα ο εμπρός μου.

Τι και αν λιώσαν μάνα μου, απ’ τα βουνά τα χιόνια,

τι και αν θα `ρθει η άνοιξις, ψεύτη ντουνιά, αχ και κελαηδούν αηδόνια,

τι και αν θα `ρθει η άνοιξις, ψεύτη ντουνιά, αχ και κελαηδούν αηδόνια.

Όλα στο κόσμο μάταια, τα πάντα ματαιότης

κι ένα λουλούδι ψεύτικο, ψεύτη ντουνιά, είναι η ανθρωπότης,

κι ένα λουλούδι ψεύτικο, ψεύτη ντουνιά, είναι η ανθρωπότης.

arnaki-patares7

Χάλασε ο φούρνος!

Ετούτη λοιπόν την Άνοιξη, με τον ξανθό Απρίλη και τον Έρωτα, με τη Μαρία την Πενταγιώτισσα να με κολάζει με τη σκέψη της, με τις εικόνες της εκατόμβης θυσίας των Δαναών στον Φοίβο,  επήρα τον λευκό αμνό και τον έβαλα στον φούρνο για τη θυσία.

Καλή ποιήτρια η Κική Δημουλά, δεν λέγω, αλλά ο φούρνος της μου τα χάλασε όλα!

Η θυσία απέτυχε!

Ο αμνός δραπέτευσε!

Η Μαρία Πενταγιώτισσα θα μείνει για πάντα όνειρο!

Και για όλα αυτά φταίει η ποίηση!

Κική Δημουλά, “Πάσχα στο φούρνο “

Από τη συλλογή «Ενός λεπτού μαζί» (1998)

Βέλαζε το κατσίκι επίμονα βραχνά.

Άνοιξα το φούρνο με θυμό τι φωνάζεις είπα

σε ακούνε οι καλεσμένοι.

Ο φούρνος δεν καίει, βέλαξε

κάνε κάτι αλλιώς θα μείνει νηστική

χρονιάρα μέρα η ωμότητά σας.

Έβαλα μέσα το χέρι μου. Πράγματι.

Παγωμένο το μέτωπο τα πόδια ο σβέρκος

το χορτάρι η βοσκή τα κατσάβραχα

η σφαγή.

eggs

Ηθικό δίδαγμα

Μην ερωτευθείτε την Μαρία την Πενταγιώτισσα.

Μην διαβάζετε ρομαντικούς ποιητές.

Μην εμπιστεύεσθε τον φούρνο μιας ποιήτριας αν θέλετε να ψήσετε κάτι. Καλύτερα στον φούρνο της γειτονιάς.

Αν σκέφτεσθε να κάνετε μια θυσία, καλύτερα να θυσιάσετε τον εαυτό σας, ή ένα κομμάτι του. Ο αμνός είναι πολύ βολικός, αλλά σε τελική ανάλυση δεν φταίει τίποτε να πληρώνει τα δικά σας τα σπασμένα.

Female legs: works by Allen Jones

Allen Jones, Legs
Allen Jones, Chair Legs, 1968

<a href=”http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/692549/?claim=scdbnga3fjk”>Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

“Jones does for the leg what Stubbs did for the horse” John McEwan (art critic)

The artist and the creative process

We will never know what it takes to be a creative artist.

But it does not matter.

We can of course dwell into it, knowing that there is no “truth”.

Allen Jones, Legs, 1970, multiple plastics.
Allen Jones, Legs, 1970, multiple plastics.

While engaging in this, we must be aware of the fact that such an exercise may be an attempt to escape from the visual and sensual stimulus created by the work of art and hide behind cognitive constructs that nullify the excperience.

Of course the whole process may lead to the opposite direction. The enquiring mind may use the process as a fertilising agent, thus creating even more works of art as it ponders over these questions.

Allen Jones, Legs. 1976-1977. Screenprint on paper. Tate Gallery London
Allen Jones, Legs. 1967-1968. Screenprint on paper. Tate Gallery London

One avenue that may be explored is obsession. Obsession may take various paths of development, leading to scopophilia, even fetishism.

In another post I wrote some time ago on sexual fetishism I quoted Sigmund Freud saying:

“(Fetishism) … remains a token of triumph over the threat of castration and a protection against it. It also saves the fetishist from becoming a homosexual, by endowing women with the characteristic which makes them tolerable as sexual objects.”

Allen Jones, no title. 1976-1977, Screenprint on paper, Tate Gallery, London.
Allen Jones, no title. 1976-1977, Screenprint on paper, Tate Gallery, London.

The viewer and art

The same way an obsession, scopophilia or even fetishism may be driving the artist in the creative process, it may also drive the viewer of art. If, for example, I am obsessed by fishing boats, it would not be surprising if I like paintings featuring fishing boats.

But are female legs equivalents to fishing boats?

In the sexual fetishism post I also quoted Robert Stoller:

“A sexually exciting fetish, we know, may be an inanimate object, a living but not human object, a part of a human body (in rare cases even of one’s own), an attribute of a human (this is a bit less sure, since we cannot hold an attribute in hand), or even a whole human not perceived as himself or herself but rather as an abstraction, such as a representative of a group rather than a person in his or her ownright (“all women are bitches”; “all men are pigs”).”

Allen Jones, Wet Seal, 1966. Oil paint on canvas, wood and melamine. Tate Gallery, London
Allen Jones, Wet Seal, 1966. Oil paint on canvas, wood and melamine. Tate Gallery, London

Another type of the viewer’s obsession could be “scopophilia”, which means deriving pleasure from looking, or love of watching, but also refers to the erotic pleasure derived from gazing at images of the body. Voyeurism is a synonym for scopophilia. Freud associated scopophilia with the anal stage of development.Does this imply that one who derives pleasure from looking is stuck at the anal stage? Or it signifies the concurrent existence of multiple erogenous zones, one of them being the anus?

Now I am totally confused. I started by talking about the pleasure of looking at legs and all of a sudden I am caught between multiple concurrent erogenous zones. A few steps away, the Rat Man (Freud’s famous case) repeats a sentence monotonously: “I have a burning and tormenting curiosity to see the female body”

Allen Jones, Sheer Magic
Allen Jones, Sheer Magic

The artist cannot worry about how someone might misconstrue the work’ Allen Jones

Allen Jones

A major Allen Jones’ retrospective opened in November 2014 in London’s Royal Academy of Arts.

Jones created many works with female legs.

Allen Jones, Leg-Splash 1970-1,  Lithograph on paper. Tate Gallery, London.
Allen Jones, Leg-Splash 1970-1, Lithograph on paper. Tate Gallery, London.

I do not claim that Jones is a fetishist or a voyeur or a scopophile, although he has been called many names over the years. As a matter of fact I could not possibly know it unless I were his psychoanalyst. But even if I were his psychoanalyst I could not say anything about it, because of the analyst – patient protocol of confidentiality.

Allen Jones, Untitled
Allen Jones, Untitled

If the artist remains terra incognita, what about me, as the viewer? Although I tremble at the thought of returning tot he anal stage, or even worse, staying there, I will venture to make some comments on Jones’ pictures.

A critic of the Royal Acedemy retrospective, found that there is no depth in Jones’ work. He gave the show 2 out of 5.

This triggered a question in my mind, which I want to share with you:

“Do legs have depth?”

“What do we mean by depth? Is it equivalent to the three dimensions? Or is it more than that?”

Allen Jones, Drama, 1966, oil on canvas and formica on panel
Allen Jones, Drama, 1966, oil on canvas and formica on panel

These may sound like simple questions, but trying to answer them may lead us to multiple discoveries. Let’s start.

Allen Jones, Legs, 1965, oil on canvas
Allen Jones, Legs, 1965, oil on canvas

One of the most striking features of Jones’ work is their simplicity. However, being simple is not equivalent to being trivial.

Allen Jones, First Step, 1966, oil on canvas and laminated shelf
Allen Jones, First Step, 1966, oil on canvas and laminated shelf

Looking at the paintings I cannot but assert that Jones likes female legs. Linking does not necessary lead to obsessions, but it is loud and clear. The artist likes painting legs over and over again.

Allen Jones, I, 1976. Tate Gallery, London
Allen Jones, I, 1976. Tate Gallery, London

The third observation I want to make has to do with the context of a painting. As you can see in the samples of Jones’s work I have assembled in this post, Jones creates in two types of context.

The first is what I call “isolation”. Legs are shown as if they exist on their own. Its just legs, and nothing else.

Allen Jones, I, 1976. Tate Gallery, London
Allen Jones, II, 1976. Tate Gallery, London

This “isolation” context is paired with the second type of context, which I call “relational”.

In a “relational” context legs do not exist on their own, but in relation to something else.

Allen Jones, III, 1976. Tate Gallery, London
Allen Jones, III, 1976. Tate Gallery, London

Hands are coming out of nowhere, reaching for the legs.

A woman appears to be cut in two, she almost chasing her own legs.

Allen Jones, IV, 1976. Tate Gallery, London
Allen Jones, IV, 1976. Tate Gallery, London

Female legs become entangled with male legs.

Allen Jones, V, 1976. Tate Gallery, London
Allen Jones, V, 1976. Tate Gallery, London

A female body is portayed with an horizontal level surface cutiing it in two, and an almost vertical red and black curtain hiding half of it.

Allen Jones, VI, 1976. Tate Gallery, London
Allen Jones, VI, 1976. Tate Gallery, London

The “relational” context becomes stronger and stronger as we look at the pictures. Legs are no longer alone. They belong to a woman and the woman is somehow somewhere with a man.

Allen Jones, Red Feat, 1976. Tate Gallery, London
Allen Jones, Red Feat, 1976. Tate Gallery, London

“With” has a multitude of meanings and representations.

Allen Jones, Black Feat, 1976. Tate Gallery, London
Allen Jones, Black Feat, 1976. Tate Gallery, London

Another feature of the works is color. The artist plays with colors in many ways.

The stocking of one leg has a different color compared to the other.

A woman walks besides the sculpture 'Secretary' (1972) by  Allen Jones during a preview in the exhibition 'Allen Jones'  in eastern Germany. Allen Jones  is one of the main representatives and co-founders of British Pop Art.
A woman walks besides the sculpture ‘Secretary’ (1972) by Allen Jones during a preview in the exhibition ‘Allen Jones’ in eastern Germany. Allen Jones is one of the main representatives and co-founders of British Pop Art.

Or the picture is monochromatic. As in black feat and red feat.

Allen Jones
Allen Jones, Dangerous Curves

And in closing, I come to the issue of depth. When a knife becomes a female body, I would call this an exercise in three dimensions. When the legs of three females stick out of a wall, I would call this depth.

Allen Jones
Allen Jones

So all in all, the pictures by Allen Jones have depth, and much more. Provided that one can see them for what they are and no for what they should be.

Nutcracker: by Jennifer Rubell

2200-gf12540_nocetto_nutcracker

nutcracker: a device for cracking nuts (Oxford Dictionaries).

Jeniffer Rubell: Portrait of the artist
Jennifer Rubell: Portrait of the artist

New York based artist Jennifer Rubell has created her own nutcrackers.

In doing so, she objectified a metaphor of the female body.

Dal Shabet Merilis Foto Teaser “Look At My Legs”
Dal Shabet Merilis Foto Teaser “Look At My Legs”

A 2007 review of studies examining depictions of women in the media including commercials  prime-time television programs, movies, music lyrics and videos, magazines advertising, sports media, video games, and Internet sites revealed that women more often than men are depicted in sexualizing and objectified mannerrs (e.g., wearing revealing and provocative clothing, portrayed in ways that emphasize their body parts and sexual readiness, serving as decorative objects). (Sexual Objectification of Women: Advances to Theory and Research)

Rubell builds dramatically on the SO metaphor, and turns the female body into a nutcracker.

The Nutcrackers Project in Dallas Texas, 2011
The Nutcrackers Project in Dallas Texas, 2011

In the artist’s website, we read the following introduction to her “nutcracker” project:

“In the Dallas Contemporary’s largest gallery space, Nutcrackers consists of 18 life-size interactive sculptures of women surrounding a pedestal holding one ton of Texas pecans. Each prefabricated female mannequin is mounted on her side in an odalisque position and has been retooled to function as a nutcracker. Visitors interact with each sculpture by placing a pecan in the mannequin’s inner thigh, then pushing down the upper leg to crack open the nut so they may eat it in the gallery. Inspired by nutcrackers depicting female figures – especially one of Hillary Clinton – these interactive sculptures embody the two polar stereotypes of female power: the idealized, sexualized nude female form; and the too-powerful, nut-busting überwoman.”

jennifer-rubell
“Lea L” Nutcraker, by Jennifer Rubell. New York Frieze Art Fair 2012

One cannot resist but consider the artful play with words.

phoca_thumb_l_LYSA-II_JenniferRubell_2012_photobyAdamReich-4
Nutcraker, by Jennifer Rubell

A nut-busting woman is a stereotype in a man’s world.

phoca_thumb_l_NUTCRACKERS_JenniferRubell_2011_photobyAndrewShephard_websiteimage_fullres-7

Rubell is explicit. The nut is broken high up, between the thighs.

phoca_thumb_l_LYSA-II_JenniferRubell_2012_photobyAdamReich-5
Nutcraker, by Jennifer Rubell

What can be the source of life (Courbet) can also break one or more nuts.

phoca_thumb_l_NUTCRACKERS_JenniferRubell_2011_photobyAndrewShephard_websiteimage_fullres-5
The Nutcrackers Project in Dallas Texas, 2011

I must confess that the close ups reminded me of Jeff Koons. Although totally irrelevant, Rubell’s parents are art collectors and their collection includes some of Koon’s works.

Having seen pictures from Dallas and New York, I prefer the “factory-like” arrangement of Dallas to the solitary and rather depressing “solo” of New York.

The “contingent” of the factory gives a totally different meaning tot he work.

1470361660_76df5c5365_z615

I think I will return to the work of Jennifer Rubell.

P.S. What is the relationship between sexual objectification and heartbeats?

P.S. 2 Here is the answer.

Γλωσσολογικον πονημα επι του “Σεβαστου” και των παραγωγων του

H Mάτση Χατζηλαζάρου ποζάρει προκλητικά στο φακό του Ανδρέα Εμπειρίκου
H Mάτση Χατζηλαζάρου ποζάρει προκλητικά στο φακό του Ανδρέα Εμπειρίκου

“Η Γκρέτα, καταφανώς εν μεγάλη διεγέρσει διατελούσα, χωρίς την παραμικράν προφύλαξιν, ανέσυρε εν ριπή οφθαλμού το φόρεμά της, και, αποκαλύπτουσα, προς στιγμήν, ένα θαυμάσιον και προεξέχον πολύ, εν μέσω ολίγων αραιών τριχών μουνί (δεν έφερε σκελέαν), ήνοιξε τούς μηρούς της, έθεσε την κούκλαν μεταξύ αυτών, και καλύπτουσα πάλιν το ερωτικόν της όργανον, έσφιξε τούς μηρούς της, και ήρχισε να κινήται ζωηρώς, ζωηρότατα, επί του καθίσματός της, κατά τρόπον που εφανέρωνε ότι ηυνανίζετο με πάθος, τρίβουσα μανιωδώς το αιδοίον της, επί της κεφαλής και των μαλλιών του κομψού ανθρωπομόρφου ομοιώματος, επιδιώκουσα με αφάνταστον ζέσιν να επιφέρη τοιουτοτρόπως την έκχυσιν του ερωτικού χυμού της, αδιαφορούσα τελείως, και, ίσως, τερπομένη επιπροσθέτως, από το γεγονός ότι εξετέλει την τόσον άσεμνον, άλλα και τόσον χαριτωμένην αυτήν πράξιν δημοσία.”

Ανδρεας Εμπειρικος, Μεγαλος Ανατολικος

____4122822_orig
Georgia O’Keeffe, Series I White and Blue Flower Shapes, 1919, Oil on Board, 19 7/8 x 15 3/4 inches, Gift of the Georgia O’Keeffe Foundation, ©Georgia O’Keeffe Museum

Προ της εισαγωγης

Αποτιω τιμη στην μεγαλη Αμερικανιδα ζωγραφο Τζωρτζια Ο’ Κηφ, που ζωγραφισε ανθη, και με καποιον τροπο πολλα απο τα ανθη της παραπεμπουν στο ανθος του αιδοιου.

Αυτο εξαλλου παρετηρησε και εις εκ των δυο πρωταγωνιστων τη σειρας Breaking Bad, ο νεαρος Τζεσσυ, οταν η νεαρα καλλιτεχνιζουσα φιλενας του τον επηγε να δουνε μαζι το μουσειο της Τζωρτζια Ο’ Κηφ στην πολιτεια του Νεου Μεξικου των ΗΠΑ.

Alfred Stieglitz, Georgia O’Keeffe
Alfred Stieglitz, Georgia O’Keeffe

Εισαγωγικες παρατηρησεις

Η διερευνηση αυτης της πραγματειας ειναι εκ των πραγματων προσδιορισμενη αλλα και περιορισμενη απο το γλωσσικο ιδιωμα.

Αυτη η παρατηρηση ομως με κανενα τροπο δεν οδηγει σε πολιτισμικη μονοσημαντοτητα.

Το αντιθετο θα ελεγα. Ακριβως η αναγνωριση του περιοριστικου παραγοντα ειναι η απαρχη της αναιρεσης του.

Ο μεγας πρωταγωνιστης της πραγματειας αυτης ειναι το “αιδοιον”.

Χαιρε, ώ χαιρε τετιμημενον!

Η διερευνηση θα στηριχθει στην γλωσσα.

Πρεπει ομως να προειδοποιησω τον αναγνωστη (και την αναγνωστρια) οτι τα πολιτιστικα δικτυα δεν αναγονται αποκλειστικα εις την γλωσσαν, αρα θα υπεισελθουν και αλλα στοιχεια πολιτισμου σχετικα με το τετιμημενον.

Andreas Empeirikos
Andreas Empeirikos

“Εις εν ακρότατον σημείον της ομηγύρεως, μία ομάς εκ δεκαπέντε περίπου ανδρών, παρετήρει, ουχί το αερόστατον, αλλά μίνα νεαράν ακροβάτιδα, ήτις, υπό τους ήχους ενός ντεφιού, που έσειε ένας νεώτερος αδελφός της, εξετέλει διάφορα γυμνάσματα με μεγάλην ευκαμψίαν και δεξιοτεχνίαν. Η νεάνις αυτή ήτο ευειδής και χαρίεσσα. Εις μίαν στιγμήν που περιεστρέφετο επί των χειρών, με τους πόδας της εις τον αέραν, εσχίσθη, εν αγνοία της, η περισκελίς της εις καίριο σημείον, εις τρόπον ώστε, εις ωρισμένην φάσιν της ακροβασίας, να φαίνεται το αιδοίον της ευκρινώς. Εντεύθεν η εξαίρεσις, εντεύθεν η γοητεία. Διότι, εις το γεγονός ότι διεκρίνετο το ερωτικόν της όργανον, ωφείλετο η απόσπασις της προσοχής των δεκαπέντε θεατών από το αερόστατον.”

Ανδρεας Εμπειρικος, Αργώ ή Πλους Αεροστάτου

Sarah Lucas, Chicken Knickers 2000, Saatchi Gallery.
Sarah Lucas, Chicken Knickers 2000, Saatchi Gallery.

Η προσεγγιση

Εν αρχη ην η γλωσσα.

Ο Λακάν στρέφεται στη γλωσσολογία μέσα από δύο βασικά σημεία (1):

1. Υιοθετώντας τη βασική ιδέα ότι η γλώσσα ως συμβολικό σύστημα μαζί με τα άλλα κοινωνικο-πολιτιστικά συστήματα και τις δομές τους προϋπάρχουν της γέννησης ενός ανθρώπου και υπέρ-κεινται αυτού. Κατά συνέπεια, το παιδί με την κατάκτηση της γλώσσας εγγράφεται σε αυτή τη συμβολική τάξη, η οποία επειδή ακριβώς υπέρ-κειται θα το πλάσει ανάλογα με τις δομές της. Με άλλα λόγια, το άτομο αναδύεται ως υποκείμενο μέσα από την εγγραφή του στη συμβολική τάξη της γλώσσας ή, όπως λέει ο Αλτουσέρ (1983), η κατάκτηση της γλώσσας είναι αυτή που με την εισαγωγή στη συμβολική τάξη θα σημαδέψει το πέρασμα από τον άνθρωπο-θηλαστικό στον άνθρωπο-παιδί -άνδρα ή γυναίκα.

2. Θεωρώντας ότι το “το ασυνείδητο είναι δομημένο σαν γλώσσα”, δηλαδή μια δομή που όπως και η γλώσσα αποτελείται από στοιχεία που βρίσκονται σε σχέση, και εξομοιώνοντας τους μηχανισμούς του ασυνειδήτου με τους γλωσσικούς μηχανισμούς της μεταφοράς και της μετωνυμίας.

Θα συναντησομε τον Λακαν και παρακατω, οχι ως μεγιστο ψυχαναλυτη, αλλα ως συλλεκτη εργων τεχνης.

Louise Bourgeois, "Untitled", 2002
Louise Bourgeois, “Untitled”, 2002

Η Κυρία Λέξις, Παραλλαγες και Παραγωγα της

Οι λεξεις που θα αναλυθουν ειναι κυριως ελληνικες. Για λογους ομως που σχετιζονται με την αυθαιρεσια του συγγραφονοτς να κανει του κεφαλιου του και να μην δινει αναφορα σε κανενα, θα εμπλουτισθουν αι λεξεις αυτες, και με καποιες ξενικες.

Μουνί
Θεωρειται απο καποιους χυδαια λεξις. Το ολον θεμα του πως οριζεται η χυδαιοτης ειναι τεραστιον και δεν θα το αναπτυξω εδω.

Θα εκφρασω ομως τη διαφωνια μου με τον χαρακτηρισμο λεξεων και γλωσσικων ιδιωματων ως χυδαια.

Για την ετυμολογία της λέξης, το Λεξικο Κοινης Νεοελληνικης  (3) μας διδει δυο εκδοχες.

Η πρώτη είναι από το ευνή:

(αρχαια) εὐνή `κρεβάτι, κρεβάτι του γάμου΄ – ελληνιστικο υποκοριστικο  *εὐνίον

> μεσαιωνικο *βνίον (αποβολη του αρχικού άτονου  φωνήεντος)

> *μνίον (για την τροπή [vn > mn] σύγκρινε ευνούχος > μουνούχος, ελαύνω > λάμνω)

> *μουνίον (ανάπτ. [u] ανάμεσα σε αρχικό [m] και ακόλουθο σύμφωνο, σύγκρινε *μνούχος > μουνούχος) > (μεσαιωνικο) μουνίν

POLIDORI Gian Carlo(1943-), Italy: Οδαλίσκη και Ευνούχος στο χαρέμι
POLIDORI Gian Carlo(1943-), Italy: Οδαλίσκη και Ευνούχος στο χαρέμι (5)

Και η δεύτερη από τη λέξη μνούς:

(αρχαια) μνοῦς `μαλακό πούπουλο, χνουδάκι΄ ελληνιστικο υποκοριστικο *μνίον

> (μεσαιωνικο) *μουνίον (όπως στην προηγ. υπόθεση) > (μεσαιωνικο) μουνίν

Sarah Lucas
Sarah Lucas

Η παραλλαγμενη εννοια

Η λεξη μουνι χρησιμοποιειται και με απαξιωτικη διασταση, οτι καποιος δηλαδη αρσενικος ή θηλυκος, ειναι σκαρτος.

Παρομοιως, απαξιωτικη ειναι και η εκφραση “τα καναμε μουνι”, ή η παρεμφερης “τα καναμε μουνακι”.

Η χρηση του υποκοριστικου υποδηλωνει μια μικρου ή μεσαιου μεγεθους αστοχια, ενω η χρηση της πληρους λεξεως κατι σημαντικο.

Εδω παραβαλλω και την παραλληλη απαξιωτικη εκφραση “πουτσες μπλε”.

Αποδεικνυεται περιτρανως λοιπον οτι η γλωσσα δεν γνωριζει συνορα φυλλου.

Απαξιωση ενθεν και ενθεν.

L'Origine du Monde de Gustave Courbet
L’Origine du Monde de Gustave Courbet

Παρενθεση: Η Αρχη του Κοσμου  του Γκουσταβ Κουρμπε (The Origin of the World by Gustave Courbet)

Δεν μπορω παρα να παραθεσω παραυτα το μεγαλειωδες εργο του Γκουσταβ Κουρμπε, την Απαρχη του Κοσμου.

Το εργο παρηγγειλε ο Τουρκος διπλωματης και συλλεκτης Χαλιλ Μπεη το 1866.

Αμεσως μετα την ολοκληρωση του, το εργο εξαφανιστηκε απο την δημοσια θεα.

Ο συλλεκτης το τοποθετησε στο λουτρο του, και εβαλε και μια κουρτινα μπροστα, ωστε να το κρυβει σε ορισμενες περιπτωσεις.

Μετα την χρεωκοπια του Χαλιλ Μπεη ο πινακας κατεληξε στη Βουδαπεστη, οπου και αλλαξε πολλα χερια.

Κατεληξε στη συλλογη του Ζακ Λακαν στη δεκαετια του 1950, που ηταν και ο τελευταιος ιδιωτης που το ειχε στη συλλογη του.

Σημερα το απολαμβανουν οι επισκεπτες του Μουσειου Ορσαι στο Παρισι.

Jacques Lacan
Jacques Lacan

Αιδοιον

Προερχεται απο το ρημα αιδεομαι, που σημαινει σεβομαι, ευλαβουμαι.

Αποτελει το ουδετερον του “Αιδοιος”, που σημαινει Σεβαστος.

Αιδοιον λοιπον σημαινει “Σεβαστον”.

Renato Guttuso, untitled figure study, 1982. Lithograph, Gardiner Permanent Art Collection.
Renato Guttuso, untitled figure study, 1982. Lithograph, Gardiner Permanent Art Collection.

Con

Γαλλικη λεξις, που μπορει να μεταφρασθει και σαν “μουνακι” και σαν “μαλακας”.

Σε απταιστα Γαλλικα, στο παρον πονημα « con » désignant trivialement la vulve.

412PX-~1
Achille Deveria, French Painter

Μουνακι

“Η Ειρηνη ειναι σνα μια αψιδα πανω απο την θαλασσα. .. Αχ, αχ. Η Ειρηνη καλει τον εραστη της. Τον εραστη της που καυλωνει απο μακρυα. Αχ, αχ, Η Ειρηνη αγωνια και σπαρταρα. Εκεινος ορθωνεται καυλωμενος σαν θεος πανω απο την αβυσσο. Αυτη κουνιεται, εκεινος την αποφευγει, αυτη κουνιεται και του δινεται. Αχ. Η οαση υποκλινεται με τις πανυψηλες τις χουρμαδιες της. Ταξιδιωτες, οι πανωφορες σας στροβιλιζονται μεσ’ τη λεπτη την αμμο. Απ’ το λαχανιασμα η Ειρηνη κοντευει να διαλυθει. Εκεινος την κοιταζει. Το μουνι εχει μουσκεψει καρτερωντας τ’ ολοζωντανο παλουκι. Στ’ απατηλα βουνα της αμμου, μια σκια ζαρκαδιου. Κολαση ας αρχισουν οι καταραμενοι σου να μαλακιζονται, η Ειρηνη εχυσε.”

Λουις Αραγκον, “Το μουνακι της Ειρηνης”.  Μεταφραση Ανδρεας Νεοφυτιδης. Εκδοσεις Γαβριηλιδη, Αθηνα 1989.

Απο τον Αθεοβοβο2
Απο τον Αθεοφοβο2

Μουνάρα

Λεξη επιτιμητικη. Χιλαδες, εκατονταδες χιλιαδες, εκατομμυρια Ελληνων και Ελληνοφωνων εχουν κραυγασει καποια στιγμη του βιου τους “Μουναρα μου!”.

Τι εννοουσαν αραγε;

Εντελως υποθετικα, θα ελεγα οτι η λεξη αρχικα αναφερεται στο υπερτατο θηλυκο.

Η φαινομενικη απλοηκοτης της λεξεως δεν αφαιρει την διασταση του υπερτατου, αντιθετως την κανει πιο εντονη.

Μιλαμε λοιπον για το υπερτατο θηλυκο, και τουτο με την διασταση την σεξουαλικη.

Δεν θα ακουσετε καποιον να λεει “αγαπω μια μουναρα”. Καποιο αλλο ρημα θα χρησιμοποιησει.

Εδω λοιπον, η λεξη μας διδει το εδαφος δια να  θυμηθουμε αυτο που εγραψε ο μεγας Λακαν: ” Η αγαπη ερχεται να αναπληρωσει την ανυπαρξια ερωτικης σχεσης.”

Η “μουναρα” ειναι βαθεια βυθισμενη και σφραγισμενη απο το ερωτικο και μονο το ερωτικο στοιχειο.

Οι αγαπες και οι μαργαριτες ειναι αλλου.

1507711_642672642454408_1706543165_n

Γλυκομούνα

“Διαβάζοντας το βιβλίο Τα αδιάντροπα -Λεσβιακά Λαογραφικά του Βαγγέλη Καραγιάννη με πρόλογο του Μ.Γ.Μερακλή  (Φιλιππότης) Αθήνα 1983, είδα να αναφέρει στην φράση : Είνι γλυκουμούνα μια τοπική συνήθεια που δεν την είχα ξαναδιαβάσει. Γράφει ακριβώς :

Φράση που λέγεται για γυναίκες που έχουν επιτυχίες στους άνδρες, έστω και αν δεν είναι πολύ όμορφες.
Τον παλιό καιρό, στα χωριά της Λέσβου, ρίχνουν στο αιδοίο  του πολύ μικρού κοριτσιού λίγη ζάχαρη, “για να γλυκάν΄” κι όταν θα γίνει κοπέλα πια να την λαχταρούν και να την ζητούν σε γάμο οι γαμπροί.
Απ΄εκεί και η φράση “γλυκουμούνα” (4)”

Tracey Emin Ruined (2007) acrylic, oil pastel and pencil on canvas, 72 5/8 x 72 5/8 x 2 1/2, Photograph by Stephen White. Courtesy of White Cube. © the artist
Tracey Emin Ruined (2007) acrylic, oil pastel and pencil on canvas, 72 5/8 x 72 5/8 x 2 1/2, Photograph by Stephen White. Courtesy of White Cube.
© the artist

Παληόμουνο

Βλεπε σχετικα λεξεις οπως “παληοχαρακτηρας”, “παληοκοριτσο”.

Δια της λεξεως προβαλλει αυτος που την χρησιμοποιει την ιδιοτητα του κακου χαρακτηρα εις την γυναικα.

Μπορει να ειναι μια αστατη γυναικα, μπορει να ειναι μια γυναικα που δεν τιθασευεται, δεν ελεγχεται, δεν υποτασσεται.

Εδω δεν υπαρχει αντικειμενικη διασταση.

Ο χαρακτηριζων αυθαιρετει και χρησιμοποιει την λεξη ασυστολως.

Μπορει λοιπον η ουτως χαρακτηριζομένη γυνη απλα “να μην καθεται” στον χαρακτηριζοντα, να μην ανταποκρινεται θετικα εις τα ερωτικα του κελευσματα.

Καριολομουνο

Black Widow
Black Widow

Φαρμακομούνα

Εδω το “φαρμακο” εχει την ιδιοτητα του δηλητηριου, και οχι της θεραπευτικης δρασης.

(Βλεπε σχετικα την λεξη “ποντικοφαρμακο”. Δεν θεραπευει τους ποντικους, αλλα τους θανατωνει, ειναι δηλητηριον, και δη ισχυρωτατον.)

Και ειναι ενδιαφερον να παρατηρησομε ποσον κοντα αλλα και μακρυα ειναι οι λεξεις φαρμακο και φαρμακι στην ελληνικη γλωσσα.

Κατι που δεν συμβαινει σε αλλες γλωσσες, παραδειγμα στην αγγλικη, οπου εχομε medicine vs. poison. Παντελως διαφορετικη ριζα.

imagesCAYK2DZW

Η διαθετουσα το σχετικον οπλον (η πηγη του φαρμακου ειναι το αιδιοιον) “φαρμακωνει” τον ερωτικον της συντροφον, ή τον συζυγον της.

Κατι κακο θα του συμβει, ισως και ο θανατος.

Παραπεμπει λοιπον στην “μαυρη αραχνη”, που μετα την ερωτικη πραξη, και εκ της συνεπειας της, θανατωνει τον ερωτικον της συντροφον.

Εν προκειμενω η λεξις δεν αναφερεται υποχρεωτικα σε υπαρκτη ιδιοτητα.

Μπορει να εκφραζει και τον φοβο του ερωτικου συντροφου, οτι η ερωτικη συνανστροφη με την φερουσα το φαρμακοφορον αιδοιον θα τον θανατωσει, ή θα τον βλαψει.

Αρα η γλωσσα εκφραζει το ονειρο, τον εφιαλτη, τον φοβο, οποτε οπως θα ελεγε και ο Δοκτωρ Φροϋντ την υποβοσκουσα επιθυμια.

Ο φαρμακοφορος και απειλητικος ερως αντικειμενοποιειται εις τον φαρμακοφορον αιδιοιον.

Ιδου λοιπον και μια εισετι λειτουργια – και δη θεραπευτικη – της γλωσσας.

Δια της εκφρασεως την φοβων και των επιθυμιων εν τροπω αντικειμενοποιησεως, εκβαλλομεν το κακον, το βλαβερον, και του αποδιδομεν υλικη συγκεκριμενη υποσταση.

Παυει λοιπον ο φοβος του θανατου να ειναι μια αφαιρεση, και συγκεκριμενοποιειται ως το Αιδοιον της γυναικος Χ.

Απο το αλμπουμ "Φωτοφρακτης"του Ανδρεα Εμπειρικου
Απο το αλμπουμ “Φωτοφρακτης”του Ανδρεα Εμπειρικου

Οδοντωτον Αιδοιον (Μουνι με δοντια)

Αποδοσις του εις την λατινικην ορου Vagina Dentata – ενω εις την αγγλικην αναφερεται ως Toothed Vagina.

Αναφερεται εις την μυθικης προελευσεως γυναικα ητις φερει οδοντας εις το αιδοιον της, και ως εκ τουτου δυναται να ακρωτηριασει το πεος του ερωτικου της συντροφου εν τη εκτελεσει της γενετησιας πραξεως.

Βεβαιως υπαρχει και η επιστημονικη αποψη οτι το πεος ειναι αναλωσιμο, ως μια πρωτη υλη. Καθε φορα λοιπον που το πεος διεισδυει εις το αιδοιον, αναλωνεται.

Το οδοντωτον αιδοιον αποτελει και εφιαλτη δια τον ανδρα που ονειρευεται τον ακρωτηριασμο του εν τη τελεση της ερωτικης πραξεως.

Εν τη εννοια τουτη, το οδοντωτον αιδοιον αποτελει μεγαλυτεραν απειλην συγκρινομενη με την φαρμοκομουναν.

Καλυτερα ο ακαριαιος θανατος απο τον ατιμωτικον ακρωτηριασμον.

Castration-pic

Κλαψομουνα

Λεξις ητις υπαρχει και εις το αρσενικον, ως “κλαψομούνης”.

Υποδηλωνει καποιαν η οποια το ριχνει στο κλαμα, ή την κλαψουρα με το παραμικρο, υπερβαλλει, τρεχουν τα δακρυα ποταμι, και ολα αυτα χωρις λογο. Οποτε και δεν την παιρνει κανεις στα σοβαρα, ενω αποτελει και ενοχλησιν μεγαλην, με αποτελεσμα να την αποφευγουσιν οι παντες.

Υπαρχει βεβαιως και η γνωστη ταση του ανδρικου φυλου να υποτιμα τον συναισθηματισμο της γυναικας και να επιχειρει να τον απορριπτει ως κλαμμα ανευ λογου. Προσοχη λοιπον, η γλωσσα εν προκειμενω επιβεβαιωνει δια μιαν εισετι φοραν την αμφισημιαν ητις ενεδρευει.

achille_devc3a9ria_les_petits_jeux_innocens
Achille Deveria: Small and innocent games

Γλειφομούνι

Η πλεον αξιοπρεπης λεξις ειναι η “Αιδοιολειχια”.

Αποτελει πραξιν ητις αποδιδει εις τον πραγματοποιουντα εμπειριαν μοναδικην, καθοσον ενεργοποιουντια οι γευστικοι αδενες και σχεδον ολοκληρη η στοματικη κοιλοτης. Ταυτοχζρονως πραγματοποιουνται και ποικιλοτροπες προσμιξεις υγρων πολλαπλων προελευσεων και πηγων, συνοδευομενες απο οσμες και μυρωδιες μονον δια τους πραγματικους ρεκτες.

Ψευτομούνι. Είδος γλειφομουνίου, με τη διαφορά ότι ο τύπος προσποιείται ότι χρησιμοποιεί γλώσσα, ενώ στην ουσία χρησιμοποιεί δάχτυλο (πιθανόν λόγω σιχαμάρας). Απαραίτητη προϋπόθεση για ένα επιτυχημένο ψευτομούνι είναι η μίμηση του ήχου του γλειψίματος, (6)

Μουνόσκυλο αποκαλειται ο εχων σχεδον εθισμον εις την αιδοιολειχιαν, προσομοιαζομενος ουτω με τους συμπαθεις κυνες οιτινες οπου βρεθουν και οπου σταθουν γλειφονται και γλειφουν.

Παρομοιες στην εννοια ειναι και οι λεξεις Μουνοδουλος και Μουνακιας, παρολον οτι αμφοτερες εχουσιν και μεταφορικην εννοιαν ήτις αφορα την εξιν των ανθρωπων αυτων προς το σεβαστον.

Sarah LucasGot a Salmon On #3 1997
Sarah LucasGot a Salmon On #3 1997

Πλακομουνι

Πραξις ομοφυλοφιλικου ερωτος.

Το σχετικο ρημα αποδιδεται ως “πλακομουνιαζομαι”.

Το δε ουσιαστικον ειναι “πλακομουνού”.

“Οι στασεις ειχαν αλλαξει. Οι τριβαδες μου ειχαν εισχωρησει η μια στην αλλη, αγκαλιαζονταν ασφυκτικα ωστε να εφαπτεται το δριμυ και πυκνο τριχωμα τους, να τριβονται τα μελη τους. Εφορμουσαν, ενωνονταν και απωθουνταν, με το ρυθμο, την επιμονη και τη δυναμη που προμηνυει στις γυναικες το επερχομενο απογειο της ηδονης.”

Alfred de Musset  “Γκαμιανί, ή Δυο νυχτες παραφορας”. Μεταφραση Ανδρεα Στάϊκου. Εκδοσεις Άγρα, 2002.

Louise Bourgeois, "Janus Fleuri", 1968
Louise Bourgeois, “Janus Fleuri”, 1968

Παραπομπες

(1) Μαρια Θεοδωροπούλου, Μ. Saussure και Lacan: Απο τη γλωσσολογία στην ψυχανάλυση.

(2) slang.gr

(3) Λεξικο Κοινης Νεοελληνικης

(4) Αθεοφοβος2

(5) L’ Enfant de la Haute Mer

(6) Slang

Captain John Saris: the Man who brought Shunga to England

1707 Map of Japan
1707 Map of Japan

Introduction

Today I want to tell a story. About a captain named John Saris, who in 1613 brought back to England some “pictures” from his travels in Japan. But they were not pictures that English or European people would consider ordinary. They were “Shunga” pictures.  It so happened that it was not only Captain Saris’s compatriots who were shocked when they saw these pictures. The following incident is characteristic:

“Francis Hall, one of the first US businessmen to visit Japan after the reopening of the country in 1859, was amazed when the respectable married couple who had entertained him to dinner in their home proudly showed him some treasured examples (of Shunga), husband and wife together.” (1)

Torii Kiyonaga, detail taken from Sode no maki (Handscroll for the Sleeve, c.1785
Torii Kiyonaga, detail taken from Sode no maki (Handscroll for the Sleeve, c.1785

But what is Shunga?

“Shunga, literally ‘spring pictures’, is the name given to the major genre of explicit erotic art created in Japan during the early modern period (my note “the Edo period”), c.1600–1900. At its best, shunga celebrates the pleasures of lovemaking, in beautiful pictures that present mutual attraction and sexual desire as natural and unaffected. Generally the couples shown are male-female, sometimes married, sometimes not. It is not unusual – particularly in the earlier part of the period – also to find male-male couples, according to accepted custom whereby a mature man courted a youth. The genre’s artistic conventions include facial expressions conveying a sense of deep pleasure, exaggerated sexual organs that are the source of that pleasure and surroundings filled with gorgeous textiles, accessories, food and drink. Often the pictures will contain snippets of humorous and even farcical conversation between the lovers. Another common name for a spring picture was ‘laughter picture’ (warai-e).” (1)

Tokugawa Ieyasu, first shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate
Tokugawa Ieyasu, first shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate

The Edo period  

The Edo period  is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa Shogunate.

“Men and women during the Edo period really enjoyed life and this is reflected through shunga,” says Sotheby’s Hong Kong Gallery director Angelika Li. “Look at the facial expressions and the interactions depicted, they are enjoying what they are doing, it’s not perverse, it’s relaxed, it’s saying that sex is just a part of life to be enjoyed.” (2)

There was no strong sense in Edo Japan of sex as ‘sinful’, certainly not according to the native beliefs we now call Shintō, which traced the mythical origins of the Japanese islands and the imperial lineage to the conjugation between the deities Izanagi and Izanami, who learned the techniques of lovemaking by watching the twitching tail of a wagtail. (1)

Emperor Meiji
Emperor Meiji

The Meiji period

The Edo period is followed by the Meiji period, which starts on 3rd May 1868. Meiji is the restoration of the imperial rule in Japan, under Emperor Meiji. It was a response to the perceived threat by the colonial powers of the day. Japan was weak militarily and centuries of isolation had kept the country underdeveloped in armaments and industry.

“By the Meiji period, the influence of Western values had transformed shunga into a thing of taboo, and contemporary Japanese society continues to struggle with prejudices against shunga.” (2)

Kitagawa Utamaro: A scene from the poem of the pillow
Kitagawa Utamaro: A scene from the poem of the pillow

East India Company

The East India Company (EIC) was incorporated by royal charter in 1600. The charter granted a monopoly of all English trade in all lands washed by the Indian Ocean (from the southern tip of Africa, to Indonesia in the South Pacific). Unauthorized (British) interlopers were liable to forfeiture of ships and cargo. The company was managed by a governor and 24 directors chosen from its stockholders.

Sir Thomas Smythe
Sir Thomas Smythe

The Clove

It was 11th June 1613 when Clove, a British ship, sailed into Hirado, a port on the westernmost tip of the island of Kyushu.

It was the first British ship to arrive in Japan.

The Commander of the voyage, John Saris, was warmly welcomed by the local ruling family, the Matsuura, and the lord himself went aboard the Clove to view it.

Clove set out of England in the Spring of 1611, leading a mission of three ships. The trip was organised by the East India Company, then headed by Sir Thomas Smythe (c.1588-1625). (3)

Ravaged by scurvy, ­dysentery and hungry cannibals encountered during their   traumatic two-year journey, the surviving crew of the East India Company’s   galleon, the Clove, staggered ashore at Hirado, Japan’s westernmost port, in  June 1613.

Clove was met by William Adams, or “Anjin Miura” (the Pilot from Miura), an Englishman who had arrived 13   years earlier as the pilot of a Dutch ship, understood the language and had   risen to honorary samurai status.

Katsushika Hokusai - Diving Girl with Octopus
Katsushika Hokusai – Diving Girl with Octopus

What happened in Japan?

Saris and Adams took a month to reach Shizuoka, entering the city along a road   lined with severed heads on pikes. The journey gave Saris time to observe   the Japanese: he liked their “cheese” (in fact, tofu) and the women were    “well faced, handed and footed”, although he was somewhat put off by their   practice of dyeing their teeth black. The journey also gave the two men time   to get to know each other. The crew of the Clove had expected an effusive   welcome from a compatriot marooned for 13 years, but were offended by   Adams’s coolness towards them. Saris distrusted him as “a naturalised   Japaner”. The historian James Murdoch likely echoes Adams’s view of Saris as    “a mere dollar-grinding philistine with a taste for pornographic pictures”. (5)

Shogun Ieyasu granted trading rights to Captain John Saris, who established the first English trading post in Japan. In this capacity he was able to acquire many goods, including the “shunga” pictures he brought back to England with him.

saris_supp_1941_cvr-1

The return to England

Saris took the Clove out from Japan in late 1613 with many Japanese artefacts, in addition to the presents, such as lacquer, screens and (not for sale, but for Saris’s own amusement) erotic images, called shunga.

The Clove arrived home in Plymouth in September, and in London in December, 1614. The lacquer was sold at auction and is the first art auction ever held in English history. The screens were auctioned second.

Things, however, for the Captain were not good. After his return to England Saris was charged with cruelty towards his men and with smuggling.

The shunga was confiscated by the East India Company and destroyed, being considered scandalous.

Though officially reprimanded, he was also awarded a ‘gratification’ for his achievements of over £300.

Now rich, he left the Company and some time later married Anne, granddaughter of a former Lord Mayor of London. When she died childless after a couple of years, Saris moved to comfortable retirement in Fulham, a fashionable suburb in 1629. He took a house on Church Gate, behind All Saints Church. Saris died on 11th December 1643, leaving much of his money to charity. His grave is modest and sadly has been damaged and removed from its original site. (4)

Large Perspective Picture of a Second-Floor Parlor in the New Yoshiwara, "Looking Toward the Embankment” (1745), a hand-colored woodcut by Okumura Masanobu
Large Perspective Picture of a Second-Floor Parlor in the New Yoshiwara, “Looking Toward the Embankment” (1745), a hand-colored woodcut by Okumura Masanobu

Shunga: sex and pleasure in Japanese art, An Exhibition at the British Museum

Among the trade goods Saris brought back to London and displayed at the Royal Exchange, were ‘lascivious’ pictures, now presumed to have been Japanese shunga. These were promptly burned by outraged Company officials. Destroyed in 1615, locked away in 1865, shunga was finally publicly displayed for the first time in London in 1973 as part of a general exhibition of ukiyo-e prints organised by the Victoria & Albert Museum. In 1995, the British Museum included all the major shunga works by Utamaro in its special monograph exhibition of that artist.

Shunga: sex and pleasure in Japanese art is the first comprehensive exhibition to focus in detail on the beauty and humour of shunga, setting this fascinating art form in its historical and cultural context. (1)

Sources

1. British Museum Magazine – Timothy Clark, curator of Shunga: sex and pleasure in Japanese art talks about the exhibition

2. INTERVIEW: Uragami Mitsuru on Japanese Erotic Art, Shunga

3. The Voyage of ‘The Clove’ – Japan 400 Years Ago, Eccentric Parabola

4. Historical Overview  – 400 years of Japan – British relations

5.The Daily Telegraph:  Japan: 400 years in a fascinating land. Michael Booth retraces the footsteps of the first English samurai.

Balthus (Balthazar Klossowski) revisited

Parenthesis: The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has a Balthus Exhibition “Cats and Girls“(September 25, 2013–January 12, 2014). 

“I never interpreted my paintings or sought to understand what they might mean. Anyway, must they necessarily mean something?” Balthus (2)

Balthus and his Japanese wife Setsuko
Balthus and his Japanese wife Setsuko

Back in 2009 I wrote an article on Balthus, one of my favorite painters of the 20th century, where I presented some of his paintings. I did not attempt (futility prevented me) to analyze them, I simply presented them, some of them with one sentence comments or questions.

Today I revisit Balthus after having seen three of his works at the Art Institute of Chicago. This time I will succumb to futility and write some purely subjective sentences, some borrowed, some mine.

Paraphrasing Gadamer’s central thesis of hermeunetics, objectivity is not a suitable ideal for understanding art, because there exists no correct or wrong interpretation of art.

One of Balthus' palettes, Metropolitan Museum of New York
One of Balthus’ palettes, Metropolitan Museum of New York

Born in Paris in 1908, Balthus spent the bulk of his life secluded from the public, produced some 350 paintings and 1,600 drawings and died in February 2001, 10 days before his 93rd birthday.Balthus came from an intellectually privileged environment. His father was a Polish art historian, painter and critic whose close friends included Andre Gide and Pierre Bonnard. Two years after his parents separated in 1917, his mother became the lover of poet Rainer Maria Rilke. Under Rilke’s tutelage, the young Balthus began to flourish as an artist. In 1921, when he was only 12, Balthus published a book of 40 drawings with a preface by Rilke. (1)

Cartier Bresson: Balthus and his cat
Cartier Bresson: Balthus and his cat

It was Rilke who, “showed me nocturnal paths, giving me a taste for slipping through narrow passages to reach The Open.” This concept of The Open, an ethereal crossing to a place of mystery, became the sought after truth of his art. Balthus referred frequently to his Catholicism, his prayerful approach. I suspect he could have used other rites or religions to arrive at The Opening. His faith, while sincere, became a part of his craft, a device as much as a dedication. (2)

In 1949, Albert Camus provided an introductory essay for an exhibition of paintings by his friend … Balthus. “We do not know how to see reality,” wrote Camus of Balthus’s strange and sometimes sexually suggestive paintings of adolescent girls, “and all the disturbing things our apartments, our loved ones and our streets conceal.” (4)

Balthus saw himself as a laborer humbly approaching his craft. He spent years on each canvas, usually painting on three at once so that a dialogue would evolve between them. “I often insist on the necessity of prayer. To paint as one prays…to accede to silence and what is invisible in the world. I am not sure of being followed or understood…given that a majority of morons make so-called contemporary art, artists who know nothing about painting. But that doesn’t matter. Painting has always taken care of itself. In order to reach it even slightly, I’d say it must be ritually seized. To snatch what it can offer as a form of grace.” (2)

Balthus with Frederique Tison by the window at the Chateau de Chassy
Balthus with Frederique Tison by the window at the Chateau de Chassy, 1956

Solitaire (1943)

The most known painting that I saw at the Art Institute of Chicago is “Solitaire”.

In the Art Institute’s website I read: “Balthus is best known for his mysterious, emotionally charged scenes of adolescents, which often place the viewer in the position of a voyeur. Solitaire was painted in Switzerland, where the artist returned during World War II. It reveals the influence of such Old Masters as Piero della Francesca and Paolo Uccello in its monumentality as well as its awkwardness, both of which Balthus used to underscore the irrational and disconcerting nature of unconscious human behavior.”

patience-1943.jpg!HD
Balthus, Solitaire, 1943, Oil on canvas, Art Institute of Chicago

In the next sentences I will try to deconstruct the painting with a view to revealing their underlying complexities and hidden contradictions.. Note: This is not an exercise in futility (I hope).

“Deconstruction, in other words, guards against the belief — a belief that has led to much violence — that the world is simple and can be known with certainty. It confronts us with the limits of what it is possible for human thought to accomplish.” (5)

Some of the key components of this painting are:  a young woman, cards (a game of “solitaire”), a chair, an armchair, a (jewel?) box (open),  a table, a candle, a window covered by a striped wallpaper, a folded curtain, a carpet.

Young women are consistently a subject in Balthus’ paintings. Points of interest: the tension of the muscles of the left leg as it extends backward in order to provide support to the leaning forward body. The hands. The horizontal face.

The light red – thick orange jacket. Compare the jacket to that of the “Sleeping girl”. By the way, the identity of the woman posing in the “Dormeuse” is not known, but she looks like the woman playing “solitaire”. The year is the same, 1943.

Balthus, Sleeping Girl, 1943, Tate Gallery, London
Balthus, Sleeping Girl, 1943, Tate Gallery, London

Solitaire: The aim of the game is to arrange the set of cards in order from ascending to descending, and sorted by suite. This is a game of luck. The probability of winning is low, which is good as the purpose of the game is to increase patience, a virtue that adds to one’s personality. (Wikipedia). I would like to suggest that Blathus is using the game metaphorically. He is one of the players of another game, one he plays with the spectator of the painting.

Balthus, Patience, 1954-1955
Balthus, Patience, 1954-1955

Armchair: a device of loose solitary confinement. Very often Balthus includes an armchair in his paintings (see “Girl and Cat”).

(Jewel) Box: In “solitaire” we see an open box on the armchair.  I cannot resist the temptation to recall Freud’s Dora: “Dora’s father wakes her up because the house is on fire. Dora gets dressed quickly to leave the house, but her mother wants to look for her jewel-case before going. Dora’s father exclaims that he will not let himself and his two children die to save his wife’s jewel case.”

Striped wallpaper: this appears to be a device of space manipulation.

Folded curtain: ITs curve complements the curved body of the player. It also covers something.

Carpet: Its beautiful patterns and colours introduce asymmetry in the picture. Something can always function in an unsettling way.

Balthus, Study for Solitaire, 1943
Balthus, Study for Solitaire, 1943

Japanese photographer Hisaji Hara has created a series of photographs inspired by Balthus’ paintings. (I thank the “arte facto” blog for the unveiling of Hara’s art).

 Balthus’s studies of girls in often stilted poses are certainly timeless in their strangeness, their evocation of a pre-adult world of dark childhood reverie. Now, Japanese photographer Hisaji Hara has made a series of images that meticulously recreate some of Balthus’s most famous paintings. Made between 2006 and 2011, they are beautiful in a quiet way, and give off not so much a sense of timelessness as of time stilled. Interestingly, given that they are photographs of a real young girl, they do not exude the same sinister suggestiveness of the originals. (4)

Hisaji Hara, Solitaire
Hisaji Hara, Solitaire

Artist Michelle Arnold Paine has published in her website a sketch of solitaire. She writes:

“I was particularly interested in Balthus’ close attention to the negative shapes – the spaces between the arms, between the torso and the table, etc. These are shapes of air — where there is no object, but just as important as the “positive” shapes (the objects in the painting).”

Michelle Arnold Paine's sketch of Balthus' Solitaire
Michelle Arnold Paine’s sketch of Balthus’ Solitaire

Diversion: Game of Cards (1950)

I copy from the highly informative text written by Paloma Alarcó and presented in the Thyssen Museum’s webpage (7):

“The Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza Card Game is a canvas in large format painted between 1948 and 1950, when Balthus resumed painting with renewed energy after the war. It shows two youngsters, a boy and a girl, playing cards at a table on which a candlestick stands, inside a simple, stark room. The austerity, monumentality, geometry and colouring of the painting clearly denote Balthus’s admiration for the work of Piero della Francesca. In the scene the light that enters from the right-hand side of the room coldly illuminates various objects and adds to the mystery of the picture.

Balthus, Study for The Game of Cards, 1947
Balthus, Study for The Game of Cards, 1947

In Balthus’s paintings girls are queens and are therefore always portrayed as the winners. Boys normally play a more secondary role in the scene as impassive companions or rivals in games which they invariably lose. Although in the present painting the boy is prepared to cheat in order to win, the girl’s veiled smile shows that once again the norms governing Balthus’s world will prevail and she will be the winner in the end. The boy’s disjointed pose, which combines a frontal and profile view simultaneously, had already been used by Balthus in the illustrations forWuthering Heights. The obscure childhood world of the main characters in Emily Brontë’s work, on which the artist made a large series of drawings in 1933 that were published in 1935 in Minotaure, the Surrealists’ magazine, is the origin of much of Balthus’s mature work.”

Balthus, Game of Cards, 1948-1950, Thyssen Bornemisza Museum
Balthus, Game of Cards, 1948-1950, Thyssen Bornemisza Museum

Diversion: The Cardplayers (1973)

This work was painted in Rome when Balthus, born as Count Balthasar Klossowski de Rola, was director of the Académie de France in the Villa Medici. It is said that Balthus started the work after visiting a Kabuki performance in Japan. This form of theatre features re-enactments of historical events and highlights moral conflicts in the love between man and woman. Because women were forbidden from taking part in these performances, the female roles were played by male actors. This perhaps explains the androgynous appearance of the figure on the right.

Balthus, The Cardgame, 1973, Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam, Netherlands
Balthus, The Cardgame, 1973, Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam, Netherlands

Untitled (1972)

This drawing (Graphite and charcoal on tan elephant paper) is an interlude between solitaire and the girl and cat.

 

Girl and Cat (1937)

Sabine Rewald writes in her article “Balthus’s Thereses”:

“The painter’s finest portrayals of adolescents are his series of paintings from 1936 to 1939 for which young Therese Blanchard served as model. Therese and her brother Hubert were neighbors of Balthus at the Cour de Rohan, near the place de l’Odeon in Paris… Therese Blanchard also posed for Girl with a Cat of 1937 and its later, more masterly version Therese Dreaming of 1938 in the Gelman Collection. With her kneesock falling down and her sleeves pushed up, Therese in Girl with a Cat looks as if she has been called away from play. Her pale skin and turquoise, white, and red garments stand out against the harsh background of the painter’s studio, in which the fat tiger cat blends perceptibly. Balthus has imbued her quite innocent exhibitionism with suggestiveness. The erotic mood is heightened by the strict discipline of the composition.”

Balthus, Girl with Cat, Art Institute of Chicago - detail
Balthus, Girl and Cat, 1937, Art Institute of Chicago – detail

Notice the asymmetry of the pulled up slieves.

Balthus, Girl with Cat, Art Institute of Chicago - detail
Balthus, Girl and Cat, Art Institute of Chicago – detail

Notice the aymmetry of the socks, one rolled down, the other rolled up.

Balthus, Girl with Cat, Art Institute of Chicago - detail
Balthus, Girl and Cat, 1937, Art Institute of Chicago – detail

The mysterious cat.

Girl and Cat
Balthus, Girl and Cat, 1937, Art Institute of Chicago

Diversion: Therese dreaming (1938)

With closed eyes, Balthus’s pubescent model is lost in thought. Thérèse Blanchard, who was about twelve or thirteen at the time this picture was made, and her brother Hubert were neighbors of Balthus in Paris. She appears alone, with her cat, or with her brother in a series of eleven paintings done between 1936 and 1939.

Balthus, Therese Dreaming, 1938, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA
Balthus, Therese Dreaming, 1938, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA

Diversion: Therese (1938)

Balthus, Therese, 1938, Metropolitan Museum of Arts, New York, USA
Balthus, Therese, 1938, Metropolitan Museum of Arts, New York, USA

No matter how many times I look at these pictures, I always fell that it is the first time. There is surprise, there is mystery, the unknown is lurking in the face of the subject(s), behing the curtains, under the chairs, in the eues of the cats.

Frederique Tison at the Chateau de Chassy, 1956
Frederique Tison at the Chateau de Chassy, 1956

In the end, Balthus remained secretive, held true to his word: To know him, know his art. He would explain neither. And that ambiguity is probably best. Impossible anyway to explain the source of his ripening nudes, peculiar portraits and resplendent landscapes. “To go toward The Open,” he said, “to approach and sometimes attain it by snatching deferred moments, and then return to passing time.” (2)

“I detest the word ‘artist’ and find the word ‘creation’–so often used by those who call themselves artists–pretentious. As for me, I would simply call myself a craftsman. The word artist is synonymous with individualism and the assertion of one’s personality, two predominant notions in today’s society. Of course, people often say, ‘One must be oneself.’ But what is ‘oneself’? Who really knows?” Balthus: In His Own Words (6) 

Balthus in his studio at the Chateau de Chassy, 1956
Balthus in his studio at the Chateau de Chassy, 1956

Sources

1. “Vanished Splendors: A Memoir” By Balthus, Dan Tranberg

2. BALTHUS: ALCHEMIST OF VANISHING SPLENDOR, A non-review by J. STEFAN-COLE

3. Balthus vs. Hisaji Hara,  arte_facto [hereges perversões]

4. Hisaji Hara – review,  Michael Hoppen Contemporary London, Sean O’Hagan, The Observer

5. Jacques Derrida and Deconstruction, Mitchell Stephens, The New York Times Magazine, 1994

6. Balthus was the Bomb, cara walz studio notes

7. The Card Game, Thyssen – Bornemisza collection

On (Sexual) Fetishism

Picture by David Lynch; shoes by Christian Louboutin. Copyright of David Lynch
Picture by David Lynch; shoes by Christian Louboutin. Copyright of David Lynch

Fetischismus

It is only natural to start with what Sigmund Freud wrote in his paper on fetishism (5).

“When now I announce that the fetish is a substitute for the penis, I shall certainly create disapointment; so I hasten to add that it is not a substitue for any penis, but for a particular and quite special penis that had been extremely important in early childhood but had later been lost. … the fetish is a substitute for the woman’s (the mother’s) penis that the little boy once believed in and… does not want to give up. What happened, therefore, was that the boy refused to take cognizance of the fact of his having perceived that a woman does not possess a penis. No, that could not be true: for if a woman had been castrated, then his own possession of a penis was in danger… Yes, in his mind the woman has got a penis, in spite of everything; but this penis is no longer the same as it was before. Something else has taken its place, has been appointed its substitute, as it were, and now inherits the interest which was formerly directed to its predecessor… Furthermore, an aversion, which is never absent in any fetishist, to the real female genitals remains a stigma indelebile (a mark impossible to remove) of the repression that has taken place. We can now see what the fetish achieves and what it is that maintains it. It remains a token of triumph over the threat of castration and a protection against it. It also saves the fetishist from becoming a homosexual, by endowing women with the characteristic which makes them tolerable as sexual objects.”

Picture by David Lynch; shoes by Christian Louboutin. Copyright of David Lynch
Picture by David Lynch; shoes by Christian Louboutin. Copyright of David Lynch

Remarks on the Psycho-Analysis of a Case of Foot and Corset Fetishism

Karl Abraham (6) published this paper in 1910.

“The degree to which the foot replaced the penis in the patient’s mind was clearly seen in certain dreams of his, two of which I will briefly relate. In the one dream he was wearing slippers which were trodden down behind so that his heels were visible. This dream turned out to be an exhibitionistic dream. The heel was exposed to view as the sexual organs are in the ordinary exhibitionistic dream. The affect was the same as in typical exhibition dreams that are accompanied by anxiety. In the other dream he touched a woman with his foot and in this way dirtied her. … It is now clear why the patient took particular interest in the high heels of women’s shoes. The heel of the shoe corresponded to the heel of the foot – a part of the body which, in virtue of the displacement referred to, had taken on the significance of a male genital.”

Picture by David Lynch; shoes by Christian Louboutin. Copyright of David Lynch
Picture by David Lynch; shoes by Christian Louboutin. Copyright of David Lynch

Criterion

Ray Blanchard (2) offers the following criterion to classify a person as fetishistic:

“As in Blanchard (1991), a patient was classified as fetishistic if he responded positively to the single questionnaire item, ‘‘Do you think that certain inanimate objects (velvet, silk, leather, rubber, shoes, female underwear, etc.) have a stronger sexual attraction for you than for most other people?’’

Picture by David Lynch; shoes by Christian Louboutin. Copyright of David Lynch
Picture by David Lynch; shoes by Christian Louboutin. Copyright of David Lynch

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), diagnostic criteria for Fetishism

In his 2009 paper (1) Martin Kafka proposes an enhanced set of DSM-V, the fifth edition of the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), diagnostic criteria for Fetishism (302.81). The italics indicate the proposed enhancement:

A. Over a period of at least 6 months, recurrent, intense, sexually arousing fantasies, sexual urges and behaviors involving either the use of non-living objects and/or a highly specific focus on non-genital body part(s).

B. The fantasies, sexual urges, and behaviors cause clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.

C. The fetish objects are not limited to articles of clothing used in crossdressing (as in Transvestic Fetishism) or devices specifically designed for the purpose of tactile genital stimulation (e.g., vibrator).

Picture by David Lynch; shoes by Christian Louboutin. Copyright of David Lynch
Picture by David Lynch; shoes by Christian Louboutin. Copyright of David Lynch

Sexual Excitement

Robert J Stoller in his book “Sexual Excitement” (3) writes:

“Let us take fetishization as the key process in the creation of erotic excitement. We might begin by calling it dehumanization; the fetish stands for a human (not just, as is sometimes said, for a missing penis). A sexually exciting fetish, we know, may be an inanimate object, a living but not human object, a part of a human body (in rare cases even of one’s own), an attribute of a human (this is a bit less sure, since we cannot hold an attribute in hand), or even a whole human not perceived as himself or herself but rather as an abstraction, such as a representative of a group rather than a person in his or her ownright (“all women are bitches”; “all men are pigs”). The word ‘dehumanization’ does not signify that the human attributes are completely removed, but just that they are reduced, letting the fetish still remind its owner of the original human connection, now repressed. As a result, the same move (like a seesaw) that dehumanizes the human endows the fetish with a human quality.”

Picture by David Lynch; shoes by Christian Louboutin. Copyright of David Lynch
Picture by David Lynch; shoes by Christian Louboutin. Copyright of David Lynch

the sexual aberrations

Freud writes in his paper on the sexual aberrations (7): “The foot for instance, is an age-olf sexual symbol which occurs even in mythology; no doubt the part played by fur as a fetish owes its origin to an association with the hair of the mons Veneris.”

Picture by David Lynch; shoes by Christian Louboutin. Copyright of David Lynch
Picture by David Lynch; shoes by Christian Louboutin. Copyright of David Lynch

‘Fetish’ by David Lynch x Christian Louboutin

“…it is very natural to be naked with high heels (for a woman)….” Louboutin.

Born in the 12th Arrondisement, a working class district of Paris, Louboutin’s feminine upbringing with his mother and three sisters are cited as an inspiration for his work. A fervent interest in shoes and women’s feet, developed from the age of 12 in the 70s, at the Museum of African Art from a 50s poster of a woman’s high heel crossed out by a striking red line (20 years later he would again encounter this image at a friend’s house over dinner). It was a warning to prevent heels damaging the museums wooden floors, in an age of hippies, chunky heels and flats. From this point on he was hooked and after discovering the sensual belly of Parisian nightlife, clubs and music theatres, at the tender of age of 16, Louboutin decided to sell his own designed shoes to the dancers he encountered. (4) 

David Lynch and Christian Louboutin. Fetish
David Lynch and Christian Louboutin. Fetish

Christian Louboutin says:
“David Lynch had asked me to draw shoes for his exhibition at the Cartier Foundation. He painted some of the shoes to show them in a cage. I wanted to ask him to photograph some of the shoes that I had designed in this for this particular project. David Lynch is one of the biggest movie maker alive. As his movies are extremely coded, I also wanted fetishist shoes. Those shoes would indeed follow those codes. Many only see shoe as a functionnal accessory to be able walk. However, some are made to run, others to swim… Some are made for sex. If there is an element of fetishism in a wardrobe, it is the female shoe, even without stilettos. It has appearance of an indian totem. It is an object of worship that lead to rituals. I had been thinking about shoe-sculptures, not made to be worn but to reveal what is the most beautiful: the curves of the feet. David Lynch gave me his agreement. He saw a sofa, roses, a lamp and a girl. He saw what I did not see. The image was already in his mind. The photographs were taken within two days in Paris. (8)

Louboutin says of the collaboration, “The models wore these unwearable shoes with natural grace. Their very white skin, very dark eyes and bright mouths melded with Lynch’s aesthetics. As is his habit, David Lynch made it into a décor populated with shadows.” (9)

Patrick Louboutin's Siamese
Patrick Louboutin’s Siamese

Sources

(1) Martin Kafka, The DSM Diagnostic Criteria for Fetishism

(2) Ray Blanchard, The DSM Diagnostic Criteria for Transvestic Fetishism

(3) Robert J Stoller, Sexual Excitement, Karnac Books, London, 1986

(4) Brian Clarkson, Sole Mates: ‘Fetish’ by David Lynch x Christian Louboutin

(5) Sigmund Freud, Fetishism, The Pelican Freud Library, Vlolume 7, London, 1977

(6) Karl Abraham, Selected papers on psychoanalysis, Karnac Books, London, 1988

(7) Sigmund Freud, The Sexual Aberrations, The Pelican Freud Library, Vlolume 7, London, 1977

(8) FETISH = David Lynch/Christian Louboutin, Art is alive

(9) Fetish by David Lynch and Christian Louboutin, cool hunting